In this post, we look at 5 ways to build your business for growth. We explore how business leaders can embrace design as a catalyst for innovation and discover opportunities for growth.

Organisations today find themselves facing the same basic question: How do you establish new growth strategies and business opportunities in an increasingly competitive and often over-saturated market? We discuss five simple elements to help you build your business for growth and what you can do to stay ahead beyond the accepted strategies of yesteryear.

Most companies want growth. Most also acknowledge that innovation is a critical component of achieving that growth. The unfortunate reality is that many still treat innovation as a one-off event such as a huge project to be delivered or an ‘innovation program’ to be introduced. The main reason for this is the fundamental disconnect between innovation initiatives, core business challenges, and consumer needs.

Embracing a design mindset is fast becoming a core competency in the business world. We are beginning to see more companies gradually moving towards the tipping point where collaborative creativity is championed throughout the organisation, fully infused into the workplace culture, and integrated into the day-to-day strategy.

For leaders who embrace design as a catalyst for innovation and discover opportunities for growth, here are 5 ways to build your business for growth:

1. Strategic innovation triumphs over traditional strategy

Where traditional strategy is simply focused on the company through finding ways of positioning itself, strategic innovation looks at a more holistic perspective that involves creating value for your customer, organisation, and business ecosystem. By creating value for a multitude of stakeholders and achieving it by including a combination of products, services, customer experience, business model, and revenue model, your organisation would have the potential to reach greater heights and become future-ready.

2. Infuse creativity at the core of your strategy

Creating value in ways that have never been done before requires the mindset of a designer, as the process for strategy making and execution is not entirely linear. Instead, it goes by a custom-made, agile process that is based on design thinking to achieve a specific goal.

We often fall into the trap of trying to find solutions to problems by looking at a cause. A key tenet of design thinking is to scrutinise the problem first. Design unsettles people because we do not pretend to know the answer, and so much of our interest is in the problem, rather than its solution. Through this process, we take critical information about experiences (this addresses the “What Is”); develop insightful criteria for hypothesising “What If”, and in turn, these ideas are then tested to see “What wows and works”. It’s topsy-turvey, but you only have to look at how Apple approaches product development and marketing to know this approach works.

3. Keep a brand- and human-centered focus

With so many shifts in such a short period of time, understanding the human perspective is more important than ever. The mindset of a designer embraces empathy as it puts people at the heart of the growth strategy which in turn elevates the brand. By immersing yourself in the perspectives of employees, customers, and other stakeholders to understand their needs, motivations, and roadblocks, organisations create value by coming up with solutions that work without friction.

Complementing human centricity is brand centricity. Placing greater emphasis on being brand-centric – having everyone within the organisation gain a clear understanding of core values and ensuring consistency in application – helps to establish a solid foundation as it serves as a guide for the overall transformation and enables organisations to foster a deeper level of connection with stakeholders.

4. Cultivate a new way of working

Organisations that embody a design mindset encourage appropriate risk-taking and reward employees for important and useful lessons learned, as they understand that learning during the process of creation is far more valuable than doing things the traditional way. They support knowledge sharing and collaboration across boundaries rather than competition among employees or units. When such a way of working is in place, employees feel far more empowered and committed as they receive greater support and find fulfillment at work.

However, it all comes down to the willingness of the company leadership to drive that change and support the overall transformation as it will ultimately determine the success of a culture shift.

5. Foster effective collaboration with virtual collaborative tools

As work and the workforce change, there is a need for lots of collaboration, which becomes a challenge as it now seems that remote work may be a long-term phenomenon. However, the proliferation of digital collaboration tools may very well be one of the unexpected silver linings of the pandemic. Organisations are turning to these tools to make collaboration easier and enable remote employees to become more effective in their engagement with internal teams and clients.

By applying these 5 ways to build your business for growth you’ll find the concepts will act as both enablers and accelerators of growth and operational excellence.

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Rob Barton is a Design Director & Principal at Big Panda, Cayman’s leading brand consultancy.