8 Ways to Tell If Your Startup Is Ready to Innovate



What sparks paradigm-shifting innovation in any business? It’s a special mix of entrepreneur and company, regular in every respect except for having the courage and foresight to make an idea happen that was supposed to be impossible. As an entrepreneur in a startup, how do you know if you have this potential and what are the steps to get from an innovation to a revolution?

The first step is to meditate on the examples set by others, like Steve Jobs of Apple, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, or Thomas Edison with the electric light. There are many others, like in the book I read a while ago about Ratan Tata bringing out the Nano car in 2009 in India for less than $2,500. The book is titled “Nanovation” by Kevin & Jackie Freiberg.


  2. Lead the revolution. Innovators have more than the vision; they have the drive to lead and the focus to stay on target. They are wired to win. Organizations don’t produce game-changing innovations, people do. They allow a leap of faith in their own ideas, as well as in the ideas and capabilities of their team.
  3. Build a culture of innovation. You need a culture where restlessness is tolerated, curiosity is encouraged, passion is inspired, creativity is expected and people are always talking about what’s next. Ultimately, the mind-set changes so significantly that innovation is natural and no one is conscious of it.
  4. Question the unquestionable. Outsiders ask a lot of questions because they don’t presume to know why something is done a certain way. Make your insiders think like outsiders. Provocative questions like, “What if?”, “Why not?” or “So what?” can help to get everyone outside the box.
  5. Look beyond customer imagination. First-of-a-kind products empower customers to do things they didn’t even know they wanted to do, and now can’t live without them. The computer mouse, Tivo and Teflon are examples. Listen to customers, but remember that they can’t always tell you what they don’t know.
  6. Go to the intersection of trends. Innovators pay close attention to the early warning signs that precede major cultural, societal and market shifts. Where most people see an isolated trend, innovators connect the dots by relating one trend to several others. They focus on next practices versus best practices.
  8. Risk more, fail faster and bounce back stronger. When you pursue a creative idea that takes you beyond, fear tempts you to make compromises. If you can push through this fear and doubt or bounce back intelligently from initial setbacks, you often arrive at something that has truly never been seen before.


Reprinted by permission.

Image credit: CC by Giovanni Palese

About the author: Martin Zwilling

