One of the leading reasons for early stage startups to burnout is because they never innovate on the scale they are required to. Eventually, they succumb to complacency and competitors. Blackberry and Nokia learnt this the hard way despite being the market leaders in the smartphone world before Apple and Samsung took the reins and rode into the sunset.
Now as someone leading a startup, innovation, if done right, can improve results and the morale of employees as they get to participate more and their voices are heard. But all the efforts and time can often go to waste, when the results of intense brainstorming sessions are not implemented. This will also demotivate employees from giving it their all if they feel that all their inputs are eventually going to be ignored.
So how do you strike the perfect balance between unfettered innovation and practical, solution-oriented approach?
1) Reward Employees for Innovation and Results
Be it a creative product idea that opens up a new category or a different and better way of doing the existing processes, recognise the valuable contribution of your employees by publicly acknowledging their ideas and generously rewarding their hard work through tangible benefits such as bonuses, salary hikes, promotions and more.
2) Always Be Open to Suggestions and Ideas
Companies like NVIDIA, IBM, Motorola and many others are the kings of groundbreaking innovations and this only happens when founders and leaders foster a culture of complete innovation by being open to suggestions and ideas from all levels of the company. They also reward the employee whose ideas are implemented with significant monetary rewards which creates an employee-centric environment while meeting organisational goals.
3) Don’t Forget Your Customers
Sometimes, an idea is practically and financially sound for your startup’s growth and profitability, but it is a menace to paying customers since it ruins their experience, and they eventually end up switching to other brands. That’s why an idea might sound great, but it is important to test it with feedback from your customers to ensure that their convenience and loyalty remain unhindered.
4) Encourage Customers To Collaborate
Since we were talking about putting the needs of customers first, why not just involve them in the ideation process? Groups customers can appoint their customer representative who can be directly involved with the leaders and problem solvers in the startup to brainstorm ideas and improve existing criticalities. This helps save a lot of time and avoids wasted effort.
5) Promote Experimentation Within Pre-Established Parameters
It is easy to learn from failure, but even easier to invite disastrous consequences if valuable resources are lost due to flawed innovation. Create a structure that aligns with your startup’s goals through controlled and pre-defined parameters as per your budget, risk-appetite, existing inventory, production capabilities etc and then give your team a free-hand to experiment and innovate within those parameters along with regular sessions to review the ideas and practicality. This eliminates the risk from unfruitful ideas while propelling valuable ones into the forefront.
