“Innovate Or Die” – The Art Of Innovation In A Competitive Market

“Innovate or die” – we have all heard this iconic phrase, made famous by Peter Drucker, time and time again. Now, more than ever, innovation appears to be a pivotal driving force for product manufacturers, sustainability champions and marketeers (to name a few) – but what does this really mean and how do we set about achieving it?

“Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things.” – Theodore Levitt (1925 – 2006), Renown economist

For many, innovation is a race to reach the next creative breakthrough or mastermind light bulb moment the quickest. In reality, innovation is much more within reach than many organisations realise. You don’t always have to be the smartest, fastest, or biggest fish in the bowl to stay ahead of the competition. Quite simply, innovation can be as easy as using a new technology, implementing a new initiative, or reallocating investment – small innovations are often the crucial building blocks that lead to bigger and better advancements. The real key here is to just take the leap and do it.

“I believe you have to be willing to be misunderstood if you’re going to innovate.” – Jeff Bezos , Founder of Amazon

It doesn’t come as a surprise that those who choose to think outside the box or do things differently are often met with at least a little resistance. But, time and time again, history has shown us that this is how the most influential and beneficial changes have started out.

That said, challenging the norm from within an organisation can often be difficult, not just in terms of keeping the peace, but also having the ability to step back and see the bigger picture to understand what change is really required. As the founder of the Ford Motor Company, Henry Ford, once said “If I had asked the public what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse”. Similarly, when discussing this topic with one of our BFM partners, Simon Klippel – a leading product designer and innovation expert, he explained the importance of creative innovation for this reason, stating that “in our intrusive digital age where every moment is disrupted with information and communication on many levels. It is creativity that keeps our sole alive, our zest for life fuelled, and our endless and progressive curios quest for enlightenment and enrichment moving forever forward”.

By utilising the experience, expertise and skill of an outsourced individual or company organisations can reach true innovation more quickly.

“The value of an idea lies in the using of it.” – Thomas Edison (1847 – 1931), Inventor

Whilst it’s great to generate innovative and new ideas, products, or services many organisations often struggle to put them into practise. Why? Because it’s easier and cheaper to replicate rather than innovate. However, change, development and innovation are the natural rhythm of the world – when organisations choose not to embrace this, more often than not, they are choosing to be left behind. To put it simply, the difficulty is not in creating new ideas, but escaping old ones.

What a lot of people don’t realise is the breadth of financial support available for just trying ideas – from grants to tax benefits companies can be rewarded for taking that innovative step. Our advice is to identify a gap in the market, do your research around financial support, and outsource to the teams or individuals that can really help you achieve your goal.  As Leonardo da Vinci once observed “It has long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things”. Ultimately, being proactive, independent, and ambitious is the best way to start.

The topic of achieving innovation was recently discussed in our new podcast ‘BFM Talks: Innovation and Investment’. In this episode we were joined by Simon Klippel (who specialises in innovative product design), David Fribbins (a Grant funding and Tax Credit extraordinaire) and Todd Altman (a CEO and engineer with a vast knowledge in building products). To find out what they had to say on the topic listen to this episode through Spotify, Amazon Music or the BFM Website – launching Wednesday 6th April 2022.