Characteristics of an Innovator

Innovators are the driving force behind entrepreneurship and businesses’ products and services development. Without the ability to create and implement new ideas, a business could fall behind its competitors. Consumers want new and improved products, and without an innovative team, it’s difficult for businesses to keep up with demand. According to McKinsey & Company, 84% of executives say that their future success is dependent on innovation. Companies rely on breaking the mold to increase their profits and enhance their customer satisfaction. 

NEXT Studios provides you with business innovation consulting so your business can succeed in creating the latest and greatest for your customers. Let’s talk about the innovative meaning in business and the 10 qualities of an innovator.

What Does Innovation Mean in Business?

Broadly speaking, the process of introducing a new product, a new market strategy, a new approach, or something else entirely to rejuvenate a business and produce new value and growth is known as business innovation. Companies’ executives generate (or listen to) innovative ideas, then implement them through strategic planning and decision-making. When a company innovates, it might either enhance or develop new goods, processes, or procedures. There are many different sorts of innovations that a company may explore in the business sector.

What Does It Mean to Be an Innovative Person?

Thinking about the characteristics of innovative and creative persons brings to mind many famous innovators like Thomas Edison, Leonardo Di Vinci, or famous female innovators like Marie Curie, the first female winner of the Nobel Prize in 1903. Despite the fact most well-known innovators come from different time periods, often they share an innovative personality that includes several traits. What are the qualities of an innovative person?

1. Innovators think about doing things differently or in ways that have never been done before. This includes continuously reflecting on their idea, which can lead to new discoveries.
2. Innovators are dynamic leaders in charge of highly productive and values-based organizations that create job opportunities for employees driven to make a difference.
3. Innovators value, create, and sustain vibrant networks of people, assets, and organizations. They see collaboration as an opportunity to discover strengths, weaknesses, potential, and risks rather than a chore.
4. Innovators consider different points of view and understand diversity drives positive change despite any challenges. By leading a team of people with different backgrounds an innovator can help create new and interesting solutions.
5. Innovators encourage people to be creative and learn the skills they need to progress in their careers without being too controlling of their team. Guiding others in the right creative direction builds better products and services.
6. Innovators take risks and don’t avoid complex solutions to ensure they create the best outcome. Doing things differently can result in unexpected developments.
7. Innovators understand innovation is a continuous process and should challenge others that are unsure of their ideas. Standing their ground allows them to push for stronger ideas.
8. Innovators are not afraid to think outside of the box and defy norms within their industry. Considering new and exciting things helps businesses take major steps forward.
9. Innovators understand that focusing too much on traditional business metrics might hinder a company’s potential to innovate.
10. Innovators contribute new, unconventional ideas of their own.

With these characteristics of innovators, it’s easy to see how businesses can accomplish their far-reaching goals to change the landscape in their field when they hire a strong innovative team. Innovators continually work on plans to do things differently while leading a team to consider different points of view. But is innovativeness a personality trait that people have? 

Is Innovative a Personality Trait?

While innovativeness is not a personality trait in and of itself, it is widely agreed upon that innovation is tied to several of the “Big Five” personality traits of openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness, extraversion, and neuroticism. A study in the Journal of Innovation & Knowledge “found positive influence of extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience on individual innovativeness and satisfaction with life perceptions.” In other words, the more innovative someone is, the more satisfied they are with their life. Another study of the impacts personality traits have on innovation found:

…individuals who rank higher in the Big Five personality trait of openness to experience are significantly more likely to have new product ideas. Being introverted and conscientious is associated with going on to realize the ideas in the form of an actual product prototype for personal use. Those who possess high levels of conscientiousness are also more likely to commercially diffuse their innovations, but less likely to diffuse peer-to-peer. 

Of course, these personalities are more than how you interact with others. They can lead to a strong involvement in the creation of products and services within a business. What kind of traits lead to new products and implementation determines how someone can help within the innovation process. Because the Big Five personality traits are indicators of different abilities, the chances are that no matter the personality traits someone has, they can perform some roles of a business innovator. 

What Are the Roles of Innovators?

As we’ve discussed, innovators are extroverted and creative, but you might be wondering, “Who is an innovative team?” An innovation team takes an idea, thinks of why it’s important and how to implement it, and communicates it directly to others in the business. 

1. Connecting information is having a network of great ideas that leads to actual transformation rather than one idea itself. As a result, innovators must be adept at bridging the gap between creators and their concepts. The resources available greatly impact how a team can collaborate and create the best, new ideas for a business.
2. Creating culture is beating the fear of failure and generating excitement about an idea. New ideas must be recognized, both for their achievements and the importance of the knowledge gained, and these experiences must be shared across the business.
3. Solving problems is finding solutions to issues in alignment with business goals. However, it’s more than finding solutions to problems, but having a deep understanding of the complications and the implications they have on the business. 
4. Making change is having meaningful conversations that lead to real change within a business despite the budget and team. Being able to network and use authority builds strong communication between the people tasked with innovation.

For businesses to adapt, their innovation team thinks of better and new ways to provide their services. 

What is the Importance of Innovation in Business?

The importance of innovation in entrepreneurship makes or breaks a business’s future in advancement and customer satisfaction. Because outdated solutions can’t solve consumer’s complex challenges, business leaders must constantly look for new ways to innovate. Company executives must be able to think creatively and incorporate innovation into their business models  to generate business development, stay relevant in changing times, and separate themselves from the competition. However, leaders must also know how to put that creativity into action because the willingness to innovate isn’t the essential key to success. But why is innovation important to business?

Here are three reasons why your business should be innovative:

1. Innovation grows your business.
2. Innovation ensures your business stays ahead of competitors.
3. Innovation helps your business use new technologies. 

These benefits greatly increase a business’s ability to break through the ceiling and provide its customers with new and exciting products while implementing creative strategies and approaches. It’s important to note that innovation doesn’t come without its risks. There could be issues with expenses, scheduling, and instability of never having a baseline. Innovation doesn’t just affect businesses, though, as it greatly impacts society as a whole. The impacts innovation has outside of a business’ bottom-line includes:

• Growth of the economy
• Better standards of living
• Decline of sickness, poverty, and hunger
• Accessibility to information and education
• Environmental sustainability

Businesses that focus on innovation help themselves, but they also help people in communities around the world. Knowing the positive impacts of innovation are the first step to building better, but it’s important to understand what types of options are available. NEXT Studios can help your business realize its vision to build better solutions and beat your competitors to the punch.

What Are the 5 Types of Innovation?

Innovation can be measured by how much impact it has on the market and the technology newness. By categorizing into types, businesses can plan which is best for their growth. 

Disruptive Innovation

Disruptive innovation is the introduction of a new business model, concept, product, or service that creates a new market segment. This strategy focuses on meeting client demands in unique ways that might not have happened before and therefore disrupts the current market and value drivers. Following the launch of a disruptive product, there is a fundamental shift in how customers interact with existing markets.

Sustaining Innovation

Sustaining innovation is the opposite of disruptive innovation, because within the current market, maintaining innovation relies on developing value networks and giving consumer satisfaction. Businesses should attempt to improve product performance in order to eliminate flaws. This step-change strategy makes the product more enticing to consumers who are willing to spend a higher price for improved performance. Maintaining innovation can also assist businesses in producing lower-cost products by finding areas where manufacturing costs may be reduced and more efficient production methods can be used.

Incremental Innovation

Incremental innovation is developing on a small, relatively gradual level, making adjustments that result in a large-scale change. It leads to bigger change, like disruptive, but slower. However, this is not similar to sustaining, as incremental innovation does make adjustments to their development over time. Incremental innovation is the most accessible type of innovation since it can often be performed without substantial investments, a huge team, or a reorientation of the company’s strategy. It is a low-risk method for upgrading existing products to satisfy current customer demands. 

Architectural Innovation

Architectural innovation refers to the process of transferring methodology, technologies, or concepts from one field to another. Data indicates that almost 40% of patents registered over the last 150 years are architectural. This trend will undoubtedly continue beyond the market’s changes, even when it slows down.

Radical Innovation

Radical innovation is a business approach that attempts to change an existing system, concept, or idea into something new. It aims to provide new customer benefits from previous iterations of businesses. By uprooting industry standards and dramatically modifying customer expectations in a good way, radical innovation adds something new to the world we live in. 

It’s clear innovation can help businesses create a better internal process for new products and marketing while benefiting profits and humanity as a whole. Each type of innovation has its purpose and businesses can take advantage of the current environment in their field to build something new and better. Innovation drives a better world. But what kind of people innovate and how exactly do they implement these different strategies?

Innovate Your Way to the Top

At NEXT Studios, we can help your business take the steps toward innovation! With NEXT Up and NEXT University, you will gain the skills necessary to unleash innovation in your organization. Learn what is stopping your team and engaging design. Visit our website today for more information about business innovation.