The history of warfare has major things to teach the world of business. First of all businesses like warfare, often do not know how to leverage a new technology. When large capital battleships first appeared, it tool time for tacticians to figure out that musket lines were best equipped to handle them. Similarly business innovations take time to be scaled up for people to use in large quantities. Instead it is second movers who often beat the initiators. An example could be of the Blitzkrieg or lightning warfare perfected by the Germans during the Second World War but actually first developed by the British during the first but hindered due to lack of quality equipment. Corporate strategy in business is often seen as paramount to success, yet it is the people on the ground who have the proper grasp of reality just as the German army’s ground personnel had during the Second World War. For all the talk of the next big thing, potential never gets realized in business if the innovators can’t scale for mass use. During the Second World War for example, while the great military strategists such as Eisenhower and Patton were celebrated, it must be understood that Henry Ford was equally responsible as by 1942, USA was producing more war material than all other major combatants combined.

Source: http://innovationexcellence.com/blog/2016/07/20/4-innovation-lessons-from-the-history-of-warfare/

Uber, Apple and Facebook are considered three of the giants in the field of business innovation. The changes they have made to the business world have disrupted existing practices. However, besides being innovators these companies are also very good copycats. They have copied ideas from competitors, applied them to their platforms and disbursed among the widest audience due to their vast reach. Uber copied Lyft’s ride sharing model. Facebook adopted the check-ins from Foursquare and Xerox’s mouse and OS inspired Apple. In order to build a marketing oriented company, key customer acquisition channels in the industry must be researched and properly understood. Competitors’ best practices must be understood and adopted in case better than one’s own. Also constant experimentation has to be carried out. This involves methods such as A/B Testing, surveys and other means as well.

Source: http://fortune.com/2016/07/21/why-smart-people-copy-great-ideas/

The two words creativity and innovation are often used interchangeably in the corporate world, though crucial differences exist. Creativity is the mindset and involves self analysis. A person may utilize creativity for personal purposes. It may even never see the light of day and gets lost in ideation alone. Business innovation on the other hand is the actual implementation of creative ideas. In order to inspire the team to achieve innovation, the management needs to create a certain environment. Human beings are naturally critics of new ideas but this attitude has to be abandoned if the inherent creativity needs to be put in some use for the business.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/brentgleeson/2016/07/21/1-simple-way-to-inspire-your-team-to-achieve-innovative-greatness/#507c1ec13679

In order to foster business innovation within the firm it is first necessary to build the requisite environment. In this case, environment does not relate to physical infrastructure but the intellectual dimensions. Great amount of energy needs to applied across the place in order to generate radical innovation. Instead of tackling all dimensions at once, all activities must be done with consultation of the team. Such radical shifts in thinking may not be that easy in large corporations but relatively malleable in smaller ones.

Source: http://innovationexcellence.com/blog/2016/07/09/how-leaders-can-foster-an-innovative-climate/

Contrary to popular fears, technology can very easily elevate customer experience. Some examples worldwide have proven this scenario. Just Eat delivers meals in London using GPS enabled robots. This business innovation has eliminated the need for time consuming orders to be processed manually. The Kerv ring has allowed all kinds of payments to be facilitated without the requirement of a purse or cards anywhere which accepts standard contactless or prepaid cards. The Nymi Band similarly allows contactless payment using just by monitoring their heartbeats. Payments can also be made through face recognition using Selfie pay. There is Nuance which uses voice recognition and eliminates the need for passwords. Finally, the leader of all innovations, Google is developing a method by which one’s phone can be controlled without any form of touch.

Source: http://customerthink.com/improving-your-customer-experience-with-technology-its-easy/

For much of corporate history, advertising has remained clichéd. Its aim has been to gauge eyeballs through fuzzy, anecdotal insights. Usually during this period, marketers have not been able to understand which half of advertising budged has been well used, until it has reached the final consumers. Now things are changing. Collaboration is in fact the new competitive edge. The crowd is now considered the best analyzer of advertising content. Consumers themselves are turning advocates for the products once they are convinced. In a global market research conducted to gauge the effectiveness of advertising, it was understood that a vast majority of respondents make final purchase decision most influenced by what their friends or family members recommend. This is where consumer advocates come in as their views are best relied upon by their fans.

Source: http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2016/06/25/the-most-innovative-marketing-tactic-is-with-the-crowd/

Some behavioral traits have been recognized which are sure to foster a sense of business innovation across an organization. First of all collaboration must be developed throughout the firm. A breed of employees categorized as intrapreneurs must be encouraged and analyzed as they are the ones who will generate maximum innovation. Work processes must be speeded up using agility as a core principle as it removes needless hierarchical barriers. A venture capitalist (VC) pumps in money in the hope of eventually earning profits but to achieve this market needs to be disrupted. The management of the organization must also think accordingly as that will help achieve breakthroughs. Innovation will not be fruitful without practical operational efficiency. Thus instead of guarding creativity within silos, it must be opened out to exist in tandem with operations.

Source: http://www.strategy-business.com/blog/These-Five-Behaviors-Can-Create-an-Innovation-Culture?gko=85549