Crisis Innovation Guide: Product and Process (part 3 of 5)

Before you get to the innovation drawing board, it is essential that you gain a thorough understanding of the exact challenges and opportunities that your organisation is facing. We are not in a high-roll poker game. There is no need for irrational, heat-of-the-moment, all-or-nothing moves. It is all about growth and that should remain your key focus. Devising an effective growth strategy is an essential first step in achieving your goals.

We distinguish between four areas of innovation:

In this article, we provide guidelines on how you can innovate your organisation in response to the first two key challenges: product and process.

Combining the Board of Innovation’s Impact and Strategy framework with the Innovation Puzzle Framework proposed by Forbes Leadership Strategy expert Tendayi Viki, we have put together a four-step guide to help you innovate your product:

If you have experienced a decrease in demand for the product or service you offer, you need to get straight to the drawing board. Start by analysing and redefining customer pains and gains. How has the pandemic changed the underlying customer need that your product or service addresses? How long will it take for the market to recover?

If the underlying need that your product addresses is still relevant (e.g. entertainment is still an ongoing customer need that needs to be satisfied), see if it can be replaced by an alternative offering that achieves the same end goal for your current customer base. This requires an in-depth understanding of the competencies and resources available to your company and how easily the shift can be made. Is the underlying need no longer there?
Consider switching to a different customer segment or a new product (white space exploration).

Identifying and developing a marketable product is not enough to guarantee success. Developing a profitable business model is of utmost importance and this requires taking into account potential costs, constraints and future obstacles. You need to think about how you can find the right channels and partners to create value for your customers while bearing in mind how these may be affected by the aftershocks of the pandemic.

The key word here is ‘sustainability’. You need to scale your business model, remove bottlenecks and develop marketing tools to help you acquire and retain customers. You need to adopt HR strategies that will nurture the talent in your company and help employees to develop the right skill sets. As a leader, it is essential to maintain a long-term vision and prepare for future challenges and opportunities.

The Covid-19 pandemic forced many companies to implement immediate, disruptive changes that they had not planned for. It has loosened organisational structures and provided a means for trying out untested strategies, structures and policies. Now that we are exiting the trial period, it is time to assess which of these changes have worked and which ones have not. Positive changes should be integrated into your culture and systems, those that are ineffective or no longer relevant should be removed. Take advantage of this unique opportunity to redefine how your organisation is run and build processes that are agile, profitable and future-proof.

The COVID-19 crisis has led to a series of abrupt changes to the way we work. Perhaps the most visible change has been working from home. This has put an end to rush-hour commutes, reduced the time we spend in meetings and accelerated the transition towards digital communication. The workforce has been rapidly digitised and we have begun to recognise the value of digital technology.

However, after transferring traditional office routines and processes to the online setting, we began to realise that some of these routines no longer make sense and that there is a need to change them. Jef Staes, innovation expert and author of the bestseller ‘My Organization is a Jungle’ explains that we are witnessing the old way of working getting a ‘digital upgrade’, yet what we need is a style change of working, learning and managing that is more adaptive to our new working environment. Technology should be used to support these new styles.

Wim Gijselaers, Professor in Education at Maastricht University, explains that in many cases, an increase in working from home during lockdown has improved employee job satisfaction and productivity. Gijselaers explains that this enhanced productivity may be attributed to the increased focus that employees have on their role. He suggests that the relative absence of office politics might also be a reason, but that the extent to which this is caused by moving work to a digital setting is not clear.

On a less positive note, Gijselaers warns of the lack of informal communication as a result. ‘Coffee machine interactions’ between colleagues have profound social and economic benefits and are important catalysts for innovation. The absence of those interactions, he explains, will only be to the detriment of the organisation. We need to find a way to integrate the social, human aspect into the emerging digital processes if we are to maximise the benefits.

This article is the third part of a larger series of five contributions, which together constitute a ‘Crisis Innovation Guide’; a guide with tips and tools on how innovation can help your organisation prepare for the turbulent period ahead. The guide is constructed around multiple scientific and opinion articles, interviews with researchers, and input from various webinars and conferences, the sum of which provides an overview of the latest talking points of the COVID-19 crisis.

From 16 November 2020 onwards, every week will see a new contribution as part of the Crisis Innovation Guide. The guide will be made available as a downloadable PDF to members of UMIO Prime as of 14 December 2020 through the UMIO Prime app. The app also provides access to all available articles of the series until now.

If you feel our expertise on innovation can help you and your organisation get ahead, please get in touch and let’s start creating an impact together!