Innovation? and your SME Business

To SME Owners,

We always hear the word Innovation, it's the buz word for the next upteen years, but is this relative to your business and in what form, here I am focusing on B2B.

We used to have the Knowledge business world, now it is the Innovation/creative world, or to us in our sme business is it still is a combination of the two, I would say it is from where I sit.

I see Innovation broken up into two areas for us sme's,

      - Innovation within the business,
      - Innovation within your market.(are you /can you innovate in your market)

So a simple rule is to look at the above two segments, and what does this mean in each area.

What does Innovation mean, here's my take,
        -What shifts and trends are taking place in your market,ie new regulations, new technologies, different application's for your product, new opposition, new sales/ supplier channels, to name a few.
         -Are there new markets for your products, how to supply and service, will it be different/innovative.
         - In your business, are your team encouraged to come up with "new" ways to provide better service, improve relationships, improve efficiency levels, to save costs, to increase margins, ways
to get to see more of the "right" clients.
         -So do we call it new ideas or innovation?
For many sme business it is difficult to innovate in their markets, alot easy to innovate within your business,( yes there are exception to the rule)
Till next time may the Force be with you, I am your silent partner helping you work on your business.