The business industry is competitive, to say the least. If you are a business owner, you will have to compete with a whole bunch of other business, similar to yours, across not only your local neighbourhood, town, city or country but also the entire world. This prospect may seem intimidating at first, but unless you want to be number one in the entire world, then it is not something that you should heavily stress about. Depending on how competitive your business is and where you envision and aim to be in terms of leader boards will determine how much emphasis you place on competitive advantage and boosting the growth and subsequent success of your business. Nevertheless, whether your plans are world domination or something a little more practical and achievable, presumably you want your business to grow and be successful – whatever business success means to you.
For some, business success is determined by a level of happiness, while for others, it is determined by reaching a set goal, doing what you love, making a difference, and maintaining balance or state of mind. So, business success means different things to different people. However, within this article, business success is simply referring to your business’s ability to generate more income. So, improved business success = increased income, profit and revenue. If you want to increase your business profits, then this article is for you. This article aims to highlight the ways in which your business can increase the likelihood of achieving business success.
- Open innovation
Open innovation refers to the process and practice whereby a business opens its research and development department to incorporate different people’s voices, perspectives, and ideas outside the company. So, instead of the traditional model (i.e., closed innovation) where the company relied purely on internal resources and people employed within the company, open innovation is more diverse and inclusive. So, to increase the likelihood of business success , get the input of people from outside the company. Why is this important? Well, if your company, business or organisation starts opening up research and development to people outside its normal boundaries, innovation and thinking outside the box is encouraged. There are many important benefits of innovation in business, which will be listed below.
- Innovation will allow the business to solve problems more easily – In the business industry, there are often many challenges and problems to overcome. So, it is important for a company to be innovative to allow for a more easy and smooth problem-solving process. If more people and types of people are included in the problem-solving process, it is more likely that the problem will be solved as different people will approach and look at the problem in differing ways. If all the same or similar types of people looked at a problem, there is a greater chance that the solutions generated will be narrow, and as such, they may fail to solve it. However, if you incorporate diverse perspectives, it is more likely that the problem will be solved.
- Innovation can increase productivity- To work smarter and more efficiently, there needs to be an aspect of creativity, which innovation fosters. So, for example, if you have a set regime and way of doing a certain task that takes you X amount of time and resources, then being innovative can enable you to do the same task in a shorter amount of time. This is advantageous as it reduces the amount of time, money, and energy exerted on resources (e.g., labor and energy), saving the business a lot of money. There are and always will be ways in which your business can be improved, and innovation allows you to do this.
- Innovation can help market your business- Innovation can help you generate a bunch of creative ideas that will make your business stand out from the crowd and gain a competitive advantage. Importantly, competitive advantage is important and crucial to business success because it can allow your brand name to be more easily recognised by consumers. Furthermore, having a competitive advantage over your competitors can help you generate more profits as you can dictate your own pricing – if you know and your customers know that your product or service is better than the others that are out there, they are more likely to be willing to pay extra for quality.
- Organisation is key
If you want to increase the likelihood of your business being successful, you need to be organized. Organization within a business is key because it will enable growth, efficient use of resources, technological improvements, and creative thinking. Without effective organization, the business will be less likely to succeed as it lacks direction and proper management.
- Use resources efficiently
If your goal and aim are to generate as much profit as you can (i.e., increase business success, you need to be able to use resources efficiently, including labor, capital, knowledge, and energy. In terms of labor, you want to ensure that all your employees are proficient in their jobs- your employees must be good at what they do and be loyal to the company. To ensure this, you must, during the hiring process, only employ the best of the best. Further, you must value and treat all your employees with care and respect. Your employees are crucial to the success of the business, as without them, you would have nothing. So, to keep them happy, fulfilled and loyal, you must do all in your power to ensure that they feel well taken care of. If you are successful in this, then you will be using your resources efficiently. This is advantageous as happy workers are more productive workers- they should be able to do tasks as efficiently as possible. In terms of energy, make sure that your business uses environmentally friendly energy options (e.g., In terms of office lighting, try using LED lights) to save money while also protecting the environment, which all businesses should try to do.
