How Does Your Business Become Innovative?

Innovation is a buzzword in today's business world. We all want to be the next great innovator to change an industry or the world. The reality is that innovation is inherently hard to achieve—but it is possible. Here are five tips from Seament to make your business more innovative.

1.  Question your current products – Pretty much the definition of innovation is creating something that goes beyond the norm. The only way to do that is to question the norm—including your company's own norm. If you aren't able to sit down with a critical eye to your own products, you cannot turn any of them into next generation leaders. Look at your best performing products and ask how they can be even better. Look at your underperforming products and ask what about them is holding them back. Could a small change turn them into winners?

2.  Focus heavily on usability – Often, the products hailed as most innovative are not really that much better than their competitors, in concept. They do basically the same things. The difference is that they are easier to use. This could be anything from a more ergonomic garlic press to a database that someone can use without training. As an example, Apple's products really do not offer more functionality than their competitors, but they focus on a slimmed down and minimal user interface that makes them easy for anyone to use. That's why they dominate the market.

3.  Hire innovative staff – You don't need to come up with every idea yourself, and chances are good that you won't. If you focus hiring practices on getting staff who are creative, outside-the-box thinkers, then you will have a lot more ideas surging through your company for improving your products/services or offering innovative new ones. Even just a few very bright minds on staff can make a big difference, especially if they are given creative control where needed.

4.  Give employees freedom and trust – Even the most creative employees cannot innovate if their ideas are stonewalled. In most companies, it's not that creative ideas fall on deaf ears – it's that organizational structure makes it hard to run with anything creative and outside the current plan. To really focus on innovation, you will need to give employees more freedom in their work, make it easier for new ideas or projects to take off with less bureaucracy, and trust that employees will complete their work objectives without overly controlling policies.

5.  Know your industry's problems – A lot of innovation comes of simply noticing a problem that everyone else is having, and giving that problem your full attention.

In Seament's own history, the above tips paid off and transformed the way cement is delivered to ports. How can you change your industry?