The coronavirus-inspired shutdown of the global economy has led to profound existential conversations within the business community. Executives around the world are asking questions like “How can we position ourselves for success when this is over?” or even “Can we survive this?”
People and organizations everywhere are trying to find the opportunity in their pain.
At Stratos, we are an innovation group that exists to help companies survive—and thrive. That is never more important than right now. If you are looking for ways to create new value between you and your customers, here are 4 strategies that could supercharge your creativity and drive business during COVID-19 and beyond.
1. Turn your business model into “X-as-a-service” that provides access instead of just a product.
For example, you might be a lightbulb manufacturer and realize that what people really want to buy is light–not necessarily the light bulbs themselves. EUREKA! Provide light as a service. That’s exactly what Phillips did. In an effort to expand their offering, they charge customers for light and take care of their physical bulbs. And by repurposing bulbs that still have life in them, they might actually help the environment in the process.
2. Revamp your offering by leveraging the creative ways your employees engage with customers.
Your consumer-facing employees can be creative if you give them the opportunity. As such, they are a great resource for service innovation. They know your customers’ needs. By taking notice of the creative ways they spontaneously “go the extra mile”, your business can learn, apply and scale service innovations that become a differentiating part of your offering (see: Zappos).
3. Find other organizations that can partner with you to recombine your offerings into something new and useful.
Find a business that is adjacent to yours and create a new, combined offering. For instance, Uber + restaurants = Uber Eats.
4. Break down your product or service into parts.
Maybe people only need to buy or use one aspect of what you provide. Or maybe, like in the case of Amazon, you’ll discover aspects of your business (web-based commerce) that are themselves a business (Amazon Web Services).
Innovation in times of stress isn’t easy. But it’s not impossible.
It’s going to take work, more than just thinking on a few long walks, probably some sleepless nights… but that is the crucible from which good ventures are born.
Now is the time. Let’s get to work.
