Innovation is fueled by information technology, and innovation is the key to a successful firm. Business innovation has a similar effect on the economy as steam had on the industrial revolution.
It’s difficult to think of a single industry that has not benefited from the digital revolution. Agriculture, which is quite physical, uses computers. Computers are used by farmers for procurement, technical issue research, financial planning, and production records.
Today, utilizing information technology to spur innovation is the key to company success. Therefore, how to choose wisely when hiring IT professionals is the first thing entrepreneurs in any field attempt to determine. A business cannot succeed without an information technology foundation that provides professional services.
The Love Affair with Innovation:
We prefer to think of humanity as constantly being inventive. But for most of the 20th century, innovation was a slow and steady process. Individual geniuses or think tanks produced it. Most of the time, creative minds innovated, and the public gradually embraced the concept. With the creation of the computer, innovation entered the mainstream. With the development of the Internet, it gained momentum.
Innovation was not required for commercial success in the 1980s. By using a tested business model, a company may succeed. Efficiency was not the main goal.
It made sense to carry on the path of tradition. For instance, a store owner was happy to use a cash register comparable to the one invented by James Ritty in 1879 to prevent his employees from pilfering his salon profits in Dayton, Ohio.
All this changed on 6 August 1991, a little-remembered date, when the World Wide Web went live to the world. There was hardly a mention of it in any newspaper on the planet. Most people around the globe had no idea that the Internet existed. Although Tim Berners-Lee’s invention changed the world as we know it, it was only toward the end of the decade that the Internet became popular.
The Rise of Innovation:
The improvement in human intelligence is responsible for the emergence of innovation. The Flynn Effect states that general IQ has been increasing since the 1930s. The common IQ has increased from 80 to 100 points.
Travel and multimedia advancements increased communal intelligence, but these were primarily passive modes of learning. Today’s global brain and computer security service programs have activated active learning and sped up how quickly people pick up new information.
Innovation in Business:
Information technology fosters innovation in business. Innovation results in smarter apps, improved data storage, faster processing, and wider information distribution. Innovation makes businesses run more efficiently. And innovation increases value, enhances quality, and boosts productivity.
Innovation through information technology has created the following radical changes in business:
- Online shopping is more efficient than shopping in a store.
- Digital marketing is more efficient than high-cost newspaper, television, and radio advertising.
- Social networking is more efficient than going to clubs.
- VoiP communication is more efficient than legacy telephony.
- Cloud computing is more efficient than a private computer network.
- Businesses that have embraced the innovation paradigm tend to have the following characteristics:
- They have more accurate business planning.
- They have more effective marketing.
- They have higher global sales.
- They have more systematic management.
- They use real- time monitoring.
- They offer instant customer support
In fact, it’s hard to think of long-term business growth without the push of information technology.
5 Reasons for Accelerated Business Growth:
The technological revolution has improved businesses this century in the following five primary ways:
1. Information Technology Has Given Businesses the Tools to Solve Complex Problems:
Improved hardware (more memory, faster processors, sharper visual displays, etc.) combined with smarter applications (Mindmapping software like X Mind, collaborative software like Kanban boards, organizers like Google calendar, etc.) have made it easier to research data, analyze it, and plan scalability. Many tools are available to solve complex problems.
2. Information Technology Allows Businesses to Make Better Decisions:
Good decisions in business are based on solid market research. This can be done by engaging teams through video conferences, reviewing public sentiment on social media and industry forums, and using online surveys to get customer feedback. There are also tools like Microsoft CRM Dynamics and Google Analytics.
3. Information Technology Has Improved Marketing:
Internet marketing using online advertising methods (SEO, PPC, and Facebook Ads) are far more accurate way than traditional marketing of finding target audiences, discovering their needs, and building a marketing campaign to persuade them to buy. It’s difficult to see how many people read a newspaper ad. It’s easy to figure out how many people clicked on an online banner.
4. Information Technology Has Improved Customer Support:
Customers can receive support from multiple channels telephone, emails, social media platforms, webinars, and so on. Additionally, customer relationship management systems help businesses understand customer behavior.
5. Information Technology Has Improved Resource Management:
Cloud computing allows a company’s employees to use any device anywhere in the world to access their enterprise-level software.
Conclusion:
If the purpose of business is to increase profits, then innovation is the way to make more profits, faster. The story of Jan Koum gives us a clue about how much big businesses value innovation. He went from food stamps to billionaires because of his invention of WhatsApp.