When the concept first emerged, Amazon was hailed as an innovator. Over time, customers’ needs started spiraling and even Amazon was unable to meet all demands thus creating the concept of Prime. But even this could not satisfy an ever more impatient clientele, so same day services were promised. For every giant such as Amazon struggling to meet demands, there are hundreds of smaller companies that will leave customers dissatisfied. In order to drive business innovation, customer views need to be held in esteem. With greater digitization, customers want their demands to be fulfilled instantly. A company no longer has the luxury of sitting on its laurels. Stagnant thinking will result in the company missing out on latest innovations.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrymyler/2016/05/05/your-customers-drive-business-innovation-listen-to-their-needs/#1836c7033a8a

Jeff Bezos, the Founder- Chairman of online retail giant Amazon has provided us certain tips on experimenting with and implementing business innovation. The first step is to foresee business disruptions and be ready for it by challenging one’s own successful business model. This allows the market leader to stay ahead of competition. Large companies often master economies of scale to such an extent that they still have capacity to spare which may be critical to others. This spare capacity must be put in use somehow. Ultimately the customers decide companies’ success or failure and anticipating their needs becomes critical. An innovation matched with existing customer needs allows the organization to steal a march over competitors.

Source: http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2016/04/19/three-lessons-in-innovation-from-jeff-bezos/

Agility is not as new a model of business innovation as is commonly understood. By some estimates it started way back in the early part of the seventeenth century by Francis Bacon. Yet a more realistic timeline will take into account Bell Labs’ PDSA cycles. It was taken to its next level during the 1950s in Japan where Edwards Deming helped frame the famous Toyota Production System based around lean manufacturing. The IT industry got on to the act pretty late by the early 2000s and that is where the term agile was coined for the movement. Eventually it spread far and wide and today the Agile Alliance has around thirty thousand members and subscribers. Thus wrongly this term has been associated exclusively with the IT industry whereas that is just one of the several industries affected by this approach.

Source: https://hbr.org/2016/04/the-secret-history-of-agile-innovation?referral=00563&cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-daily_alert-_-alert_date&utm_source=newsletter_daily_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=alert_date

For business leaders, it is not only important to develop business innovations, but also to foster a healthy culture where ideas and creativity are celebrated rather than shot down. More often than not, ideas which newer recruits sprout may be enthusiastic but impractical to implement. But it is important to initiate a dialogue on such ideas in order to not curb the enthusiasm. Also newer recruits may feel bogged down by the culture where their senior colleagues may be unenthusiastic to innovate primarily due to repeated previous idea rejections. For this frequent recycling of ideas from the suggestion box must be done.

Source:http://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2015/08/07/how-to-make-your-companys-culture-of-innovation-more-than-just-a-nice-idea/

Timing is of utmost importance for launching of new ideas. A business innovation may be truly spectacular but it won’t bring value unless it is pushed at the right time. Global giant Starbucks nearly got it wrong. It launched its first cafe in Seattle at a time when the consumption of the beverage was going down and the city had lost tens of thousands of jobs due to its largest employer Boeing downsizing its staff. After this initial hiccup, the founder Howards Schultz travelled to Europe where in Italy he discovered the concept of the coffee bar. He introduced this idea to the Starbucks store which soon became a chain and the rest is history. Starbucks is now present in over twenty three thousand stores across sixty eight countries.

Source: http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2016/02/18/no-instant-coffee-here-what-starbucks-teaches-us-about-timing-and-innovation-part-1-of-2/

Business research conducted has thrown light on employee idea programmes. Idea generation is an art that gets better with practice. Success begets success and those only ideas that have survived the test of time provoke employee learning, not those that have failed. The front facing employees can provide actual information on what happens and their ideas are usually more practicable than others’. Certain organizations have in built brick walls which fail the stem the flow of ideas. Central review groups’ presence is often the main reason for the shortage of ideas. Sometimes such programmes fail due to lack of timely feedback. This is particularly common at large organizations with complicated communication lines. Rejection of ideas do not always discourage the people concerned from coming up with others. They realize that such programmes do not succeed right from the word go, but need patience. Ideation does not necessarily improve with increased monetary rewards. Good ideas are often a reflection of positive work goals set by the organization.

Sourcehttp://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2016/02/18/11-unexpected-facts-about-managing-employee-idea-programs/?Itemid=92

Exploring the timeline of American history, it is clear that the USA was a laggard in terms of innovation until quite recently. At the turn of the previous century it was not uncommon for promising young students to travel to Europe for higher studies. But with the advent of the Second World War and the exodus of the Jewish people from Europe, America gained ground and became a scientific leader. Also potential rivals such as the UK, Germany and France got embroiled in problems of their own which prevented them from retaining their earlier leadership position, thus helping America prosper. Business innovation typically requires the combination of three stakeholders- academia, public sector and private industry. Major scientific breakthrough and their scaling has required these aspects. Thus beyond just helping startups get seed funds or tax breaks or increased investment, a more comprehensive plan is needed. This will reduce the time lag between ideation, implementation and scaling. 

Source:  http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregsatell/2015/12/18/we-need-to-accelerate-innovation-heres-how/