What is business innovation?

Companies must be willing to adapt and evolve to thrive in a competitive environment; That's what business innovation is all about. In this second part of the article we will learn more about the associated concepts so that we can fully understand what business innovation is.

Technologies that drive business innovation

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

The strength and promise of artificial intelligence (AI) cannot be underestimated. AI is expected to change almost every sector and aspect of life by 2025, with predictions that AI will handle 95 percent of all customer contacts. It's one of the most intriguing technologies available when it comes to business innovation, and companies like PwC project that it can add $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030.

Randy Dean, business director at Launchpad AI in San Francisco, hopes that "everything that was invented in the last 150 years will be reinvented with AI over the next 15 years."

In many industries, it is already having a transformative influence. AI can help salespeople improve their presentations by detecting and reacting to customers' emotions. Daiwa Securities, a Japanese investment firm, found that after implementing artificial intelligence technology, customer purchasing rates increased 2.7 times.

Artificial intelligence systems have been developed in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries that can classify and accumulate medical knowledge and data on a scale that humans could only dream of. Dosing error reduction and virtual nursing assistants are on one end of the spectrum, while genome sequencing is on the other. The time and cost of sequencing someone's genome, which is the unique arrangement of their DNA, has been reduced to 24 hours and $1,000, respectively, thanks to AI.

ULTRA FAST INTERNET

Time is money, as has long been recognized, and the most important instrument for business innovation can help companies move faster.

Gigaclear, a rural operator in the United Kingdom, offers a fixed line service with speeds of 900 megabits per second (for comparison, "superfast internet" starts at 24 Mbps), but speeds of 2,500 Mbps had previously been achieved in South Korea. Mobile networks will also be modified with the introduction of 5G, which will allow speeds of 1000 Mbps on a smartphone.

To put this in the context of business innovation, a medium-sized corporate server can now be restored in just over an hour, compared to 28 days previously.

Businesses will be able to communicate data between remote locations in a matter of seconds. ProLabs, for example, is a networking hardware manufacturer with factories in Gloucestershire and California. “Having ultra-fast fiber connectivity has allowed our organization to unify production by quickly sharing data, such as test reports and production templates, that are critical to the production facility,” says Anthony Clarkson, chief technology officer at ProLabs. As a result of this, significant operational savings are possible. With a standard copper Internet connection, none of this would have been possible."

Who is responsible for business innovation?

Nearly a quarter of CEOs around the world said innovation was at the top of their list of priorities for the coming year in a 2017 PwC survey, but are CEOs the ones who can drive company innovation?

Business executives must create an environment in which innovation is a natural element of the organization's culture. “It is critical that our organizations not only attract but also develop employees with the right technology skills,” says PwC President and Senior Partner Kevin Ellis. “Organizations must focus on teaching their staff to be agile, creative and critical thinkers, in addition to attracting people with digital skills.”

THE IT DEPARTMENT

Although top-down corporate innovation leadership is critical, there are essential roles and departments that require collaboration and specialized knowledge to achieve change. This is why the IT department is the main driver of innovation within organizations. Those who can master technology, which is the heart of the business, have the ability to drive transformation. Not to mention, IT has close working relationships with all areas of a company, allowing them to drive innovation and increase collaboration across the board.

Chief Data Officer (CDO) 

Although still a relatively new position, most large organizations are expected to appoint a chief data officer (CDO) by 2019.

Intelligent use of data is essential for corporate innovation, and CDOs are in charge of identifying the possibilities and dangers. “CDOs need to communicate the benefits,” says Richard Merrygold, director of group data protection at Homeserve. The CDO's job is to find efficiencies, simplify needs, provide cost-benefits, and encourage companies to be open and transparent."

Companies are becoming empowered as a result of their CDOs, and the data they work with is driving their business innovation in an environment where information is centralized, analytics are powerful, and data use is agile.

TRANSFORMATION DIRECTOR

There are 1,200 chief transformation officers (CTOs) in Argentina, according to LinkedIn, and hundreds of business transformation directors, digital transformation directors, and the like.

However, it is a relatively new job title, having emerged in the last decade as companies recognize the need to be more receptive to change.

Some CTOs consider themselves visionaries, while others are simply project managers for a reorganization of an organization's procedures, often through technological change.

In any case, a great CTO could be the ideal person to lead the charge of business innovation. Jason Dormieux, global chief transformation officer at media firm Wavemaker, says: "We are all going through severe change, and the speed of change is getting faster." "Regardless of the title, every company needs employees obsessed with the products and services they can produce to enable their consumers to take advantage of the opportunities presented by this disruption."

Expert advice: how to start business innovation

While each company's experience with business innovation will be unique, there are some common pitfalls that can and should be avoided. Three experts give their advice on what to look for.

DO NOT FIX ON DISTANT OBJECTIVES

“A good strategy avoids all-encompassing projects that are not fully understood and planned. Taking into account "quick wins", on the other hand, would help to have a clear influence on the operations, as well as obvious rewards. This can be achieved by simultaneously operating numerous small projects to ensure that the best ideas advance quickly and the bad ones fail early.”

Matt Jones, chief analytics strategist at data science consultancy "Tessella" 

BE CAREFUL WITH RIVALRY BETWEEN CHANGE LEADERS  

“The herd instinct, fueled by the kind of digital disruption that is ubiquitous in today's global economy, can lead organizations to confuse transformation efforts with 'me too'. The bewildering cast of people who present themselves as digital leaders (chief information, marketing, digital, data, customer, technology and digital transformation, to name a few) is emblematic of this shortcoming. According to Digital McKinsey research, a third of company executives are unaware of who is in charge. ""

Chris Porter, director of digital transformation at the cybersecurity and transformation consultancy "6point6"

I DO NOT DISCOUNT THE DESIGN  

“Designers are founding an increasing number of fast-growing companies. One of the most popular courses in Stanford University's MBA program is design, which is increasingly recognized as a valuable strategic tool. However, many companies are still unaware of this, failing to create a leadership role in design, and failing to invest in expanding design talent across the board. When done well, this forces a company to completely rethink how it brings new products and services to market, as well as how it operates and it organizes itself.”

James Haycock, founder and CEO of the innovation and change consultancy "Adaptive Lab"