Taiga Company

Research shows that innovation will be essential for small businesses over the next decade as businesses recover from recent economic hurdles.  Attempting to seize new opportunities and improve competitive positions, business leaders are looking for innovative solutions.  
 
Where does innovation come from?  One approach is to look to the leading edge to see what others are doing.  A second approach is to capture ideas as they spring up as seeds of innovation from within the organization.  But there has to be a catalyst, a framework, a discussion or something to generate those ideas.  What is that? 
 
As a professional consultant in the role of building business sustainability, the answer is stakeholder engagement. 
 
Innovative ideas do not have to come from any one source.  They can generate from within the company at the ground level, from the customers you service, or your suppliers.  Often employees have the information and ideas to make a significant but are limited by the structures of the organization.  One key to success is to create a corporate culture that encourages and rewards innovation at all levels internal to the organization as well as external to the company.
 
The World Business Council for Sustainable Development poses 4 questions in the innovation process to ensure success:
 
•    How can we ensure sustainability is part of the creative process?
•    How can we ensure that sustainability considerations are part of the management of a development process?
•    When and how can external viewpoints enrich the creative and development process?
•    What processes are going to leverage the value of our intellectual capital?
 
An open innovation approach to business sustainability offers stakeholders the opportunity to become engaged in the future of a business.  Recognizing that key stakeholders have a vested interest the success of the company, creates openness to new ideas that promote business success and innovative ideas. 
 
As communicated within our business sustainability programs, enabled by the right structure, stakeholder generated innovation can be the company’s greatest asset for change. 
 
•    Top level support for an open innovation culture.
•    A consistent management approach that promotes stakeholder engagement.
•    Open and consistent communication of business sustainability goals.
•    Cohesive policies and procedures that clearly define incentives.
 
 
Within our sustainability consulting with clients, it is clear to us,  that innovation will be essential for small businesses to thrive and survive over the next decade.  Companies becoming more environmentally, socially and economically responsible are driving innovations in sourcing, products, and services.  Commitment to sustainability uncovers opportunities to explore, develop, collaborate, and innovate within your organization and your industry.