Left Field Thinking: Why Retail Innovation Needs Bold Strategy

"Out of left field" is American slang meaning "unexpectedly", "odd" or "strange".

Innovation is often linked to top line revenue growth for organizations, however innovation for revenue growth only, ultimately leads to the demise of the business or business unit, product or services. Innovation should not and must not be a stand-alone activity, Innovation is a culture, behaviour and belief, a process an incorporated fundamental part of business evolution.

So how do you grow, Customer Satisfaction & Loyalty, Effective Resources and Smart Data?

How about looking left?

Cultivating a Culture of Innovation

Protect

**Protecting your customer from, bad data/information/monetization. **The new business environment needs consumer champions, just as online retailers declared a war on stripping cost from the supply chain in order to create a sense of loyalty from their customers. New world organizations need to become the champions of the new information age for their customers and staff, which means they need to Step and Speak UP for their consumers, in the battle against the various important issues their customers are facing such as monetization of personal data or the honest labeling of their products.

Collaboration

Collaborate with your customers and staff, by providing the true tools of collaboration, allowing for multi-sensory collaboration, rewarding freethinking for the creation of grass roots ideas and transformative conversations.

Listen

Listen, Listen & Listen Creating true feedback loops, from your data, customers & staff.

Embracing Agile Growth Strategies

Fail

Allowing your innovation team and business units, the space to learn from failure and documenting the outcome and learning and from it, but ultimately this is how you win and grow your business.

Corporate backbone

Having the correct Organizational Structure is critical, a flat structure that allows for direct and clear communication between departments, staff & management. Build the right team and give them “Measurable Space”.

Prioritizing Customer Experience

Experience

Treating your customers, as the most valuable asset in your business is practically easier said than done. This means that you have to provide the best possible platform or platforms for User Experience. For example why should customers queue to pay or check in or out, it is beyond belief with the technologies and information that is available today that organizations are still failing to liberate their customers through smart data?

So if - Knowledge=trust, food=health, education=creation, fashion=style, Identity=Smart Data. The home=your future operating environment - how will you address the future?