You cannot open a newspaper or attend a corporate event these days without the word ‘innovation’ cropping up. Although a well-established concept, innovation is now back in vogue, as synonymous with successful business as Facebook is to the world of social networking - but is this vague descriptor helpful in promoting forward-thinking or just more hackneyed jargon?
I recently asked our top executives why they thought we have been so successful during the economic downturn and the word ‘innovation’ was soon reverberating around the boardroom. However, when questioned on precisely what this meant the responses were varied and – dare I say – uncertain.
How can we call ourselves great innovators when the word itself has seemingly become overused and devalued beyond all recognition?
thebigword grew 50% in 2009 and 45% this year, despite the recession. In two years revenues have rocketed from £20m to nearly £40m and I refuse to attribute this success to an intangible buzzword.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘innovation’ as ‘a new method, idea or product’ yet businesses all around the world are constantly creating new products, dreaming up new ideas and streamlining processes without replicating the results of our organization; there is no secret formula – we know the basics better than anyone else in the industry.
There are quantifiable reasons why companies buy from each other - price, quality and delivery time. The reason we have grown organically at a faster rate than our competitors is that we take the time to understand our clients’ business goals and offer must-have solutions, despite the climate of cutbacks and slashed spending budgets. This is not to say that thebigword is not constantly striving to implement improved
methods and create new exciting products and services to meet clients' expectations. The difference is, we understand this is not the result of one Eureka moment but an ongoing process of identifying issues and implementing real solutions.
Many of our Fortune 500 clients approached us in the last 24 months announcing they would have to cut the number of files they would send for translation; we responded with a proposal - if they centralized their translation spend giving us all or the majority of their business we would offer significant price cuts across the board and work with them to ensure budgets were not exceeded. We even integrated warning signals into our software allowing procurement managers to see when our contracts were being overused and budgets were in danger of being exceeded.
These actions proved extremely popular and the bigword’s top-line growth soon became one the few success stories of the recession.
Due to the huge increase in volume growth that followed, we have achieved economies of scale and maintained margins through negotiating with our suppliers, enabling us to continue offering a steady stream of work.
This is what it really means to innovate - understanding and regularly reassessing the needs and business objectives of our clients in order to formulate the most effective strategy.
Innovation is the process by which our clients’ expectations are consistently met, not some magic bullet for overnight success. As the economy starts to pick up, business goals will change, companies will require more research and development and there will be fresh challenges in getting products to market on time to meet increased demand.
It is this ethos of adapting to change and facing challenges head-on that will undoubtedly ensure a successful future for thebigword.
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