Monday 13 August 2012

Bright ideas for a bright future

In challenging economic times, businesses have to account for every pound they spend and only activities focused on generating immediate revenue are seen as important. Sadly, this tends to mean the vital business imperative of innovation is ignored. But it shouldn't


• Britain has a strong history of innovation and creative thought

• Innovative companies with strong management and products could have a better chance of long term profitability and competitive advantage

• When money is tight, companies tend to see innovation as an unnecessary expense - but they shouldn't.

Whether it's research into new products or a rethinking of how a company approaches its core way of doing business, innovation can be vital part of an enterprise's growth strategy. But in belt-tightening times innovation is seen as something which should be put on a back burner until times are better.

However, by innovating and doing things in a different way, forward-thinking companies can often pull themselves out of any economic downturn or temporary business slump and get themselves ahead of the game.

Competitive advantage

The UK has always been a global leader in innovation. The country kick started the industrial revolution more than three centuries ago, and is continuing to play a leading role in the digital age with innovations such as the ATM machine and the internet.

Innovation's importance to support sustainable economic growth was recently revealed by the minister for business and enterprise, Mark Prisk MP. Mark said that there is a clear consensus among economists that long-term growth depends on innovation. "But," he adds, "we need to harness that to grow differently."

Mark's comments echo that stepping back from day-to-day production and evaluating processes to find quicker, cheaper ways of doing things is well worth the effort. So is taking a lateral view of a product or service to improve or extend it.

This could give businesses across the UK a vital advantage compared to the emerging markets such as the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China). These economies are increasingly seen as global competitors, but it appears they are not investing enough in innovation, which gives those UK companies who do innovate an extra competitive benefit.

Homegrown talent

It's not just big companies with R&D departments and funding who can profit from innovation. Smaller companies should tap into the skills and expertise of their employees but all too often the staff's thoughts and ideas are ignored - or not proffered because they are not in 'ideas development'.

Companies can do much through innovation to make their businesses competitive. Professor Mike Brown of Birmingham City Business School, who created a survey to find Britain's Most Admired Companies, said: "There is no doubt that an innovative company, with good products and strong management, could have a better chance of long-term competitive advantage and profitability."

What we can offer

At Lloyds TSB Commercial we have introduced our own innovative products to appeal to today's commercial customers, such as our Arena e-platform  which gives businesses better control over their cash. With emerging markets vying for increasing market share, it's important for our customers to access products to help them to be competitive.

We also want to encourage innovative companies as part of our overall support for the growth ambitions of our customers. By backing companies who can tap into their own wealth of creative talent and by being as innovative as we can with our own offering we can help British companies to invest in innovation and build firmer foundations for the future.

Ideas from the top

Steve Jobs, the late owner of Apple, was constantly innovating. Some of his ideas that could be adapted for much smaller businesses were:

• Give customers what they don't know they want
• Roll things out slowly - it's a marathon, not a sprint
• Every last detail counts
• Strive to do more than seems possible.

Lloyds TSB Commercial is a trading name of Lloyds TSB Bank plc and Lloyds TSB Scotland plc and serves customers with an annual turnover of up to £15M.

This content has been provided by Lloyds TSB, part of the Lloyds Banking Group.

No comments:

Post a Comment