We must innovate, it’s that simple, but is innovation itself that simple? In my experience the answer is a resounding yes.

Granted, before I started a 3 year cross border project (2005 – 2008) called Innovate, I thought innovation was like quality, you know it when you see it but it can be hard to predefine. In addition, like quality, it means different things to different companies/customers. Over time I found both these statements to be true but I also realised you need to break down the word innovation to something more tangible. A lot of companies who took part in the Innovate project knew innovation was hugely important for their business but were not sure exactly what it was. So, to make it more understandable I added the tag line “Improve through change” to the projects logo and it was the mantra I lived by throughout the project.

To this day I still believe it is that simple, improve through change. In fact I would go as far as to say forget about “if it’s not broke don’t fix it”. ‘It’ might not be broken but it can be improved.

Consider the biggest innovators in the world today, they are all about change. Take Apple for example, they changed the way we consume music with their iPod. Their iPhone with thousands of free apps completely changed the mobile phone as what it can be used for.

Of course the change must be analysed, discussed and managed but not overly so. Trial and error (error teaches) goes hand-in-hand with innovation.

Here are some questions you should ask which may help you identify areas for change?

1. Where do you believe money is being wasted in your business?
2. Where do you believe there are inefficiencies in your business?
3. What areas in your business can be put in to a category called “we’ve always done it that way”?
4. Is there a better way to do ‘this’, is there a technology that would help?