Business and Innovation

Innovation is one of those words in business that you just can escape, but for good reason. If you create an innovative product you’ll see benefits such as, saving money and increasing sales, enter a new market, become a leader in your current market and beat your competition. Being innovative, simply explained, is creating a unique product or service that could shake up the market and solve a problem. Business and innovation now go hand in hand, so it’s important to encourage creativity and research for development. The Growth Hub is here to help you with being innovative and the necessary research and development that goes along with it. Just give us a call and we’ll check what funding is available to you, there is a lot around innovation and research and development that could be useful for your business.

Encouraging innovation and ideas

The first step to brainstorming business innovation is to actually encourage your employees to get involved. Your staff know what works and what doesn’t, so they can help innovate for increased effectiveness. You should create an environment where ideas are shared openly and your staff are passionate about making improvements to your business. Your staff are dealing with the nitty-gritty parts of your business and understand how it works, so they’re likely to be your best source of innovation. Show them that speaking up is valued and no idea is stupid.

Once you, or one of your employees, has a new idea, don’t just brush it under the carpet. If you show that you’re serious and able to test out the potential for innovation then you’re employees are more likely to share ideas. However, by forgetting about innovative suggestions, your staff may feel undermined and less likely to speak up in the future. Equally, if you don’t have a simple process to testing out innovation, your staff may not get involved, as they want to avoid the hassle. The simple option is often the best option, so make it easy for staff to be heard and trial their innovation.

A comment box can be useful to collect information, as some employees may prefer to stay anonymous. Or, they may be anxious about coming directly to you for fear of presenting a bad idea. This way, it takes the pressure off. In this age of technology, you could also look at an online business channel, where your staff can chat and brainstorm – for example, there’s Slack and Workplace by Facebook.

You should reward ideas and don’t punish mistakes. If you’re on a tight budget, your rewards don’t have to be pricey. Compliment your staff and show you appreciate their involvement and this will encourage them to contribute more often in future. Some employees may fear joining in in case they fail. In business, failure is about learning from your mistakes and moving on – make this clear to your employees.

Encourage your staff to share their innovative ideas could mean a big breakthrough for your business. For all you know, someone on your team has an idea for the next best thing. For more information on how to get your staff to share ideas and get involved, give the York, North Yorkshire and East Riding Growth Hub a call. A consultant hired through the Manufacturing Growth Programme funding support could help you find the places that need updating.

Innovation culture

It can be difficult to sustain an innovation culture, but it is worth the potential benefits. Innovation can give you a competitive advantage and increase your customer base, so you don’t want to miss out on the chance to come up with the next best thing.

Business innovation depends on innovation culture, which is about creating an environment where outside of the box thinking is welcome. Businesses that use this tend to think that innovation can be found from anyone in the business, not just those at the top of the hierarchy. If you’re in an industry where trends are constantly changing and being adaptable is a must, you should be investing in an innovation culture.

For help with transforming your business into an innovation culture, give us a call at the York, North Yorkshire and East Riding Growth Hub. We can help you to achieve your innovation by putting you in touch with the best experts for your problems and find funding that is tailored to your needs.

Managing innovation

Through managing innovation, you’ll see an increase to efficiency of your production and lower risks from the changes you make. The benefit of managing innovation is to reduce the risks to your business. Trying to improve your business, especially through innovation, can sometimes be a gamble. But, with careful management, you’ll be able to keep track on what money needs to be spent and if your business is actually able to handle the innovation. You don’t want to dive in at the deep end and realise that the changes you wanted to make were unrealistic, or that there wasn’t a market available for your new product.

Anyone in your business can think outside of the box, but are they truly innovative? To ensure real business innovation, you should about three key factors: competency, strategy and management. It’s easy to say that you’re going to make some dramatic changes to create a business innovation, but you’ll need to think about what you’re capable of: can you afford the changes? Are your employees trained to handle any transformations in your business? Then you’ll need to consider strategy: does your new innovation align with your business’s current operations? For example, if you decide to create a new product, do you have the right machinery and enough space to manufacture it? Or, will the new product compromise existing lines? Finally, you’re got to manage the innovation. Keep track on how your new innovative product is performing and what is its effect on your employees and overall business.

If you need help with managing a business innovation, from the initial idea to successfully implanting it, a consultant might be what you need. The York, North Yorkshire and East Riding Growth Hub can help you find funding to support this. For example, the Manufacturing Growth Programme is a grant scheme that can help cover the costs of hiring an expert. Or you might need skills funding to train your staff in management.

Organisational innovation

A business innovation isn’t simply about developing new products to shake up the market, it can also be a change to how your business operates. This is called organisational innovation and it will bring about improvements to your business through a change in work processes, such as customer relationships. The main benefits of organisational development include a continuous improvement to how your business operates. If you’ve encouraged your employees to work in an innovative culture, they’re more likely to be proactive and embrace change in how they work and look at how to increase efficiency. You’ll see employee development, as organisational innovation requires you to keep up with constant industry and market changes. This can be achieved through training and skills enhancement. If you’re worried about the funding, there is a scheme, Skills Support for the Workforce, available for businesses in York, North Yorkshire and East Riding which will cover all of the costs of training.

On top of that, you could also see an increase to profit. By changing up work practises that may not have been successful in the past, you’ll improve efficiency and be able to create better quality products for your customers. Long story short, all of this will help bring in extra money.

If you want support on handling organisational innovation get in touch with the York, North Yorkshire and East Riding Growth Hub. We’ll be able to find what possible funding support is available to you.

New product development

Like most stages of your business, you’ll need to put some time into planning a business innovation. Otherwise you could risk developing a product that doesn’t have a market to sell into, or creating goods that already exist. Through new product development, you can ensure your product isn’t redundant and that there is an audience out there that will benefit from it.

Once you have an idea for a new product, think about how this fits in with the rest of your business, e.g. your market position, the skills of your employees. You need to find out if you have the right resources to develop the product. There is funding support available if you don’t think your business is prepared. For example, the Product and Process Innovation grant can help you invest in new machinery, whilst the Skills Support for the Workforce scheme will cover the costs of training up your staff.

Market analysis is an important stage for any business and must be done before you start developing your product or service. Without it, you wouldn’t know whether there is an actual demand for your product or if it already exists. Marketing is an ongoing process and will help you to stay ahead of your competitors. You will need to research three main areas: your industry, customers and competition:

Finance is also important to consider when developing a new product. You should set budgets, objectives and timescales. Throughout the project, you should refer back to this and ensure that you’re keeping on top of the financial burden. Money is one risk, but you should also assess what else could affect the development of your business innovation. For example, you may need to get your intellectual property protected (head to the next section for more information). You’ll need to define the basic product specification, identify key selling points and estimate the selling price of the product (check out the Customer relationships article for further information on pricing your products).

Once you’re ready to design the product, think about marketing, production and purchasing requirement. Head to the end of this article for more details on designing your product. You should develop a prototype, as this will allow you to fix any technical and production issues and test market reaction.

Developing a new product can be a big task for your business. You might find you need help from a consultant or some extra funding. If so, give us a call at the Growth Hub. If you’re based in York, North Yorkshire and East Riding, there might be funding available to you that could help with business innovation.

Managing Intellectual Property Rights

Having intellectual property protection can help to stop people from stealing or copying your products. If your business innovation is to develop a new product, you’ll need to think about managing how you manage intellectual property rights. The Government defines intellectual property as:

The main types of protection includes: copyright, patents, designs and trademarks. Some of these are automatic, whilst others you have to apply for. By ensuring your property is secure, you could prevent any legal issues in the future, which will save you money. Patents are especially relevant for innovation and safeguarding new ideas for a certain amount of time. For example, a patent can cover inventions and products.

Hopefully, you won’t ever have to defend your intellectual property and go to court. However if someone does try to steal your property, you may need to take legal action. With legal issues, it’s usually best to speak to an expert, so you can ensure everything is legitimate and acceptable. The Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys provide a database, so you can search for attorneys in your local area. Similarly you could speak to an intellectual property specialist solicitor. Your usual solicitor may not have the necessary knowledge, so check what their expertise is.

Intellectual property might seem full of jargon and a heavy topic to handle, so a consultant might be what you need to make sense of it. At the Growth Hub, we can see what funding support is available to you to help with this. For example, the Manufacturing Growth Programme is a grant that covers some of the cost for an expert on intellectual property. The Intellectual Property office also has lots of useful resources.

Product design

If you get the design of your product right, it can be effective in increasing sales, reducing costs and presenting a new image to customers. So, it’s more than just making your product look pretty. You should focus on areas where design offers clear commercial benefits. Design your product to meet customers’ needs, but also think about how this could be incorporated into your marketing. For example, using renewable or recycled materials will be good for your reputation. Design your product with production efficiency in mind. You don’t want to create something that will be disruptive and long-winded in the manufacturing process. One of the most important aspects of a business innovation is speed. Markets are constantly changing, so the longer you take to supply your product to consumers, the less relevant it is.

Through planning your design carefully, you’ll reduce the risk of needing to make costly changes later. If you need help from the get go, then it’s worth investing in an expert so you don’t make mistakes early on. The Manufacturing Growth Programme is a grant scheme that covers 35% of the costs of a consultant that can support your product design. You’ll need to prepare a design brief, whether you’re involving outside help or not. You’ll need to describe your business background, who are your customers and what are their needs and what are your strengths and weaknesses. Don’t forget about your budget either. You don’t want to invest too much money in the design process, only to realise that you don’t have the right amount of funds for it.

After the initial planning, you’ll need to consider the practicality of your product. Do you have the right machinery and materials to make the product in-house, or will you need to invest in new technology and new suppliers? The Product and Process Innovation grant can help support the funding of new equipment. Will your employees need extra support to develop the new product? Skills Support for the Workforce is a scheme that covers the full cost of any courses you may need to send your staff on.

This is just an overview of the design process and it can be useful to speak directly to an expert. If you’re based in York, North Yorkshire or East Riding, give us a call at the Growth Hub. We don’t provide the consultants, but we can check what funding support is available to help cover this and keep you on the right

Summary

Business innovation is still a hot topic and for good reason. By creating innovative products and processes, you can stand ahead of your competitors, attract new customers and increase your sales. Plus, it’s not bad for your reputation to say you’re a driving force of innovation. If you’d like support on research and development to create an innovative product, get in touch with the Growth Hub. There’s plenty of support available in the York, North Yorkshire and East Riding area. From capital grants to purchase new machinery to support on skills training that will cover the entire cost of bespoke courses. Speak to us and we can make sure you’re introduced to the right folk to develop your innovation.

If your interested in finding our more then you can get in touch at support@howsbusiness.org