Can we just stop innovating now please, our day job is demanding enough already!

In this article, Brian Doidge discusses the role of innovation in modern marketing and offers up some advice to those marketers who wish to grasp the nettle of innovation to enhance their competitive advantage.

The South West of England has never been a stranger to pioneering new ideas. This is a land that lays claim to John Stringfellow, Thomas Newcomen, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Richard Trevithick and William Friese Greene, to name but a few. Those who brought their ground-breaking ideas into the not just to us locally, but to the world. However, there also seems to a view that although innovating is clearly important and worthwhile, being successful at it is still very far from easy. It is really the extra job though, the one we can have a go at, when things calm down, when things get bit fairer? Can we simply stop going on about it? We already know it’s important, but is it right to think that it is just not important to us at the moment?

There is much to highlight that innovation is not only important to us now, it’s important to us always. Keeping the lights on today, is going to be a priority, but making sure that they are still on tomorrow, is clearly very important too. Developing innovative products and services is still seemingly an inevitable key feature of business for many in the south west. In today’s highly competitive landscape, there is much to remind us in our region that it is still critical for us as professional marketers, to be at the very forefront of the need to continually innovate, if our organisations are to remain competitive.

For those of us in our region, who are openly considering it, there is every chance that we are inevitably going to encounter those who will quickly remind us of our need to be innovative. However, history shows us that if our innovation is really clever and truly ground-breaking, there is a good chance that people will believe that they can live without it, or that funding it with their own money is very risky. Indeed there is every chance that people will begin to think that we are ever so slightly odd! In our contemporary world of business, it is challenging to be a creative original thinker, especially if we are seeking to generate a suitable amount of revenue from what we create. However, is that genuinely a realistic justification, for allowing others to be the innovators, while we remain focused upon the business as usual?

As marketers, we may well be far better placed than we think, to grasp this nettle of innovation. One thing is of course very clear and also very reassuring. This is that our profession, clearly sees our ability to formulate new ideas, or to adapt or use existing ideas, in a new or unexpected way, as being nested into the key behavioural competencies of marketing. In fact, we should now be clearly seeing our innovation efforts ranking alongside competencies, such as commercial awareness and financial literacy for example. We should embrace the notion that this is now key to us being able to demonstrate that through our innovations, we are clearly a noticeable contributor to the achievement of our business goals.

There is little doubt about the importance of innovation on a macro level and inevitably we can find plenty in the literature to support this. For example, Joseph Schumpeter, one of the most influential economists of the 20th Century, is on record as saying that “innovation is the critical dimension of economic change and economic change revolves around innovation, entrepreneurial activities and market power”. This is somewhat reinforced by another eminent economist William Baumol, who found that “virtually all of the economic growth that has occurred since the eighteenth century is ultimately attributable to innovation”. 

Indeed, it was just over ten years ago, that Shqipe Gerguri and Veland Ramadani from the South East European University at Tetovo, highlighted how innovation is essential for sustainable growth and economic development and crucial for value creation. In addition, Joe Tidd and John Bessant in their 2014 book, highlighted that in a world where the operating environment is changing rapidly and product life cycles are shortening, being able to introduce new products, can not only help to capture and retain markets, but can also  increase profitability.  In fact, in their opinion, if you can make something that no one else knows how to, or make it in a way that no one else can, you already have a powerful source of competitive advantage to hand. Difficult for us here in the South West to argue with really isn’t it? 

One of our challenges though, is to dispel the myth that innovation is only associated with products. In addition, we must highlight that even if innovation is thought of as a synonym for invention, it is clearly very much not the case. Obviously they are clearly related, but invention is really just the start of things. The good news though, is that process innovation is starting to overtly rank alongside product innovation now and being able to offer a service well and in an innovative way is rapidly becoming much more widely acknowledged, as a sustainable source of competitive advantage. Maybe this is where our work will now focus?

So in principle, there is much to encourage us that this is an important area and that we have a duty to actively participate. However, overcoming our reluctance and actually getting our heads around what we actually need to do beyond this, needs to be explored further. One of our first obstacles, is going to be how we agree what our approach to innovation will actually look like. This in itself is subject to some debate. In fact, in his 2011 HBR article, Patrick Vlaskovits highlighted, how one side of the debate vehemently argues the merits of innovating vis-à-vis customer feedback, while the other argues that true innovation is created by singularly gifted visionaries, who ignore customer input and in effect relying on their prophetic vision for a better future.

A tricky one really, but as a profession that sees its role as the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably, the customer will definitely need to be placed centre stage in some way. However, there will always be the, what you have never had, you will never miss hurdle to overcome in here somewhere too. Customers can’t reasonably be just simply expected to instantly recognise our sheer genius can they? Our ideas will need to be carefully thought through. If our idea is actually novel and different and we can see how it can be turned into something workable, it should seem logical that we should think about our next question i.e. can we actually see any meaningful commercial potential in it?

Our natural curiosity will help, as will a willingness to embrace the opportunity presented within the identification of the customer needs as a potential source of new ideas. However, this will only get us so far.  One of our other key behavioural skills as marketers, will also loom large here i.e. Collaboration. Indeed this could be more important than we may think. For example the CIM highlight that our traditional, linear approach to product development is being replaced by multi-functional, project-based approaches. This seeks to ensure that technical, operational, business and marketing considerations are taken into account simultaneously, as opposed to consecutively. This helps to reduce the time and cost of product development, whilst also ensuring a customer-led focus, with marketing input at every stage of the development process. This very much embraces the behavioural competency requirement for us to work with others for the benefit of our business and its goals.

Another factor which seems to be less intuitive, is the number of innovations we focus on at any given time. Organisations who strive to add value by innovating in several ways, seem to more successful. Then there is the somewhat unjust fact that it can turn out to be the seemingly obvious and simple that leads to commercial success, while the more ambitious breakthrough ideas fall flat, before they even get barely get started.

So what should we do? Well here are eleven takeaways to consider when you are thinking of innovation:

  • Innovation isn’t easy, but it is really important!
  • Have lots of big ideas and definitely be as creative as you can, but try to identify a customer need too.
  • Remember that if you come up with something that is truly ground-breaking, it may sound weird at first. Don’t let this put you off.
  • Be acutely aware that there may well be contemporaneous activity (others may looking at the same / similar things)
  • Don’t be afraid to screen your ideas, but be choosy about who you screen them with though.
  • Recognise that this should not be used as an excuse for reckless abandon.
  • Be empathetic with the needs of the wider team.
  • Innovate with people who are not like you.
  • Be open to feedback, but not confined by it.
  • Carry out robust feasibility studies.
  • While you may only be remembered for your one big idea, make sure that people had a choice of which one to choose!

“Innovation is the calling card of the future”

Anna Eshoo