Why Is There Such A Demand For Innovation

Technology enables us to automate many processes and do things much more quickly, as a result, we find that the latest greatest product suddenly has many, very similar competing products also on the market.

Take the recent surge in tablet computers as an example. Apple releases the iPad and then within a year, there are hundreds of other tablet-based computers to choose from. Many of which are very similar to each other. When products or services become too similar customers then choose what they want to buy based on how much they cost. For businesses, a lower price means lower profits, margins, etc.

In the modern world, companies have to constantly keep innovating in order to avoid differentiating solely on price. Having a different product means you can demand a higher price. Until once again that innovation itself has too many imposters – and then once again the cycle has to begin again with yet more innovation.

The key to product/service differentiation and increased revenues/profits is, therefore, to keep innovating with either a radical innovation (something completely new) or an incremental innovation (an incremental improvement to an existing product or service or modification to enable it to be used for a different purpose).

This process of innovating to keep your products and/or services ahead of the rest begins with creativity.

So creativity from a business perspective is about thinking about what could be different in a product or service. How can something change while still remaining relevant and meaningful to the customer? Customers have needs and products and services are there to meet those needs. What can you do different and still meet those needs? Creativity needs to be based on solving problems and adding value to the customer.

How do you add value to a product or service? Better, quicker, smaller, faster, larger, less functional, more functional, louder, brighter, etc., etc.

Today’s world requires lots of creativity and lots of creative ideas to be transformed into useful innovative products and services.