Innovation = Success
I attended a presentation last week where the Instructor, Dr. Jay Kayne from Miami University was discussing how important innovation it is to the success of an entrepreneurs/solopreneurs business. I had not really thought of innovation in those terms before but I absolutely buy into his point.
As a business owner, I do continually look at ways to improve my business. I examine opportunities to add new services or products to my business. One of the ways I do this is with my Idea Book that I wrote about on May 4th. But Dr. Kayne suggests that we ask different questions to encourage innovation.
One of the strategies he suggested, is to look outside of our business at things around us. To innovate is “to introduce something new.” The instructor shared how a medical physician who studied cancer developed a new approach for attacking cancer by watching three men with jackhammers breaking up a sidewalk. They shared that it made it easier if they came at it from three different directions at the same time. He took that principle and used a lower dose of radiation from three different positions, which turned out to be more effective at killing the cancer.
Innovation is Critical
The question he asks us to ponder is “What assumptions do we have about our business?” “What if the opposite of those assumptions were true?” “If the second statement were true, what would you do differently?’ “What other options do you see?” “Does it offer a new opportunity?”
A simple example was presented: If one of your assumptions was that you needed to lower your prices, but the opposite was actually true, you need to raise your prices; what would you do differently?
I want to challenge you to look at your obstacles differently, assume the opposite is true and see if you don’t create something powerful. Be mindful of how you use innovation to take your business to the next level.
Without entrepreneurs doing things different we wouldn’t have things like Skype, Twitter or Facebook or for that matter electricity. How will you use innovation in your business?