'Recipe'

Today, innovation is not a choice but an obligation of the market. To date, no one can doubt that innovation is essential to be competitive.

If not is it innovates, at the end will compete in markets in which the offer is basically the same and that the differentiation is based on the price rather than on the value proposition to customers, with what the margins are becoming lower.

With a single click of our mouse, we can find on the Internet hundreds of news that speak of the need to innovate. We find hundreds of articles claiming that improve our communication, reduce costs, provide differentiating advantages, improve our products, promote our brand, in short, being innovative is one of the keys to overcoming this crisis. No this questions.

The question is whether after the storm, all companies will be entrusted to thinking that it will be much easier to sell without crisis, or if they will really using strategies which could cope with the most difficult times (this issue well worth being treated in more detail in a future article).

It is important to note that I am not talking about innovation in the strict sense of product/service, but innovation in a much broader sense, covering all business concepts: strategy, processes, customers, technology, new markets, distribution channels, media, strategic alliances...

Possibly this is the great challenge, how can I get my organization to innovate? The idea is not that someone one day 'turns you the light bulb', but there is a system to innovate.

I would like to find someone to tell me what is the recipe for innovation, what steps have to follow, how to innovate. I think that all want the same, that tell us what is the magic formula to innovate, what is the recipe. But innovation does not have a formula, the methods that exist are only tools able to achieve wonders in the hands of some and in some circumstances, and disasters in other hands or other situations.

That Yes, there are ways to observe the reality and choose the tools necessary to achieve innovation. We have to find what works in our company, our industry and our particular situation.

For those who like steps, processes and schemes. Please take note of 'The recipe':

• The existing trend (amplified in crisis situations) should be avoided to throw the blame to the environment, the 'Government', the 'Minister of economy', the 'market', to 'unfair competition', 'incompetence of the staff', (although many times something of all this is true). If we only focus on apportioning blame, we post in the position of a dragged sheet to any wind.
• To start the innovation, the first thing we have to do is see what is changing and second, analyze how these changes affect our products or services. It is essential to develop a sense of opportunity, look at how are trends in the world and where the changes are aimed to do new things: changes in technology and markets both small and large scale, changes in government policies concerning our activity, changes in social patterns, profiles of the population, changes in the style of life, local events, etc. All of these changes represent new challenges for enterprises and we must be prepared to respond to them.
• Innovate in value, provide clients with objective, those aspects that more value from our products and services, by eliminating or reducing those things that do not value, will help us to differentiate our offer.
• Another feature of an innovative company is its ability to develop the ability to achieve internal cooperation (in all its functional structure) and external or strategic alliances (with the centres of research, higher education, advice and consultancy, clients)(, suppliers or markets). In some companies are organized sessions of generating ideas, which involves people of different departments and are thus collected opinions from different points of view, it encourages people to use a notebook to take notes of the ideas are arising at any time of day or it allows employees to hang posters in their offices of the type 'am creating', so that they can park every day and spend a time to be creative. And of course and if we want really to work machinery of innovation we need to reward the best ideas of the employees through public recognition.

We also talk about the barriers that we may find ourselves to innovate.

The lack of time is the main barrier, it is very difficult to get out of our day to day seconds 'extras'. If we are able to create a space and assign a time to think and ask ourselves 'and what if...?' insurance that the reflections we can do, there are many ideas that will make that many of our daily problems do not disappear, because we will be devoting time to improve our procedures and processes.

The elements described are some ingredients of the 'recipe' to guide business in times of great change, in times of crisis (is a threat or an opportunity?), to learn of our possibilities and the context. To create our future.

In WNT we have the following questions constantly and we have managed to establish and systematize 'Culture of innovation' in every corner of our Organization; We are not simply improvising at difficult times, innovation is part of our strategy. Depending on the answers you get, you'll know if you've already taken the path to innovation, or not…:

• I think that innovation is important in my company?
• What resources are allocated to innovation?
• Do I consider positive the results that we got to innovate?
• If not innovate, for what reasons?