What makes a company innovative?

For a company to be considered truly “innovative” it must place a premium on collaboration, especially internally. The company must also live and breathe change, challenging everything by not accepting the status quo or “that’s the way we have always done things”. Another key criteria for an innovative business is their obsession with the customer: learning from each customer interaction and continually improving the customer experiences across all channels is foundational.
Customer insights from data are also necessary, to not only deliver the best possible frictionless customer experiences but also to under-stand what new products and services your customers need and how the company’s offerings will address these requirements.
One of the goals of an innovative company is to disrupt its existing business model. Innovative organizations are risk-takers, consistently exploring new business models and leveraging their assets to identify and realize new revenue streams. Demonstration of this approach to risk should also be illustrated by aspirational company objectives: if stretch goals are not making most people nervous, you are not aiming high enough.
Truly innovative companies are continually trying new things, ideas, ways of working, adopting new technologies, etc. They fail often with some of these activities, but they fail fast and learn from them. If organizations are not failing when innovating, they may be playing it safe and not making the most of the business opportunities out there. Lastly, to be innovative, companies must foster a data-driven and innovative culture [ … ]