Ask anybody about innovation and most will mention things like Apple, SpaceX, and “thinking outside of the box”. The first two costs billions to get where they are today and the third doesn’t really mean anything. This makes people think that innovation is either too expensive or too difficult to “figure out”.
They either spend millions trying to innovate, or they don’t do anything.
The reality is that innovation is a spectrum.
On one end you have the big expensive stuff that companies like Apple and SpaceX do; we’ll call this “Moonshot” innovation (big ideas, big money). On the other end you have 1% better or marginal gains innovations; these are cheaper, faster to implement but can still be impactful.
Most companies don’t live in the same world as Apple so they shouldn’t try to approach innovation in the same way. Most companies (especially small and medium businesses) should be operating at the 1% Better end of the innovation spectrum. Think “improving safety by 10%” or “increasing the conversion of leads to sales by 10%”. You can still innovate in these areas.
These are much smaller goals compared to what SpaceX is doing but they are impactful to an SMB/SME.
The best thing is that you can (and maybe should) use the same innovation methods that the unicorn companies do.
TL:DR
- Innovation is a spectrum
- Most of SMBs/SMEs should focus on the 1% Gains end of the spectrum
- You can and should use the same innovation methods that the big companies do
