Innovation is at the heart of every business success story. From empowering staff and streamlining operations to launching a ground-breaking new product—it’s innovation that drives growth at the most exciting companies in the world. 

If your organization is struggling to achieve the kind of success you’ve set out for yourself, it may come from a failure to establish a deeply engrained organization-wide “culture of innovation” across your processes.  

What’s more, technology must play a role in establishing a culture of innovation, and this is often overlooked. In this blog, we explore the role of technology in innovation, and how Microsoft Power BI and business growth are like two peas in a pod. 

Reasons for innovation today 

For many businesses, 2020 was a year for hunkering down and prioritizing business continuity. Many were forced to act reactively to unexpected changes rather than proactively engage in driving innovation. Although life might not be fully back to normal yet, organizations can see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

In 2021, innovation is not just “back on the table” but should be essential to every strategy for growth. It is also invaluable in meeting the ever-changing demands of the world of “the new normal”. Innovation is essential to your organization becoming more agile and adaptable to change, whether that is adopting new ways of working or speeding up time-to-market. 

Every organization, no matter what size or industry, can benefit from prioritizing innovation. Through all the uncertainty, one thing is certain: the fastest–growing companies are ramping up their innovation goals. 

 

Create your culture of innovation 

What do we mean by a “culture of innovation”? Let’s start with what we don’t mean:  

A culture of innovation is not: 

  • Restricted to ideas in the boardroom 
  • One-off, isolated, or ad-hoc investments in R&D or product teams 
  • A splurge of internal comms/messages or inspirational posters stuck up on the wall urging people to “think outside the box” 

A shift in your approach 

A culture of innovation needs to be a radical shift in how people approach work. It should embed innovation into your organization’s DNA so that the drive for moving the business forward is present in every decision. It does not seek one big win, but a constant stream of successes that lead to continued growth.  

Organization-wide 

An innovation strategy must be organization-wide, driven by every team in the business. It is a shift of mindset that gives employees the time and space to think: how can we do this better? And then, most crucially, it gives them the tools to enact that change.  

Provide the right tools 

For an innovation strategy to be a success, you must empower everyone in the organization. Employees need tools to help them be innovative; tools that not only facilitate but encourage innovation. Organizations should look to prioritize the democratide and no-code tools are central to this. 

Innovation, Power BI, and business growth 

Many technology vendors such as Microsoft are leading the way in providing these tools. A great example is Microsoft’s Power Platform, which consists of three core components: 

  • Power Apps for building custom applications tailored to your business needs 
  • Power Automate for automating and streamlining processes and workflows 
  • Power BI for helping everyone gain data-driven insights that can inform better business decisions 

These tools are specifically designed to allow non-developers to carry out IT projects which would previously have involved technical expertise. Now line of business employees can build IT solutions for the specific problems they face. Who knows the challenges faced by HR, for instance, better than HR employees themselves? Why wait for IT to roll out technological change when you can design an app to meet your exact requirements yourself? 

With these three areas covered, the Power Platform allows organizations to radically alter their approach to innovation by democratizing the ability to innovate. This way, everyone can get stuck in. It couldn’t be easier. 

 

Realize your potential with the Bauen Group 

At the Bauen Group we are committed to helping growing businesses find the right IT solutions to drive them forward. Innovation is at the heart of all our digital transformation projects. We will work closely with you to understand how your organization operates, so that we can create a culture of innovation together. Whether you’re ready to start innovating today or are at the very beginning of your innovation journey, we’re here to help.  

To learn more about using Microsoft technology to establish a culture of innovation at your organization, get in contact with the Bauen Group today.