Change drives innovations. With all of the recent changes brought on by COVID-19, it’s time for your MSP to innovate.
Innovation at its core is fairly simple to understand: It’s the creation, development and implementation of a new product, process or service, with the aim of improving efficiency, effectiveness or competitive advantage. But the challenging part of innovation is discovering how to use innovation effectively and efficiently to grow your business — and that’s where MSPs need guidance.
There are several ways you can become an innovative MSP.
Join a peer group
It’s difficult to innovate when you’re trying to do it alone. Joining a peer group is a great way for you to find ways to innovate and grow your business. Your peers can help you with moving your business in a new direction if you simply take the time to listen to them. It’s a lot easier to innovate when you can bounce ideas off other people operating under the same conditions and limitations as you. While I may be a little biased, I recommend you look into TruMethods’ TruPeer, which combines strategic training with support. Learn how to work smarter, not harder by joining a peer group in our industry.
Build an innovation team
Encourage employees to offer ways to innovate your business. Your team can bring an understanding of how to innovate from an operational perspective. Remember: They’re following the processes you put in place for them, so you’re probably too close to your operations to recognize its faults. If there’s an operational issue, your employees can probably not only identify it but also correct it for you, so be open-minded to all.
Show your employees you’re serious by building an innovation team. This team should include employees from all departments. By doing this, you open up new possibilities across your organization. Sometimes someone from one department knows how to innovate another department. This also helps you with avoiding tribalism within your organization. Ideas can come from anywhere.
Listen to your customers
Build strategic relationships with your customers. Listen to what your customers are telling you. They will always point you in the right direction. Take the time to understand their goals. When you do, you can get a better sense of where to invest money in your business for innovation.
Profitability and command
You have a greater chance of innovating when you know your business metrics. It’s hard to innovate when you don’t have command over your business. If you don’t know your numbers, you won’t be able to make decisions when ideas are brought to you or come up during team meetings. You must know your business inside and out if you want to fully understand where you can take it in the future.
To be an innovative company, you must encourage innovation at all levels of your organization. When you create a culture of innovation, you give your organization the power to become innovative.
