How To Be an Innovator Even When You're Not
An innovation strategy doesn't mean breakthrough technology. Discover how small, sustaining improvements can drive real business growth and help you overcome the challenges every business owner faces.
Discover the Secret to Innovation
An Innovation Strategy Doesn't Mean What You Think It Means
First, consider the typical business owner. You work relentlessly to take care of your customers and grow your company. Moreover, you keep reading articles about the importance of having an innovation strategy in your business. "An innovator? That's not me," you scoff. "I just run an accounting firm." As a result, you keep plugging away, missing the essential truth about what innovation means.
An innovation strategy doesn't necessarily mean what you think it means.
Furthermore, innovation isn't always some grand discovery or breakthrough technology. For small business owners, the truth is simpler than you think. An innovation strategy means finding ways to run a better business. Whether you're focused on strategic planning or improving daily operations, the key is taking consistent, practical steps forward.
Disruptive vs Sustaining Innovation
In the first place, we hear about Disruptive Innovation all the time. Steve Jobs launches a technology empire from his garage. Elon Musk builds a reusable rocket booster. Netflix creates a subscription model that makes movie rental stores obsolete. However, this type of innovation is outside the wheelhouse of most business owners.
Disruptive Innovation
By definition, turns an industry on its ear. And if you need to read that definition, then Disruptive Innovation is maybe outside your wheelhouse.
Sustaining Innovation
Internal advancements that improve a business's workflow, technology, processes, and procedures. Not designed to take the world by storm, but to enhance the way one runs and grows their business.
The Need for a Business Innovation Strategy
As a business owner, you might not be the next big Disruptor. Nevertheless, you are uniquely qualified as an expert in your own business. You know what works. The gaps are equally obvious. You know what is slowing you down and, consequently, you know what is dampening growth.
You know a lot. However, the catch-22 is that you don't know what you don't know. Therefore, those blind spots can be major obstacles on your path to business success.
What might surprise you is that the operational obstacles you are experiencing as a small business owner are shockingly similar to almost every other small business out there, regardless of industry. In fact, understanding these patterns is a crucial part of best practices for strategic planning:
In essence, none of these things have anything to do with your industry expertise. Nevertheless, overcoming them has everything to do with the long-term success of your business. When it comes to building the right team, many business owners find that executive team building is a critical step. Furthermore, in all likelihood, there are other business owners geographically close to you that have already leveraged an innovation strategy to solve the same issues that are dogging your company.
Building Your Innovation Strategy from Peer Experience
While being an innovator certainly has its merits, gleaning expertise from small business owners who have already walked in your shoes is an invaluable asset. Specifically, your innovation strategy does not need to be of your own making. It just needs to make sense for your unique needs. For instance, small improvements in how you sell and communicate with clients can make a bigger impact than any technology upgrade.
In today's fast-changing landscape, business owners and CEOs who stay relevant are those who continuously learn from their peers and adapt their strategies. Whether it's refining your approach to sales versus overall business growth or learning how to productize your business, the path forward comes from shared knowledge. Moreover, AI can serve as an engine for business growth as part of a modern innovation strategy.
TAB Business Advisory Boards
TAB Business Advisory Boards provide practical advice on the challenges surrounding small business ownership and growth. As a result, they are one of the most effective tools for building a real-world innovation strategy.
Boards are made up of a select group of up to 10 local business owners who run non-competing businesses, as well as a TAB Board facilitator. Most TAB Boards have more than 200 years of collective executive experience in small business ownership, solutions, and leveraging innovation.
TAB Board Members support and elevate each other with real-world experience and operational insight into what has worked for them. Learn more at the TAB Board Room.
Join TAB TodayBusiness Coaching & Strategic Planning
A video presenting the business coaching process, building a clear strategic plan, and turning business goals into a measurable and actionable innovation strategy.
Chances are a fellow TAB Board Member has already figured out the innovation strategy you need — a select group of up to 10 local business owners with more than 200 years of collective executive experience.
In conclusion, ready to take the next step? First, explore how AI can serve as an engine for business growth. Additionally, learn why mastering key financial skills is essential for every business owner. Above all, every effective innovation strategy starts with the decision to keep learning and improving.