When is it Not the Right Time to Innovate?

It seems that business creativity and innovation are a success-driving mechanism for every growing and ambitious company. Often seen as a main core competence, innovation gives the impression to be the recipe for success in every industry all the time, but without innovation management, business creativity may be fruitless.

There are many situations when companies realize it is not the right time to innovate. Circumstances can deceive and create a sense of urgency for innovation, but the top managers decide it is not the right moment. What areas of business need a creative boost and where the hidden related innovation opportunities are must be very clear. A right combination of attractive and realistic business creativity and innovation is what really makes difference in the saturated and competitive western market. That can only occur by proper innovation management.

Below are listed six cases when business creativity and innovation are not the best possible approach for a company:

1. Good Results Without Innovating: When an old and well-known product has been for a while in the market and still brings considerable revenue, there is no risk in offering the same product. It maintains brand awareness and is likely to be successful in the foreseeable future.

2. Resistance to Change: When the target audience is reluctant to accept any radical modification of an existing product or a new one from your company. Clients in such cases can be really conservative and might even switch to a competitor`s brand if you offer them something futuristic.

3. Company in Crisis: When the company is currently not doing very well, a better option would be to stick to their core product and try to improve it, making it more marketable. An organization needs financial stability to embark on an innovation journey, which always involves uncertainties and pitfalls.

4. No Ideas: Even though the image of every company is partly determined by how often they release a new product or an enhanced version of an existing one, it is crucial to know where exactly a company places their innovative emphasis on. A new idea has to be targeted and expected to achieve a particular positive impact.

5. Copying Other Companies’ Ideas: Sometimes, due to a lacking creative drive within a company, it starts mimicking a newly released and successful product of another company. The result is usually a failure as the original product, even if really innovative because the previously released has already established a special niche for itself.

Regardless of the current economic environment, companies are compelled to innovate in order to prosper. Although companies like Old Spice and Colman’s rely on the classic appearance of their products and are still successful, in most cases business creativity and innovation create a competitive edge.

image credit: twitter.com

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Simon Hill is CEO and co-founder of Wazoku, an idea software company, an Associate Director with the Venture Capital Firm FindInvestGrow and an active member of the London technology and entrepreneurial community.