There is no doubt we have a pretty good crop of inventors in the UK. Unfortunately, we don’t have quite the same hit rate when it comes to bringing those ideas to market with maximum commercial success.
We do know that many companies consistently get it right. Take Unilever for example. They not only innovate new products, but they have innovation ingrained in their systems and processes. This leads to some pretty impressive results. In just one example, innovation around product prototyping techniques resulted in year 1 sales for a new cleaning product being 60% higher than first estimated. This shows that profitable innovation is just as likely to come from ‘how’ you do business as ‘what you sell’. The best innovation often comes from a different way of looking at what you’ve always done. And you don’t have to be the size of Unilever to do that.
Check 1. You and your team have a long list of ideas for fabulous new products and services, but agreeing which ones to take to market is a risky business, so they haven’t quite got off the ground yet. Did you quantify how much value is still sitting on that flip chart?
Check 2. You’ve got great product development processes that are regularly updated to take into account supply chain and customer feedback – you just wish they weren’t so cumbersome. What if the competition managed to cut their time to market?
Check 3. You operate in a tightly regulated industry, such as financial services, and it can be difficult to differentiate your offerings from the competition. Such situations often go only one-way, a price war – is that a space that you want to be in? Spoiler alert – your brand heritage is a great way to avoid that particular doom spiral.
Check 4. You are lucky to have a base of very loyal customers that like your traditional products, but your business needs to grow, and things may have to change. Have you worked out how to keep everyone happy yet – especially the bottom line?
Check 5. You’ve successfully launched your brilliant new product, your customers love it. Have you spent time on any poor performing products lately to see how they could be turned around?
When we have worked with clients in the past, they have generally recognised themselves in at least one of the above scenarios. At Groundswell Innovation, we have decades of experience of seeking out the less-obvious, and we know the best hiding spots to find the secrets of your continued success.
You may not be surprised to hear that we work a little differently to many other consultancies. We like to deliver value from the word go. So instead of generating lengthy proposals for you to wade through, we’ll go right ahead with a workshop with key members of the team to identify the opportunities and co-create the best solution. One of the things our customers value about us most is our pragmatic approach; and delivering co-designed solutions that actually work for their business – right now.
If you would like see if a co-creation workshop could help you do things differently, innovate and grow your business, please talk to us. We work with businesses in Lancaster, Lancashire, the North West and beyond.
