Lately I’ve been thinking about innovation as a career path; having completed a Masters in the area and spent over a year helping businesses and SMEs innovate, clarify thinking and helped identify near-term and long-term goals, I’ve thought how do consultants sell innovation?
By all accounts, I’ve found innovation hard to sell. It’s intangible and is seen by many as something other people do. On the hierarchy of basic needs, a business would always rank cash, revenue, operating costs and profitability more importance.
And yet, innovation is necessary for growth. Whether it’s an internal process or an actual product/service, innovation lies at the heart of a company’s strategy.
But is innovation soley for big companies with the capital, resources and people to do it? Or can the little guy, the small business also benefit from design thinking, service design and applied innovative thinking?
I think so, for small businesses its important to look at what are the emerging opportunities for them now and what is the why behind it all.
Why I enjoy innovation consultancy is that its speculative, future-casting, its casting a vision of a positive outcome near-term and long-term; only through further refinement and co-creation with clients can businesses conceptualise and formalise the next steps.