Innovate

Innovation is important for every organisation, the degree to which varies. It is often an unclear, iterative process, a path of trial and error. This pioneering also involves typical behaviour; trying, experimenting, taking risks, entrepreneurship, thinking outside the comfort zone or outside the box. It is developing in the broadest sense; a different customer base, assortment, indoors (making) or outdoors (buying), doing it alone or together, delivering on routine and existing process or starting all over again (what does that customer really want; the customer journey). Not everyone can handle this equally well, or likes it. Change is often difficult anyway. With the right ingredients, even in this situation, every threat can be turned into an opportunity.

Shared (scientific) characteristics are concepts such as innovate, develop, experiment, test. Innnovation is not a linear process: it proceeds gradually, with structured trial and error, to incremental or planned improvement to radical re-design of the business canvas. Typically cohesive understandings are: best in class, leadership. Characteristic is the smaller-scale nature, always in combination with the element ' new' or 'different' . A smaller-scale nature is often seen in a pilot, experiment, test set-up, or, for example, friends & family try-out, where you pioneer in small batches or a low-volume environment. The innovation often concerns the surprising aspect, which is in the changed or new functionality, application or perspective. The term enthusiasm factor is appropriate here: an outsider does not expect it, but when present, it can have a huge impact in a positive sense. There is huge potential here, associating a particularly positive experience or perception.'

Whereas improving organisation and processes is often based on analysis and to some extent building on and developing the current situation, innovating often involves rigorous intervention in the core of the process and organisation. Improven facilitates innovation in two ways. Way one is through the projects we do to innovate organisations and processes, such as our flexible process automation approach and our organisational fitness approach. Way two is through the projects we do to make organisation work with processes differently, such as through process mining and data-driven analytics.

We characterise this as "Think fit": dare to pioneer, make mistakes and undertake. Go try!