Innovation is not always what is cracked to be.

Remember Delorean? that futurist From the early 1980s turned heads – but soon fell because of qualitypoor performance and a huge price price. (To be right, Marty McFly returned in 1955.)

In 2001, it was Segway's turn. But the scooter The technological innovation exceeded any practical value for the average person. Recently, Apple fought to find a market For his headphones vision pro.

Companydo company wants to renew. The trick is to do this in a way that actually helps customers – And I don't put business at risk. Ideally, it means moving quickly without Breaking things.

While some companies can throw things against the wall and see if they climb, we are in another situation. I work in the database industry, which faces high pressure to renew, largely thanks to his inattentive demand for our services.

At the same time, we cannot cheat. Data centers are the digital spine of the economy. Our customers expect nothing less than operational perfection with zero downtime. So get it from me: even when there is no room for error, innovation is possible.

There are some lessons here for any business that wants to keep things to work smoothly by ensuring that good ideas see the light of the day.

1. Make your customers part of your innovation journey

Want your company's innovations to make a real impact? Take Customers on board from the beginning.

When designing our objects and developing the technology that empowering them, we do not act in a vacuum. Instead, we cooperate with clients making them part of the innovation journey.

It means inviting them to our test lab for REFRIGERANT and other technology to ensure that the solutions we are building will meet their needs. The fact that they are some of the smartest, most sophisticated companies on the planet, works in our favor. By innovating with us, they help improve our products and services.

Importantly, Cooperation gives customers leather in the game – As you deepen your relationship with them too. It also mitigates the risk of alienating a client if something goes wrong.

For businesses, the focus on the client pays. Customer -fixed companies increase income and profits approximately 30% faster.

Connected: Four simple ways to find customers

2. Do not recreate the wheel

Sometimes, innovation means getting an idea that already works elsewhere – and applying it to your business or industry.

Apple did not invented the smartphone but he eclipsed rivals BY making it the main stream with iPhone. Facebook stole a page from myspace and other pages. Nintendo specialized in Play cards Before following Atari's superiority in the video game business.

We sometimes have a similar approach. We build our data servers with enlargement slots – a design for which I was inspired by IBM. Likewise, our facilities have movable walls that give customers flexibility to change the layout. I got that idea from a data center, my previous company purchased by Charles Schwab, which used it in Cordon outside of different business units. Another example is liquid cooling, a three-decade-old technology we have refined.

This type of repurposing can be a game shift for companies without a big budget for research and development.

Connected: How to detect and deal with resistance to change

3 Remember, innovation can mean simplifying

Novelty is not always about creating a new shiny product or service. Sometimes, it's the simple processes that keep you back – and cost you money. By an estimateCompanies lose 20% to 30% of annual revenue due to inefficiency.

I'm not talking about cutting corners in areas that can damage business, such as talent developmentsecurity or customer service. Instead, I look for ways to accelerate regulatory approval and construction permits.

This starts with a simple question: Why do we need this process? If someone tells me, “I have done it in (enter the name of the swollen company where they have previously worked),” is the time for a rethinking.

For companies seeking to simplify business processes, it It can help provide a large jump by quickly treating manual, repetitive tasks. within a studyCompanies Named Efficiency as the main advantage of the use of generating, much higher than benefits such as speed and cost saving. On the other hand, such benefits can release the band width to focus on high value tasks such as product innovation and client connection.

4. Decide where – and where not – take risks

For most companies, innovation should be for taking the calculated risks that do not cost them clients or do not endanger the business.

In our case, anything that can lead to the time of loss for our data centers is an area without flight. This means keeping our operations printed with rigorous training, control lists and inspections that minimize the possibility of failure.

But it still leaves room to take risks. For example, we can be more experimental when it comes to exploring alternative energy sources for our objects, in understanding that nothing will be decided until we have tested it completely.

To avoid Exposing their main businessSome companies create “Sandboxes” innovation. Google's parent company, alphabet, does this with it X, its moon factory. If a project fails, the damage is contained – and the company learns from the error.

Connected: Want success? You need to take risks.

5 Create a culture of empowerment and opening

After all, the successful innovation requires the construction of a culture in which people feel empowered to do their jobs and can express their thoughts.

When it comes to empowerment, I am a big fan of management walking around (MBWA) – coming out and asking people in the field what they are doing. What is it working? What is it not? How can I give them the tools they need to be more effective?

We also try to maintain a breath of honesty so that everyone feels comfortable talking freely. This opening allows us to solve problems together and turn promising ideas into large ones.

Toyota understands how opening can promote innovation. To encourage continuous improvement, they painted a red square on the floor of their assembly line. After a week at work, every new employee had to stay in that square until they found at least three things about the line.

For us, innovation is a matter of survival – the continuation of the pace of change in the database industry. But by embracing these principles, any business can increase its innovation game by keeping the risk control.

Another benefit? A stronger relationship with customers who are emotionally invested in the outcome and get the product or service they need.

The chances are, they are not looking for a Delorean.