The pandemic of COVID-19 transformed the world and accelerated business, proving that companies are surrounded by volatile and uncertain environments.
Given this situation, innovation plays a fundamental role in any organization. According to the KPGM CEO Outlook 2021 study, 82% of South American CEOs see disruptive processes in technology as a great opportunity.
“For companies, it has become essential to be able to adapt to the situation, since the future brings a lot of uncertainty, which, of course, entrepreneurs are used to managing, therefore, companies more than ever need to incorporate the ‘entrepreneurial gene ‘ in their organizations if they want to innovate”, says Julio Vela, executive director of CIDE-PUCP and of the Entrepreneurship and New Business master’s program at CENTRUM.
“Innovating implies bringing products to the market, implementing processes or changing their business models, all of them novel and that generate value. If successful, they will generate competitive advantages and profitability that guarantee the future of the company”, Add.
For this reason, incorporating the “entrepreneurial gene” is a strategy that is gaining more and more value, and is already being applied in many world-class companies. Some recommendations to help in this process and enter the path of innovation are the following:
- Have professionals with a ‘curious mindset’: The professional with the capacity to innovate will always question everything. Breaking the status quo and leaving the comfort zone are actions that are part of their day to day life. His curious mindset will help you match company capabilities with market needs that will later translate into new product or service ideas.
- Generate products and services that surprise: It is important not only to deliver products similar to the competition, with a deep understanding of the pain our customers face, we must propose products that surprise them and put us above the competition. In addition, this will make it possible to promote new strategies and carry out different processes so that the new products are a success in the market. In this way, the company becomes more competitive.
- Provide greater value to the customer: Customers have become more demanding. Therefore, it is not enough to offer a product, but it must be differentiated from the competition. This can be achieved with a deep knowledge of the new needs of the clients, for this it is necessary to abandon the existing paradigms and focus on iterative models that incorporate the client in the product creation process and thus have better chances of success.
- Be tolerant to failure: Innovation is often linked to risk. Experimentation and failure must be seen as learning, without losing sight of the fact that these “mistakes” will be necessary to find the expected solution.
- Keep the team motivated: It is important that staff are kept intrinsically motivated; since, this will generate greater proactivity and orientation to action. In this way, they will feel comfortable developing new ideas and initiatives, which in turn will increase their commitment.
“So that professionals can learn how to apply these and other recommendations, we are close to the beginning of the Master’s Degree in Entrepreneurship and New Businesses. In which, our students will be able to learn the new paradigms, which, through entrepreneurship, improve their professional value in the companies where they work, by becoming key players in innovation. And of course, if they decide, they will be able to solve problems that generate their own ventures that positively impact their lives.”, concludes Julio Vela.
