Nothing in the world of business is quite so satisfying or edifying than stumbling across that winning formula. It can take years of tweaking your operational practices, finding the right hardware and software that work for you, adapting your marketing strategy to resonate with your target market and tailoring your training program to suit the needs of your employees. But when you hit that sweet spot… Well, that’s about as good as it gets. Productivity rises, profits go up, employees are happy and motivated, your brand gains prestige and you feel on top of the world. In short… business is good! And it seems like it’ll go on like this forever…
But it won’t! Assuming that it will can be a dangerous mistake. Many a business has rested on its laurels and thus lost its footing on the slippery slope of the 21st century marketplace. If you’re afraid to innovate, your complacency can have a severe cost to your business.
Innovate or suffer reduced productivity
Check out https://www.rnaautomation.com/ and you’ll see just how fast the world of automated manufacture is moving. If you manufacture a product, you live or die by your volume and your quality of product. Failing to embrace new technologies can mean that you find that suddenly your competitors are putting out their product at a much faster rate and therefore shift much more units.
Innovate or damage your reputation
The 21st century is a fast moving and capricious landscape. Consumers are always watching and they want to know that they’re dealing with a business that is able to move with the times and change its operations to suit their needs as new technologies and consumer trends develop. Can your brand’s reputation afford to be associated with yesterday’s news in a world that can never be too current.
Innovate or lose touch with your consumer base
Your marketing strategy is what drives customers to you. It’s a precision engineered instrument that allows you to target the consumer groups that matter the most to you. If these customers choose to keep coming back to you, it’s because an integral part of your brand identity resonates with them. It’s easy, however, to overestimate that loyalty. If you appear unable or unwilling to move with the times, this can severely compromise your relationship with your core customers.
Moreover, it’s important to embrace innovation when it comes to developing your relationship with your customers. Sure, you may use email shoots, social media strategy and other digital tools to foster that relationship today… But what will you use tomorrow?
Innovate or be the butt of your competitors’ jokes
All’s fair in love and business. In the dog eat dog world of the current business climate, brands need to do everything they can to appear one step ahead of the competition in the eyes of their customers. While not particularly classy, and potentially legally problematic, it’s a fairly common marketing tactic to denigrate the competition. Fail to innovate and you could be the butt of your competitors’ jokes.
Innovate or make yourself irrelevant
Remember when Netflix used to mail out DVDs? Remember when Blockbuster used to do that too? What’s the difference between the two businesses? One moved with the times and innovated to pre-empt a shift in media consumption… The other didn’t. Which do you want to be?