Do Not Tempt Fate. Innovate

By Rejoy Kurup

There are companies which innovate when the going is good as they have sufficient time and resources to devote to idea generation and creating new products/services and business models. Then there are companies which innovate in tough times when that is their only key to survival, if not success. What that probably suggests is that regardless of the economic and market environment, innovation much like change, should stay a constant.

Innovation has multiple sources including customers, suppliers, academia, partnering firms, competitors and the most obvious yet the most under-utilized i.e. employees. At some firms, innovation through employees is nothing more than a tool for employee engagement and keeping them happy & satisfied through an illusion of control & contribution, whereas in reality it really could have been so much more. If today Archimedes ran through the streets naked having thought of a bright new idea, he would most likely be running all the way to the bank! That is the power of ideas: as creators of financial and economic value.