What is organization culture?
Every human being has different personality traits which help them stand apart from the crowd. Similarly, organizations have their own values, policies, rules and guidelines which help them to create an image of their own. Organization Culture defines the way to behave within the organization which consists of shared beliefs and values established by leaders which is further reinforced amongst the team. A healthy culture encourages teams to stay motivated and loyal to management.
What is business innovation?
Conceptualizing the Business processes, products or services in order to enhance the customer experience and / or value for business leads to innovation. It is directly related to individual products, internal processes or workflows, or business models. Ultimately the goal is to reinvigorate a business, creating new values and boosting growth and/or productivity.
When there is a need, people will think out of the box in order to fulfill the demand & this is where innovation takes place. Successful business innovation means finding new revenue opportunities, optimizing existing channels and, ultimately, generating higher profits. It can be a competitive advantage for the company. There is more than one way to innovate and organizations of different ages and sizes will have different reasons for embarking on a process of business innovation. Innovations can happen in 3 areas i.e. Product, Process & Business. There are various innovative ways of driving the Business
Correlation of Culture & Innovation
Developing organizational culture that stimulates and promotes creativity and innovation is an imperative for organizations seeking a competitive advantage. Innovation in any organization is only possible when people in that organization are inclined towards their work which will help them in contributing to the organization whole heartedly. Given the importance of innovation in firm success, a number of studies have attempted to identify its correlation with Organization culture:
Importance of culture in Innovation:
It is thought that companies would spend time thinking about how they can innovate but the fact is, most don’t. Most get too caught up in running their business on a day-to-day basis to think about the future or they spend time and effort looking to improve existing products or processes instead of truly innovating. There’s a danger in that approach. Not innovating threatens the survivability of any company. So, companies need to look to the future, they need to anticipate trends and see how they can take advantage of them or work around them. In fact, if the company wants to grow more predictably, it needs to focus much more on innovation – and do it in a structured way
A company that wants to grow must innovate
Give your teams a sense of Freedom: Employers that impose rules tend to demotivate the creativity of their teams which limits the freedom and creates demotivation amongst the teams. The essence of an innovative organization stays in their team’s ability to contribute to the creative process of the organization. As a company, you need to give your teams the freedom to practice their novel ideas. It calls for a sense of freedom that can enable your teams to remove themselves from the clutches of hierarchical imposition so that they can focus on new ideas to execute their day-to-day tasks.
Invest your time in the creative nourishment of your teams: The essence of innovation is achieved when you are able to demonstrate to your teams a path that leads to creativity. Don’t just preach to your team the importance of creativity rather demonstrates the specific ways to find creativity so that they can implement innovation in their work. For example, you can dedicate a day to motivate your teams to experiment with new ideas. Similarly, you can conduct weekly workshops to encourage your teams to brainstorm ideas for an upcoming project.
Develop an accommodating leadership style: As a leader of a company, it is your responsibility to foster and nurture the attitudes of your individual team members & it is necessary for him to show innovation through his/her own attitude and behavior. Expecting your team to give you more in less time is one such way you kill the desire of your teams to do something extraordinary. Innovation may take time & one needs to patient enough and support their team. There are chances of failure & various trials may happen. But when you deprive your teams of time, you suffocate the urge of your teams to learn different perspectives to their work.
Provide your team with the resources to implement innovative ideas: Make it possible for your teams to convert their ideas into reality. Without the right resources, even the best ideas tend to fall flat. Invest in their R & D department to allow their creative team to execute the innovative concepts for future product development.
Don’t look down on your subordinates: Intellectual arrogance is the biggest enemy of implementing innovation into any organization. When you disregard the ideas of your teams just because they are your subordinates, you hinder the process of creative thinking in them. Such an organization cannot possibly thrive on the creative ideas of their teams. One should encourage their teams to share their opinion and be a part of every creative process in the business.
Acknowledge the contribution of your teams: Teams feel valued when you recognize their efforts. Similarly, if you want to promote a culture of innovation in your organization, you need to implement an incentive-based policy that rewards teams on the degree of innovation in their work. This will boost teams morale which will lead to improving thoughts and will ultimately lead to Creative thinking.
Allow your teams to fail: Failure is a part the learning process. If you punish your teams for making mistakes, you inject in them a fear of failure which kills creativity among teams. When you give your teams the scope to make a mistake, you are allowing them to think independently without any constraints of fear. So, they are able to think beyond the boundaries of their job.
Don’t focus only on R&D: As an organization, you should not confine innovation to just the R&D department. To implement an effective innovative culture, it is important that each and every department of your company is included. When you implement a holistic innovation strategy, you are able to foster a change in the mindset of every single member of the team.
Author
Heli Shah, an MBA graduate is associated with J.Hirani as a Business Analyst. She is fresh soul with humble and optimistic approach who is working in different industries like Manufacturing, Retail, and Hospitality etc. Flexibility and greediness in learning new things helps her to conquer the challenges coming on her way.
Co-Author:
Saloni Surani, a Strategic Business Consultant, who pursued her Masters in Management & has an eclectic experience in J.Hirani with various industries like Manufacturing, Real Estates, Hospitality, FinTech, etc. A keen observer who silently achieves her goals and happily surprises everyone with the results. Adapting & learning new things has been her forte which helps her in getting new ideas always, anyone who wants to refresh their Values- just look at her
About J.hirani: J.hirani is a Strategic Transformation team which works as a growth partner for different organisations in various industries by providing services like Agile transformation, Scenario mapping, Strategic alignment, Balance scorecard, Digital transformation, Incubating new ventures, Operation excellence and Aligning human capital.
©J.hirani, Organizational culture and its influence on innovation management, October, 2020. All rights reserved
