In today’s intensely competitive business landscape, where marketplaces are saturated and consumer choices appear to be endless, every company is asking itself, “How can we stand out among our competitors?” Without a doubt, positioning oneself as a distinctive organization in the corporate world is a successful tactic for standing out from the competition. But pursuing originality can be difficult sometimes because it demands creating something completely new.
The ability to make use of market-available solutions and improve them to levels that were previously unthinkable is where true originality rests, not just in ground-breaking discoveries. The capacity to improve and rethink what already exists is what distinguishes successful businesses from the competition. In summary, what propels them to the top of their business isn’t always about coming up with something completely original; rather, it’s about the skill of improvisation and constant development.
Here are some of the ways companies could do so:
Having Leaders Who Creates Learning Culture
A culture that emphasizes learning will be a great investment for the company. To develop the learning culture, remember that learning should be continuous, rewarded, collaborative, and using technologies for an easier learning approach. Leaders with a learning culture initially have the natural tendency to provide learning not only to themselves but also to the team and the organization. These people, who are curious-minded and have a thirst for new knowledge, tend to be open to learning.
Leaders who develop these cultures will put focus on these important keys to developing a learning culture: developing fast-learning leaders; having a safe and fun environment; encouraging open communication and receiving candid feedback; and prioritizing learning in the organization. These leaders will make sure that the leaders of the team members, such as the managers, focus on leading the change rather than resisting it. In a learning culture, leaders are autonomous in making decisions to lead the change; they should also be held accountable.
For example, Amazon expects leaders to do their job roles while at the same time knowing about specific customer-facing and financial targets. Adding a deeper review for each year will help determine whether the team needs additional investment or has to shift its focus.
Track Performance For Continuous Improvements
In order to ensure a smooth and easy process for tracking business performance, companies may provide visibility for some relevant part of the business performance to all employees, depending on the company. This will improve accountability for each individual in the organization. For example, DBS monitors roughly 100 initiatives in progress in real time with a dashboard. This helps to identify issues that need to be solved and improved by businesses. Businesses could track performance in order to improve areas such as customer service and product quality.
By tracking business performance, businesses could figure out which resources work best and which don’t. At Amazon, leaders will check the progress of talents to see if they need to be reallocated and provide extra resources to those who perform well.
Reuse Solutions and Put Innovations to Work
One of the most efficient ways to build innovation is to make use of solutions that are already there and focus on improving them rather than producing a new one. This approach is often referred to as sustaining innovation. With this approach, companies could apply it to different customer segments, markets or organizational units to figure out the best solutions.
For example, a company may develop an AI model to predict how much material is needed to make an unbreakable smartphone under many types of conditions. However, unbreakable smartphones require a bulky design that is not visually appealing. Hence, the company finds ways to create an unbreakable smartphone with a sleek design without the unappealing bulky design. For competitive pricing, they will put on premium pricing with the promise to enhance longevity and reduce the need for repairs.
