29 Nov November Innovation Trend Report
In this month’s innovation trend report, we will talk about how companies that have survived over time are the ones who have been able to keep up and progressively adapt their business models to current business conditions.
There was a time when a competitive advantage guaranteed you a headstart of two-to-five years in market share. As new tools and technologies become cheaper and more easily available, as markets and customers change faster than ever, innovation must become a part of a team’s DNA to remain adaptable and competitive. Businesses that want to enter new markets and re-define their industries need to leverage new ways of doing business.
- Blockchain
With fringe technology increasing in popularity, the coming years will very well see Blockchain as an essential factor of companies. The market is set to hit $548.2 million in 2018, and 2/3 firms say they expect Blockchain to be integrated into their systems by the end of the calendar year. Despite the average investment in Blockchain projects sitting at around $1 million, though, 39% of senior executives told Deloitte they have ‘little knowledge’ of the technology itself. This is a serious and strange knowledge gap, given that 42% believe Blockchain will disrupt their industry and 55% admit they will lose competitiveness if they fail to adopt it. Furthermore, 90% of North American Financial Institutions are investing in blockchain, it is the future for organizations.
- Video Marketing
Video is the most popular and influential form of digital content for digital marketers today, and it holds great power to persuade more effectively than other content mediums. 52% of marketing professionals surveyed by Hubspot consider video to be the medium with the best ROI, while 43% of consumers said that they wanted to see more video content from marketers. Furthermore, with the use of video on social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter it allows for a more personal connection between the company and the buyer.
- Artificial Intelligence
A.I. is definitely in its early stages in the corporate world, thus companies should not believe that it is here to only replace their high-skill employees. Thus, AI can be used for more time-consuming activities and allow the employees to focus on more innovative methodologies to complete their tasks. AI can be a valuable tool for customer service management and personalized marketing. Improved speech recognition in call center management and call routing by applying AI techniques allow a more seamless experience for customers—and more efficient processing. The total annual value potential of AI alone across 19 industries and nine business functions in the global economy came to between $3.5 trillion and $5.8 trillion. This constitutes about 40 percent of the overall $9.5 trillion to $15.4 trillion annual impact that could potentially be enabled by all analytical techniques. Additionally, there have been over 250 acquisitions involving private companies with AI expertise since 2012, with 37 of these occurring in the first quarter of 2017.
- Increase M&A Activity
Instead of building up internal innovation capacity, companies are acquiring smaller operations pursuing innovation in similar spaces. According to The state of the deal
M&A trends 2018 Deloitte: technology acquisition is the new number one driver of M&A Pursuits, ahead of expanding consumer bases in existing markets or adding to products and services. Furthermore, talent acquisition continues to trend upwards as a motivation for M&A Strategies. It is important to remember that companies have to be responsible when it comes to such acquisitions. If you control them too tightly, they will end up feeling constrained and frustrated. However, if you fail to show enough interest they’ll start to wonder whether it was worth being bought out in the first place.
- Smart Workspaces
Innovative companies have been successful with the fact that their workspaces allow for easy interaction between employees in all departments. Furthermore, this allows for the easy spread of ideas and new solutions to difficult problems. Research house “Gartner” states that “will also enable the linking of physical and digital worlds, encouraging device providers to expand or create partnerships around immersive and collaboration solutions.”
- Internal Accelerators
An increasing number of companies are using the accelerator model to foster internal innovation rather than acquiring startups. With this, model companies are allowed to pursue ideas as if they were startups. This also allows them to be freed from corporate constraints and thus able to quickly develop a concept from a prototype to a properly built solution. Overall, a company is able to pursue their creative energy with constant injections.
- Cross-Functional Hackathons
The ultimate goal of corporate innovation is to empower teams to innovate organizations from the inside. In our experience, hands-on hackathons are the most effective way to inspire teams to become internal leaders for innovation and to launch amazing new ideas. Hackathons are a
scouting-ground for new talent, can be considered a test for ‘crazy’ ideas, a place for cross-functional and cross-cultural collaboration, an opportunity to create new businesses and business opportunities. This report by the University of Cambridge provides more insight on how hackathons can accelerate corporate hackathons.
Today, any digitally savvy brand is aware that it should be putting out content for its audiences to engage with, however many forget that this content should offer legitimate value to those viewing it. Organizations should focus on putting out quality, relevant content, even if this comes at the expense of volume.
