Innovation Labs

How Innovation Labs Can Drive Digital Business

A startup is a company that is in the initial stages of development and wants to scale up quickly. They also have less investment, due to which they are often quite innovative, collaborative, and focused on growth. Corporations are established, hierarchical, and slow-moving compared to these new companies and startups. They are also less likely to take risks. Decisions are almost always made by a large group of experts, making the process quite long and slow. This is where an innovation lab comes into play.

What is an Innovation Lab?

Innovation labs are business units that take on the methodology of deft startups, intending to come up with new ideas that can disrupt or complement the overall company. The development of these innovations is driven by design thinking and brainstorming. As such, an innovation lab promotes collaboration with different departments to create products and services for the parent company. The innovation lab is also responsible for conducting market research and keeping a close eye on potential disruptors in the field. In other words, an innovation lab is responsible for coming up with new ideas, executing them, and iterating them until the idea can be successfully executed and integrated into the existing business.

Setting up an innovation lab is a great way to signal to existing and potential employees that the company is growth-focused and committed to evolving and changing. This helps to attract younger talent who wants to work for forward-thinking, innovation-driven, fast-paced companies.

business innovation lab

These are some of the ways innovation labs can drive business:

New services and products: In today’s digital-driven world, continuously developing new services and products keeps your company on the radar and relevant. Whether you like it or not, people only purchase from companies that continuously manage to stay on the news and make a difference. With people getting increasingly conscious about their carbon footprints and animal cruelty, it has become important for companies to be socially responsible and show how they are helping the world be a better place. For any business to stay afloat no matter what happens in the economy, continuous innovation is significant.

Increased revenue: As a company continuously innovates and creates new products or services, they tend to excite the customers into buying these new products. This invariably increases the revenue of the respective company, which then can be used to drive more innovations. Increased revenue is just a byproduct of innovation.

Keeping in check with competition and disruption: Keeping an eye out for the competitors and the new emerging startups is a key strategy for any business to stay successful. Continuous innovation and evolution is a goal that is difficult to execute, and this is especially true for large companies that are used to doing business the same way for years. As such, Innovation labs create an opportunity to give a fresh perspective to the organization.