How does your company deal with innovation management in times of crisis?
When strategy no longer works in the market we talk about a strategic crisis. It leads in a second step inevitably to a drop in sales and profits and it forces a company to act quickly and fundamentally, at strategic level. In times of crisis, companies should first check their strategy, and if necessary, realign it according to the new market conditions.
In stable times, companies are looking for unsatisfied customer needs to drive innovation. It is surely difficult to identify the one specific customer problem or the certain market need that leads to breaking-trough innovation. Many activities (customer surveys, investigation of megatrends, conducting surveys, market reports, etc.) aim to identify certain ventures that can help companies to drive their innovation. In times of crisis, issues arise anyway and companies have little choice, they need to deal with whatever is coming up. Agile management and swift decision making are required to divert the crisis.
“Changes only favor those who are prepared for it.”
Luis Pasteur
Crisis situations can be seen without restriction as a chance for comprehensive transformation. It is advisable to take the time, especially in crisis situations, to consider renewal opportunities, i.e. technological as well as non-technological innovations. Priority should be given to business model innovation. Organizational and marketing-related innovations that are aligned with the new, crisis-oriented strategy can be decisive for the way out of the crisis, towards to a consolidated market position. Definitely, the customer remains the pivotal point to which strategy and innovation are aligned, also in crisis times.
In order to integrate crisis-relevant innovation into crisis management, companies should ask themselves three central customer-related questions:
1. Which needs of current customers have changed because of the crisis?
2. Which new potential customers can the company reach by applying the crisis-relevant innovation into the organization?
3. How does the company’s strategic orientation change by integrating innovation into the current crisis management topic?
Some further questions that can be helpful to identify non-technological innovation to better avert the crisis could be:
Is the applied management strategy, considering the crisis situation, still target-oriented?
Which innovative sales and marketing approaches fitting to the crisis could be expanded or introduced?
How should internal and external communication be handled in the specific crisis situations?
Is the company able to design its processes more efficiently or simpler than before?
Does the crisis have a stimulative effect on social innovation within the company?
“Crisis is a productive state. You just have to take away the flavor of disaster. “
Max Frisch