Open innovation is fundamentally changing the way small businesses overcome the obstacles they face in carrying out their activities in the marketplace. In fact, the entrepreneurs of such organizations are in now in a better position to come up with groundbreaking products that exceed the expectations of their customers at reasonable prices. For those who are unaware of this new business concept, it refers to a process where proprietors of such businesses encourage their target audience to offer ideas on how they improve their production lines. You just need to look at the rapid growth of companies like Apple, Facebook and Google in the corporate world within a few decades to understand its importance.
Open Innovation platforms– 3 key benefits small companies can enjoy by implementing them
Experts specializing in this field point out the following 3 key benefits of entrepreneurs of small business can enjoy when they use effective open innovation platforms to gain the competitive in the market:
- Leads to the development of cutting-edge products or services
Like most entrepreneurs establishing their own startup businesses, you cannot express in words your feelings on being successful in introducing an innovative product in the marketplace. The positive feedback you receive from your target audience usually makes you extremely happy. However, after the initial euphoria, it is natural for you to become complacent. You tend to focus all your attention on marketing this one product to the public than investing some of your time and resources on developing something new. However, taking this course of action helps you expand your customer base and boost your bottom-line revenues in the long-run.
- Building a viable community among the members of your target audience
You know how important it is to interact with members of your target audience and provide them with what they want. Making use of effective open innovation platforms according to your business needs helps you to achieve this vital objective . You will find many of these people are willing take time out to their busy schedule to offer you their ideas on how to improve the quality of the products you are offering to sell them. You just need to look at how companies like toymaker ‘Lego’ engage their customers with this business concept to get the inspiration you need.
- Enable you to engage with your employees effectively
You cannot deny the contribution of the people you employ to growth and development of your business in the marketplace. This is reason why you go to great lengths to make them happy and ensure they retain their jobs. Even they can have groundbreaking ideas on how you can improve your organization’s production lines and way it markets its products to the public in the marketplace. However, they may not always feel confident to come forward with their ideas as they feel they may fall on deaf ears. Taking the initiative to introduce open innovation within their organization can help them to become a part and parcel of the planning process.
Small businesses are always in a better position to come up with innovative products or services for the public at competitive prices. Your organization is not an exception to this rule. Making effective use of open innovation platforms can help you achieve this objective and take on the might of large companies. The above 3 key advantages prove this point without any reasonable doubt.
