This is the age of innovation as businesses compete on the technological prowess of ground breaking innovations that make business processes simple and customer experience unique. The true worth of the value of innovation to customers is never truly measured. Innovation simply becomes a tactical move at improving brand perception and market demand. Regardless innovation is key as businesses expand and is a reflection of an organization’s investment in creating new and more value but business owners must never be lost in the thought that all innovation adds value.
Overtime the business world has shifted focus from core drivers of product innovation, to brand differentiation, to service orientation or an entanglement encompassing all possible drivers. The aim has always been to find better means of achieving the core objective of maximising profit and the corporate charade of value for shareholders. The key issues have always been left aside or simply neglected in pursuance of the greater good or goal. The customer is key simply becomes rhetoric and a mantra for creating the service experience for customers but never do value addition from the customers point of view come into the picture. What does the customer truly want? What does he consider to be value addition? These are key questions only the customer can answer and no misguided technological breakthrough can just solve. Organisations need to seek out answers to these key questions as they wander on the path of innovation.
Innovation is the new strategy on the battle field of the business world. As organisations compete to out shine competition in their innovative product offerings, customers are often lost in the array of options available and in that confusion lose any sense of rational buying power. It is simply a question of brand loyalty or the current trend. Organisations simply have no idea what the customer considers value addition. They are simply lost in the competition shroud that one is left to wonder what is the aim of competition and why do businesses compete? The common objective is always to increase demand, market share or profit margin in other to improve the company’s position; the customer is just a means to an end. So what is the essence of a business? Why do businesses exist? To make profit or to create value.
Value Addition! The only reason a customer buys your product is not because of its form or because of its brand, they buy simply for the value its offers. And value is defined in the key selling points of your product which influences the customers buying decision. Investing in the product as an object of value and not as a commodity helps create a unique experience bringing the product to the customer and the customer to the product. It is therefore important that organisations focus on value addition in other to identify the key attributes of their offerings that customer’s value and that influences their buying decisions. This will help re-focus the organisation to channel resources in working on these attributes and building a value-centric offering that offers true value for money.
What value does innovation add to your business? How will it improve the customer experience from the view point of the customer? Customers buy product simply for the value it offers. How do you build on this? Organisations need to wake up to the new realities rather than benchmarking competition and tagging along employing strategies that soon become common trend. They must drive a value-centric culture in meeting the customers need driving every innovation in the light of value addition to the customer. Innovation does not necessarily translate to value addition unless it adds true value that customers can vouch for.
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