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With an ever-changing changing environment, new challenges and opportunities arise every day. In order to overcome each obstacle and take advantage of opportunities, high-performing organizations have already realized that one of the ways to remain competitive is by keeping their focus on innovation.
But not a random innovation. Here, as we are talking about successful companies, we refer to a well-managed and structured innovation. An example cited on the DBizinstitute website explains better what we are getting at: Amazon took down physical bookstores in the United States. The company didn’t invent the book, what it did was create a new sales process. In other words: it innovated the way of selling.
We can continue with the example of Amazon. In the next step of innovation, they became an online retailer. Today, its retail platform is offered to other businesses that want to sell their products online.
And how does a company (not just Amazon) manage to move forward with innovation? Here, there is no mystery: it is necessary to start a process whose final result is innovation. Therefore, in this article we draw your attention to an important duo: innovations and BPM (Business Process Management).
To start: the term innovation
“Innovation” is practically the golden word in the business world. As Wikipedia explains, types of innovation include:
- Product innovation: the introduction to the market of new or significantly improved products or services. It includes changes to its technical specifications, components, materials, software, interface or other functional characteristics;
- Process innovation: implementation of new or significantly improved production or logistics processes for goods or services. It includes changes to techniques, equipment, or software;
- Organizational innovation: implementation of new organizational methods in business practice, work organization and/or external relations;
- Marketing innovation: implementation of new marketing methods, involving significant improvements in product or packaging design, pricing, distribution and promotion.
Innovative ideas are not difficult to come up in a brainstorming session, for example. The difficult thing is to make innovation take shape. That’s where process management comes in.
How does BPM promote innovation within companies?
To answer the question, it is initially necessary to understand what we gain when we adopt Process Management. First and foremost, BPM is organized around outcomes, not tasks. This may not catch your attention at first, but when activities are organized around tasks, focus is lost. When you know where you want to go (that is, you know the expected results) everyone involved walks in the same direction.
When we talk about innovations and BPM, it is important to think of innovation as a process, which must be defined, implemented, executed, and controlled. A BPM tool, in addition to managing the entire life cycle (stages) of processes, allows them to be standardized. With this, not only does it make it easier to understand and manage them, but the probability of errors and risks is reduced.
Another point that we highlight when dealing with innovations and BPM is that the latter is essential for the implementation of Continuous Process Improvement methodologies, such as Lean and Six Sigma. As we explain in this article:
- The Lean methodology simplifies (streamlines) a process flow until waste and non-value-added activities are eliminated.
- Six Sigma is a quality tool that currently plays a very important role so that products or services can be delivered without errors or failures.
Remember that I mentioned that Business Process Management organizes activities around results? Well, to systematically move forward with an innovation you need to carry out a process whose final delivery is the innovation as a result. BPM solutions take this approach, and are also used to implement the process and controls around the areas that are getting in the way of a goal being met.
BPM can act as a catalyst to accelerate the application of Lean and Six Sigma methodologies and can increase organizational efficiency and profitability by enhancing business processes with three important elements – agility, visibility, and efficiency (three essential elements for innovation to be put into practice).
Innovations and BPM: the duo
We understand that process is defined as a series of actions that aim at a result (produce something) and transform inputs into outputs. Innovation can also be defined as the application of better solutions that meet new requirements or needs. We also mention four types of innovations: product, process, marketing and organizational innovation.
Note that each of the types mentioned is about the introduction or improvement of something (for example: in process innovation we have the implementation of new or significantly improved production or logistics processes for goods or services).
For the innovation process to bring the desired results and in the expected time – whether to introduce something or to make some improvement – it is essential that it follows a workflow with defined responsibilities and deadlines. It is also important to highlight that with more fluid workflows, the company’s innovation processes become agile, reducing the response time to the market.
In addition, from the moment that the team involved in innovation has a better understanding of how processes should be conducted, the entire company becomes more efficient in the face of market challenges. This understanding, as well as the increased transparency and productivity provided by work flows, are possible thanks to a Business Process Management solution. Exactly why innovations and BPM must go hand in hand.
What’s the proposal of this article?
Our proposal for this article was to show you that in an extremely competitive market we must innovate in a structured way. Thus, errors and risks are reduced, and a more improved control of the progress of activities is maintained.
When we understand the relationship between innovations and BPM, we start to adopt a much more serious and structured approach to our activities. If you want to better understand the universe of Business Process Management, check out some materials that can help:
- What is Process Management (BPM) and what are its benefits?
- Lean, Six Sigma and BPM: an alliance of results
- BPM glossary: know the most used terms
- What is BPMs and how can it add value to your business?
- Process Mapping: where to start?
Meet the Fusion Platform! Our solution has the BPM module, which allows you to create and manage processes in a simple way and with a high level of integration with management systems. Try our solution right now and find out how Process Management can help your company.
