12 January 2018

AND WHY NOT ... ENCOURAGE INNOVATION AMONG YOUR EMPLOYEES?

New collaborative approaches allow teams and projects to be organised to facilitate creation. But how can we create the conditions for innovation within the corporate culture itself? 

As very young companies have demonstrated their ability in a few years to disrupt traditional business models worldwide, the question of innovation is coming back to all organisations, including those that enjoyed a certain comfort level through their past success. Originality and innovation are obviously not reserved for the young entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley start-ups, but the weight of habit and the fear of creative dissent too often limit the development of internal initiatives. While it may seem appropriate to entrust external professionals with the task of bringing in a critical eye and new practices - for example, by multiplying the bridges between large companies, SMEs, creators and the academic world - it would be a mistake to neglect the possible contributions of one's own employees. From a managerial point of view, of course, because involving employees in a common reflection facilitates the general understanding of the strategy, but also because real new and robust ideas can thus be born and developed. Generating new products, imagining breakthrough business models or simply succeeding in a transformation project; the range of possibilities is limitless. Successful digital transformation is no longer simply a matter of keeping up with the technological tools of the day, it is about having the capacity to reinvent one's activities and practices on a regular basis, in order to cope with a competitive environment and changing customer consumption habits
quickly. It is not a question of exchanging one paradigm for another, but of building the conditions for constructive criticism in order to improve what exists.
without systematically resorting to costly and time-consuming reorganisation projects.