Innovation is essential for every company. 

In a very competitive business environment, being innovative will put you ahead of your competitors, help you create competitive advantage, and is an essential part of your company’s strategy.

Many companies struggle to understand what innovation actually is.  Put simply, innovation is a new way of doing something.  Applied in business, this can relate to all facets of the organisation, not just the creation of a new invention or breakthrough technology.

As innovation is doing something new, it requires thinking outside the square to come up with new ideas, products/services, processes and systems, and then being able to apply them to create advantage for the firm.
Sometimes it is not the idea in and of itself that is new, but it is the application of the idea within a business creating value for the client that is innovative.

Innovative companies:

• communicate openly with staff, customers and all key stakeholders, deriving new ideas from all those involved
• continually seek to reinvent themselves, their products and services
• understand the needs of their customers
• collaborate with other firms
• not only incorporation innovation into their strategy, but see it as part of their mission.

If you want to know if your firm is innovative, take the Innovation Quiz

For more information, also see the New South Wales and Federal Government innovation links.