Drivers of Innovation

For an organisation to truly be successful they should be driven by innovation. Competition within the market place is tough, therefore finding an innovative way to successfully differentiate itself from the competition is imperative in the sustainability of the organisation. In the past, most businesses have focused on continuous improvement of their products and services to maintain a competitive edge. Today's businesses must come up with new ideas, rather than settle for marginally better ideas.

The aim is to remain at the forefront of all the current trends and can envision future trends from those existing ones. This means that to “stay ahead’ of competition and remain a leader within that specific market place, innovation is a process that needs to happen continuously. According to O’Sullivan (2008), innovation drivers allow brands to constantly innovate, learn and adapt. With the conduction of a situational analysis one can analyse an organisations internal and external environment. By going through this process one can gain far better insight into understanding and realizing how some drivers of innovation play a much bigger role in the organisation.

Innovation is vital for a business to grow and evolve. Innovation means looking at improved solutions, improved products and improved procedures that will tackle present-day and emerging needs that in turn, will drive the business forward. Innovation can happen across all levels of a business. There are multiple factors that drive a business to innovate. These factors are known as drivers. These drivers of innovation create earnestness, which allows new goals and objectives to be created. It also allows for new ideas, which will help meet goals, to be generated.

Tata, for example, looks at innovation as a strategic approach to global growth and they have implemented a three-pronged strategy to encourage it. They focus on three main drivers on innovation. Those are; better communication and recognition of innovative ideas and efforts, facilities for learning from other companies, and support for collaborative research and partnerships with academic institutions.

For Blu Betty, as shoe retailers, competition is a factor that they constantly must be aware of. When devising ways to improve their business, Blu Betty used innovation and creativity to get ahead of competitors and provide products that would set them apart from others. Blu Betty used this as a driver of innovation. They realised that they needed to stand out and be different, and this in turn is what they did. The organisation therefore sourced leathers which are generally not available in this country. These leathers also aren’t typically leathers which are used for fashion. They also decided to use innovation to establish trends and give their shoes an authentic feel.

Blu Betty are influenced by current trends in the marketplace, but simultaneously know that being original and different is very important if they want to succeed. For this reason, they ensure that their styling and designs are always innovative and different. As in most businesses, Blu Betty take inspiration from past successes and thereby develop their products and image. At Blu Betty, increasing competition is a driver of innovation, because as a small business, they want to ensure that they secure their niche market and don’t lose consumers to other businesses. The reason this is a driver, is because competition pushes Blu Betty to innovate and come up with new ideas that will put them ahead of those competitors and give them a competitive edge that will secure their market.

Due to the improvement in technology with each year, consumers are more aware and expectant that they were before. Their needs and wants become more and more difficult to satisfy, thereby requiring businesses to put more effort into keeping consumers happy. Blu Betty see this as a driver of innovation because at the end of the day, consumers are the most important part of their business, and all actions are made with the purpose of keeping consumers happy and creating long-lasting relationships with consumers. These high expectations result in more effort being put into the productions of products and delivery of them. More effort is going into reaching customer expectations.

Another driver of innovation is advancing technology. This drives Blu Betty to keep up with technological trends and ensure that their media presence attracts consumer’s attention.