The Importance of Innovation for Future Success

Despite 84% of executives agreeing innovation is important… Only 6% are satisfied with their innovation, according to a McKinsey survey. Companies that prioritize innovation outpace their competitors and can reshape entire industries. innovation → productivity → competitive advantage → growth Let's dive into two such companies: Zara and Moderna. 1/ Zara Back in the '80s, the fashion industry was slow. It took an average of six months to get a design from drawing board to store. Zara decided to break all the rules and innovate every aspect of the business. They adopted Just-in-Time production, pioneered the Agile Supply Chain, favored in-house production over low-cost outsourcing, and adopted data-driven decision making. And it paid off massively: Zara gets designs to stores in 2 weeks, compared to 2-3 months for competitors. They can make 24 collections a year, compared to 4-10 for the industry. And as a result, customers visit Zara stores 17 times per year compared to 3 times for competitors. Zara earned $23B in revenue in 2022 (over 2x from a decade ago) and continues to grow even after large growth in the 80s and 90s. 2/ Moderna Moderna capitalized on mRNA technology to respond fast to COVID-19. And it wasn’t a fluke. Moderna's culture encourages people to think creatively and share their craziest ideas. This comes top-down, all the way from the CEO. They invest heavily in R&D, and even have their own fellowship program that encourages graduates to think outside of rigorous scientific constraints. Moderna's approach paid off when their vaccine was authorized for emergency use in less than a year. This speed was unprecedented and shows the power of innovative culture and processes. Companies like Zara and Moderna are living proof that when innovation is ingrained in your DNA… It’s not about doing different things, it's about doing things differently. Would love to hear more stories of companies that excel at innovation. How do you cultivate it? #innovation #growth #productivity

Innovation vs. Imitation: How to Stay Ahead in the IT Game In the fast-paced world of technology, staying ahead is not just an option—it’s essential. The global IT industry, projected to grow to $5.5 trillion by 2025, increasingly relies on AI, blockchain, and cloud computing. Yet, many companies fall into the trap of imitation rather than innovation. While imitation may yield short-term results, innovation ensures long-term success. At Devsinc, we prioritize innovation, and here’s why: 1. Innovation Creates Differentiation To stand out in a crowded market, companies must offer solutions others haven’t conceived. At Devsinc, we focus on market gaps and develop AI-driven solutions tailored to digital retail and fintech, addressing unmet needs. Companies like Apple and Tesla thrive not just on products but on unique experiences and ecosystems. Similarly, we cultivate a culture where innovation drives our work. 2. Imitation Limits Growth Imitation is reactive, bound by existing standards, and stifles creativity. In contrast, companies investing in R&D are 70% more likely to outperform competitors. At Devsinc, our R&D teams explore technologies like generative AI and blockchain, enabling us to deliver over 3,000 projects across 23 industries worldwide. 3. Innovation is Empathy in Action Understanding and anticipating client needs drive true innovation. Empathy inspires solutions like UnumPay, our fintech platform designed for emerging markets like Pakistan, where digital payments are growing at 18% annually. UnumPay now serves over 1,200 businesses, empowering them in the global economy. 4. Innovation Requires Risk—but It Pays Off Risk is the foundation of breakthroughs. At Devsinc, transitioning major clients to cloud-native solutions and investing in employee upskilling for AI have consistently delivered results. Data shows innovative companies achieve 3.5x higher revenue growth than competitors. Fostering Innovation at Devsinc ➡️ Creativity Culture: We empower employees to think outside the box. ➡️People Investment: Continuous learning fuels innovation. ➡️Proactive Vision: Anticipating trends, not reacting to them, keeps us ahead. Empathy Over Competition Innovation isn’t about defeating competitors—it’s about creating value for clients, partners, and communities. By focusing on empathy and real needs, staying ahead becomes a natural outcome. So, ask yourself: Are you following in others’ footsteps, or are you daring to chart your own path? The choice shapes your future. Let’s innovate together: https://lnkd.in/dHvAqn92

Innovation isn't just about the magnitude of improvement—it's about the velocity of change. When organizations proudly announce a 40% improvement in operations, my first question is always: 'Over what timeframe?' A 40% improvement over five years might sound impressive, but what if your competitors are achieving 30% improvements every 18 months? Look at the evolution in healthcare: The leap from traditional MRIs to AI-enhanced diagnostics wasn't just about better accuracy—it was about how quickly hospitals implemented and refined these systems. In manufacturing, we're seeing the same pattern: It's not just about implementing robotic assembly lines, but how rapidly factories are iterating their automation solutions and digital twin technologies. Remote patient monitoring in healthcare isn't just about having more connected devices; it's about how rapidly providers are improving their telehealth platforms. Similarly, smart factories aren't just about sensors—it's about how quickly manufacturers are turning IoT data into actionable insights and continuous process improvements. The real competitive edge comes from establishing a consistent cadence of innovation. Think of it like compound interest for your operations. A company that improves its processes by 25% every year will dramatically outpace one that makes a single 50% leap and then stagnates. In a world where precision medicine and predictive maintenance, AI diagnostics and automated quality control are evolving at breakneck speed, the question shouldn't be 'How much have we improved?' but rather 'What's our rate of improvement?' The organizations that win aren't just measuring the distance traveled—they're measuring their velocity. What's your organization's innovation velocity? Are you measuring how quickly you're adopting and iterating on new technologies? The future belongs to those who can maintain the highest rate of meaningful innovation, not those who make occasional big leaps.

💡 Creativity isn’t a luxury—it’s a necessity. The most successful companies in the world didn’t get there by following the status quo. They embraced innovation, challenged norms, and built cultures that encouraged creative problem-solving. But here’s the truth: innovation doesn’t happen by accident—it happens by design. As managers, we have a choice: Do we create environments where creativity thrives, or do we unknowingly shut it down? 🚀 In this week’s article, I explore: ✔️ Why company culture is the biggest factor in fostering creativity. ✔️ How managers can unlock innovation by creating psychological safety & trust. ✔️ The real reason some organizations struggle with innovation (hint: it’s not a lack of ideas). ✔️ How companies like Pixar, Amazon, and IDEO structure creativity into their business models. ✔️ A brainstorming challenge to help your team think differently this week. 📌 Read the full article 📖 Want to sharpen your approach to innovation? Check out these great reads: 📘 The Management of Innovation: Recasting the Role of Creativity – Tudor Rickards 📘 Dynamic Managerial Capabilities: The Relationship Between Managers, Creativity, and Innovation – Helfat & Martin 📘 Managing Knowledge, Creativity, and Innovation – Cohendet, Parmentier, & Simon 💡 Personal Insight: One of the biggest myths about innovation is that it’s all about big, disruptive ideas. But in reality, some of the most impactful innovations come from small shifts in mindset, process improvements, or simply asking the right questions. ✅ What’s one thing in your workplace that could be done more efficiently? ✅ How can you encourage your team to challenge outdated processes this week? ✅ Where can you give employees more ownership over creative decision-making? Innovation isn’t about waiting for the next big idea—it’s about building a culture where new ideas can emerge, evolve, and drive real impact. 💬 How do you foster creativity in your team? Let’s exchange insights in the comments! #Creativity #Innovation #Leadership #Management #ProblemSolving #WorkplaceCulture

Kevin Nolan, CEO of GE Appliances, a Haier company, was refreshingly candid about why so many large organizations move at a crawl. Three things he said cut right to the heart of the problem: 1️⃣ You're waiting too long to test your ideas. The traditional approach to innovation—perfecting a product before showing it to anyone—is a recipe for expensive failure. In Kevin's words, you "spend all your money before you realize that this is a good thing or it's a bad thing." The alternative? Let your customers kill your bad ideas when they're cheap. 2️⃣ Innovation is important, but even more so is a capacity to adapt.  In a world where "what you planned yesterday might not be right tomorrow," the only durable advantage is your organization's capacity to change. Kevin argues that decentralizing into microenterprises creates the "speed and nimbleness" organizations desperately need. 3️⃣ The bottleneck often lies at, ahem, at the head of the bottle. Kevin's diagnosis: Too many CEOs are "built for power. They're really not built to serve markets." When leaders are products of a system that rewards hoarding authority, the entire organization becomes a slow, inwardly-focused "behemoth." The only way out is to build self-managed units that can "control their own destiny and move." These are just a few of the nuggets of practical insight Kevin shared. The full conversation with Kate W. Isaacs and me for MIT Sloan Management Review has plenty more. Please check it out! https://lnkd.in/dCDupU2Y

Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has just published a new survey of 1000 execs on the state of innovation readiness in large organizations. It’s useful and definitely worth a read: https://lnkd.in/eraEGTAx The upshot is that innovation is hugely important to strategies, and yet innovation readiness is actually declining. Why? The report posits that short-term priorities have seized attention as markets have grown less predictable. Firms are also dealing with challenges such as increasing cost of capital and scarce talent. The BCG survey ties well with findings of a recent survey we did: companies lack a clear innovation strategy, and culture keeps getting in the way: https://lnkd.in/ejxsJEqM BCG finds that 83% of execs say that innovation is a key priority, yet only 3% have organizations in good shape to innovate. These findings are strikingly similar to a survey by McKinsey & Company in 2010, which found that 84% of senior executives say that innovation is critical to their efforts, yet only 6% are satisfied with the results: https://lnkd.in/eUTFKr4a It's sadly ironic that this huge disconnect continues, and that it exists for terrible reasons. The way to deal with uncertainty isn’t to just keep reacting for the short-term, but to build innovation muscle that creates new options for creating growth and reducing risk. Frankly, that sounds pretty obvious, but it’s not how companies are acting. Start with innovation strategy – what types of innovation are important, in which domains, with what timeframe and risk-level, and with which links to overall business strategy. This step – Aspire – is the “A” in our ABC framework for creating a sustainably successful innovation capability. Then you can move on to “B” – Building structures and processes that enable innovation to flourish – as well as to “C” – cultivating culture and behaviors for continued success. Here’s a short summary: https://lnkd.in/ewKmbBQn I’m interested in your views. What do you think causes such a massive disconnect between the importance of innovation and its execution? Please leave comments!