We can all agree that a business must be innovative and revolutionary to thrive.

As a company’s CEO, you must find and implement every strategy to create a culture of innovation and facilitate a healthy company atmosphere. But how to create a culture of innovation? What department can you start with?

Why Fostering Innovation Is a Worthy Goal

First, let’s dive into why innovation culture is important. As a CEO, you want to be at the forefront of your industry, and one of the best ways to do that is to bring innovative products or ideas to the table and focus on growth.

Common Problems a Lack of Innovation Creates 

Some common problems lack of innovation generates are:

  • Falling behind competition
  • Lack of pricing control
  • Falling margins
  • Market share troubles
  • Recruitment troubles
  • Losing key employees

It’s best if you create a winning innovation strategy for your company so you can ease into retirement.

What Can Leadership Do To Introduce Innovation Culture in a Company 

Leadership can create an environment that promotes introducing and spreading new ideas. This change can be a suggestion box, weekly staff meetings, or monthly conferences.

The most significant idea is to encourage input from every level of the company. That means welcoming ideas from the lowest minimum wage workers to the high executives.

How to Determine an Approach to Innovation Metrics 

When you’re brainstorming ideas on how to create a culture of innovation in your company you need to consider innovation metrics. The best way to approach innovation metrics is to look at their previous history and improve upon those where it’s needed. If the project duration is too long, develop a faster system led by maverick employees.

If the budget is a problem, try to find ways you can cut costs in other areas of your company. 

Examples of Cultural Innovation In 2023

What is an example of cultural innovation? Some great innovative culture examples of 2023 are:

  • Miro is introducing an online whiteboard tool for companies to spread ideas and communicate
  • Indeed introducing a fully automated job search process
  • Dropbox is introducing virtual office arrangements for employees
  • Slack’s audio call feature and message send scheduling

These examples of creating a culture of innovation in organizations will contribute to staying ahead of the curve for 2023.

5 Ways of Driving a Culture Of Innovation

How do you drive a culture of innovation? Well, there are five steps that you should take that will lead to you driving a culture of innovation.

  1. Assess

Take a good look at your company and determine what is blocking, hindering, or flat-out preventing innovation from taking place. It could be a particular set of rules, lousy management, or lack of communication.

  1. Quantify

Quantify the tangible assets your company has that can facilitate an environment of innovation. The measurements can be: 

  • Counting the number of hard-working employees and separating them from the lackluster ones
  • Keeping track of how many customers are coming through the doors every day
  • Counting revenue
  • Quantifying processes and optimizing for efficiency
  1. Build

Build a team that is geared towards innovating and improving the customer experience. You will need individuals with can-do attitudes who don’t mind going the extra mile for the company. Of course, you must take care of these people to the best of your ability so their morale does not dip.

  1. Compose

Once you have your team, you must create a structure allowing them to use their strengths to the best of their ability within the company. Composing the management of innovation will enable everyone to bring their best attributes to the table.

  1. Assign

Assign and address the resources your company has at its disposal. Remember that innovation takes time and money for it to be truly remarkable. Give your mavericks enough time to get their brain juices going, and you will reap all the benefits.

About the Author, James Webster

James Webster, founder and Executive Chairman of ROK Financial has almost two decades of experience within the financial services industry. His passion for helping small business owners and his innovative way of thinking, has allowed him to run multiple successful businesses including National Business Capital & Services. Under the National name, the team was able to help secure over $1 Billion in financing for small businesses nationwide.