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By: Kathy Kent Toney, CEO & Founder of Kent Business Solutions  Image by creativeart on Freepik Many companies' innovation efforts often fail to thrive amidst superior competitive offerings in today's competitive marketplace. If this sounds familiar, here are seven tips to help your organization to become more innovative. 1. Choose and Commit to an Innovation Path There are three types of innovation: Product, Process, and Business Model. "Process" is the least sexy of the three but is the easiest to tackle first and can reap great dividends. It can range from updating a cumbersome sales process to revamping your assembly line. Such improvements can immediately capture benefits in speed-to-market and increased profitability. Here's a great article that explains these concepts in greater detail. 2. Plan for Innovation As we all know, unless you plan to do something, it most likely won't happen. Think about including targets for new products and services in your business plan. Make innovation a part of everyone's yearly goals. It's well-known that if you don't measure it, it most likely won't happen. 3. Mobilize Your Employees Try the following ideas to spark innovation with your most valued resource! Be Approachable & Accessible For your employees to be genuinely innovative, senior leaders and managers must regularly interact with their teams. Being approachable and accessible makes all the difference in the world. Inspire your Employees to Dream What does innovation look like to your employees? Inspire a culture of openness to new ideas. Make Innovation the Norm Take it one step further—let workers know how much you value their ideas. Make innovation a part of your company values. Talk it up during staff get-togethers. Hold regular ideation sessions. Reward Innovative Ideas Take it up one more notch--reward, not just recognize, employees for innovative ideas. Allow for More Margin One great way to reward employees who deserve their own category is by allowing more time for creative thinking. 4. Gather Feedback from Your Customers There are many ways to do this. Here are a few tips:
5. Collaborate Is there another company you can collaborate with that provides excellent synergy? You can go where you can't go alone through such a partnership. It's essential, however, to have a similar philosophy to go along with different skills. 6. Minimize or Maximize If something is a standard in the industry, try minimizing or maximizing it. Starbucks maximized price and customer experience. Southwest minimized standard offerings, like serving meals. At the same time, they maximized customer service. It is better to be different than to be better. 7. Bring in Outside Help If your company needs increased bandwidth, contract with someone for identified projects, or if you need help to determine where to start, think about bringing someone in who is skilled in innovation consulting. # # # What innovation efforts have worked for you? I'd love to hear what has helped your company to be more innovative! Or, if you're currently experiencing problems in this area, I'd love to brainstorm some ideas of where you could improve your profitability and increase innovation. Click the button below to schedule a time, and we'll get something on the calendar!
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By: Kathy Kent Toney, CEO & Founder of Kent Business Solutions  Image by Waewkidja on Freepik Many business leaders face the challenge of keeping their employees engaged and enthusiastic. One excellent method is to foster creativity among your employees. Doing so can lead to innovative ideas and solutions. Here are five strategies to spark creativity within your team: 1. Provide Autonomy and Ownership Give employees the freedom to take ownership of their projects and tasks. When individuals feel a sense of autonomy, they are more likely to explore unique and creative approaches to problem-solving. Allow them to make decisions, set goals, and experiment with strategies. 2. Encourage Open Communication Create an environment where open and non-judgmental communication is valued. Encourage employees to freely share their thoughts, ideas, and feedback without fear of criticism. Regular team meetings, brainstorming sessions, and idea-sharing platforms can facilitate open discussions and the exchange of creative insights. 3. Challenge Assumptions Encourage employees to question assumptions and look at problems from different angles. Create a culture where asking "why" and challenging the status quo is welcomed. Doing so can lead to breakthroughs and innovative solutions that might not otherwise happen. 4. Embrace Diverse Perspectives Foster a culture that values diversity in all its forms. When individuals with different backgrounds, experiences, and viewpoints collaborate, it can lead to the generation of innovative ideas. Encourage diverse teams and create an inclusive atmosphere where everyone's input is respected and appreciated. 5. Provide Time for Exploration Dedicate specific time for employees to engage in creative activities unrelated to their usual tasks, such as "innovation time," hackathons, or creative challenges. Allowing employees to explore hobbies, side projects, or areas of personal interest can stimulate their creativity and lead to unexpected breakthroughs. 6. Encourage Breaks and Downtime Recognize the importance of breaks and downtime in the creative process. Encourage employees to step away from their workstations, go for walks, or engage in activities that help them relax and recharge. Creative ideas often emerge when the mind has space to wander. 7. Recognize and Reward Creativity Acknowledge and reward creative efforts and outcomes. Appreciation can occur through formal recognition programs, incentives, or simply acknowledging and celebrating employees' creative contributions in team meetings. Remember that fostering creativity requires a supportive and encouraging environment. By implementing these strategies, you can help your employees tap into their creative potential, leading to innovative ideas that benefit both the individual and the organization. An added bonus is that your employees will love it! # # # Speaking of innovation, what has worked in your company for sparking creativity? What has been your track record in this area? I'd love to hear what's worked for you! And if you're currently experiencing challenges in this area, I'd love to brainstorm ideas about how you could improve your innovation efforts. Click the button below to schedule a chat! By: Kathy Kent Toney, CEO & Founder of Kent Business Solutions  Image by creativeart on Freepik Don't you love those conversations with friends that help create connections between nebulous thoughts that swirl around in your brain and succinctly summarize their meaning? Well, I had one of those conversations a while back. This friend of mine said one thing that has stuck with me. She put words to my life's mission into one sentence: Kathy, you're all about helping people become the best versions of themselves. Wow, she hit the nail on the head. I really couldn't say it better myself! As a certified life coach, I love to help people step into all the good life has in store. I'm also involved in prison ministry. As a worship leader, I can lead the inmate band at our monthly worship services. The men we work with appreciate what we do for them. Knowing I make a difference in people's lives makes my heart sing! So, why am I sharing this with you? Well, it translates well into my passion for work. I'm all about helping businesses become the best that they can be! The primary way I do that is through business transformation. Streamlining operations or undertaking projects to improve your business can result in a healthier bottom line. And that leads to the tagline for my business: I help organizations become profitable beyond their imagination! I do this through the following approaches:
The one service offering I'm most excited about is project management. I use my project management skills to run all kinds of initiatives: process improvement, IT, product development, and customer experience, to name a few. And I've experienced some great results! Scrum Project:
Voice of the Customer:
Sales Process:
For all these reasons listed above, I'm passionate about what I do—helping businesses become the best that they can be! So, that's enough about me. I'd love to find out more about what you do! Are you facing any challenges in your business? I'd love to hop on a Zoom or phone call to brainstorm some solutions with you—for free! If that sounds good, click the button below to schedule a time for us to talk. By: Kathy Kent Toney, CEO & Founder of Kent Business Solutions  Image by Freepik As a business leader, have you ever experienced significant shortfalls with your customers that resulted in poor reviews or lost business? If this rings true for you, there is a solution that can prevent this from happening again—Voice of the Customer (VOC). It’s an invaluable tool for any business leader’s toolbox! Here's a great example of how one of my amazing clients turned a potentially harmful situation into a multi-million dollar outcome using VOC. The Problem This local manufacturer didn't have a standard process for gathering customer requirements to ensure proper incorporation before new product development efforts started nor to monitor them continually during the process. This problem became very evident when the following scenario happened. My client had recently established an innovation arm of their business for developing smart technology products. One day, they called upon an electrical contractor to install a prototype of their first new innovative product at a work site. Much to my client's chagrin, the contractor informed them that they had made a massive mistake in the housing of the product, making it non-functional in its current state. This mistake could have caused ALL kinds of serious issues, especially if they had to go back through a lengthy UL approval process. Thankfully, that wasn't the case! The Solution That's when the CEO decided to bring me in to develop a new approach they could integrate into their product development process. We got right to work! I teamed with them to create "how-to kits" for each different VOC type: surveys, focus groups, and customer visits, to name a few. Then we integrated the how-to kits into different phases of their product development process. That way, end users would know how to gather customer feedback at the correct times and places. Not only that, the process helped to ensure they incorporated that feedback into developing products. The Results The outcome was excellent! The first new product that used the VOC process experienced the following:
My client has been thrilled with the results! Another great thing about this process is that it's a drop-in system that can be easily adapted to other product development processes and even works for service delivery models. This aspect can benefit a company, allowing quicker and less costly implementations. And when it comes to process deployments, who doesn't want that? # # # As a "thank you" for reading my blog, here's a freebie I'd like to share with those of you who develop products—a Product Development Checklist. If you're new in this space, it can start you down the road of creating such a process or help you improve the one you already have. If you have a mature approach, feel free to adapt any new insights to improve your current process. Either way, I'd love to have you check it out! Just click the button below to download it. By: Kathy Kent Toney, CEO & Founder of Kent Business Solutions  Image by rawpixels.com on Freepik Many companies' big ideas are often lost in a sea of competitive offerings that outperform them in the market. If that's you, here are seven tips to help your organization become more innovative. 1. Choose and Commit to an Innovation Path There are three types of innovation: Product, Process, and Business Model. Process is the least sexy of the three but is the easiest to tackle first and can reap great dividends. It can range from updating a cumbersome sales process to revamping your assembly line. Such improvements can immediately capture benefits in speed-to-market and increased profitability. Here's a great article that explains these concepts in greater detail. 2. Plan for Innovation As we all know, unless you plan to do something, it most likely won't happen. Think about including targets for new products and services in your business plan. Make innovation a part of everyone's yearly goals. It's well-known that if you don't measure it, it most likely won't happen. 3. Mobilize Your Employees Try the following ideas to spark innovation with your most valued resource! Be Approachable & Accessible For your employees to be genuinely innovative, senior leaders and managers must regularly interact with their teams. Being approachable and accessible makes all the difference in the world. Inspire your Employees to Dream What does innovation look like to your employees? Inspire a culture of openness to new ideas. Make Innovation the Norm Take it one step further—let workers know how much you value their ideas. Make innovation a part of your company values. Talk it up during staff get-togethers. Hold regular ideation sessions. Reward Innovative Ideas Take it up one more notch--reward, not just recognize, employees for innovative ideas. Allow for More Margin One great way to reward employees that deserves its own category is by allowing more time for creative thinking. 4. Gather Feedback from Your Customers There are many ways to do this: listen to customer complaints, interview/survey them, run a contest for new product ideas, or monitor social media posts. Then consolidate feedback as a basis for your innovation efforts. Most importantly, act on what you discover! 5. Collaborate Is there another company you can collaborate with that provides excellent synergy? You can go where you can't go alone through such a partnership. It's essential, however, to have a similar philosophy to go along with different skills. 6. Minimize or Maximize If something is a standard in the industry, try minimizing or maximizing it. Starbucks maximized price and customer experience. Southwest minimized standard offerings, like serving meals. At the same time, they maximized customer service. It is better to be different than to be better. 7. Bring in Outside Help If your company needs increased bandwidth, contract with someone for identified projects, or if you need help to determine where to start, think about bringing someone in who is skilled in innovation consulting. What innovation efforts have worked for you? I'd love to hear what has helped your company to be more innovative! Or, if you're currently experiencing problems in this area, I'd love to brainstorm some ideas of where you could improve your profitability and increase innovation. Click the button below to schedule a time, and we'll get something on the calendar! |
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