Trending Business Innovations to Start Using in 2023

Editor's Note: Take a look at our featured best practice, Design Thinking (225-slide PowerPoint presentation). [NOTE: Our Design Thinking presentation has been trusted by an array of prestigious organizations, including industry leaders such as Apple, MIT, NASA, Ford, Boeing, Fujitsu, Syngenta, Palo Alto Networks, and Mercer, to name just a few.] Design Thinking is [read more]

Also, if you are interested in becoming an expert on Innovation Management, take a look at Flevy's Innovation Management Frameworks offering here. This is a curated collection of best practice frameworks based on the thought leadership of leading consulting firms, academics, and recognized subject matter experts. By learning and applying these concepts, you can you stay ahead of the curve. Full details here.

* * * *

The world of business has a way of evolving quickly. If you don’t evolve with it, you risk falling behind competitors who do. But how can you tell the difference between transient fads, and innovations that will change the way business is done forever?

While no one has a crystal ball, there are certain practices analysts largely agree will play a big role in business in 2023 and onward. Read on to learn more!

NFTs

NFTs are complicated, controversial, and rarely fully understood. Essentially the term, which stands for non-fungible token, refers to a unique digital property that can be owned by a single investor. NFTs are an important component of the cryptocurrency world and can be used to support transactions, and even offer a (sort of) concrete anchor to blockchain technology.

Yeah. We are getting into the weeds here. If few people know what NFTs are, fewer yet understand blockchain and cryptocurrency. And yet all three entities have the capacity to shape the course of future business by making transactions secure and private.

The extent to which a business should invest in these technologies will depend on its risk tolerance. NFTs are particularly notorious for instability. For every story of a token fetching six figures, there are ten thousand tales of woe and frustration.

Now may not be the time to stake all your chips on any of the above tech innovations. However, by understanding them, you equip yourself with the awareness to pivot into the right business solutions when the time comes.

Remember: with tech, timing is everything. Early adopters of any technology experience major advantages over their competitors. Late adopters are mostly just playing catchup.

Data

Data only barely belongs on this list because it has been much more than a trend for years now. If you aren’t using data to drive all areas of your business right now you are (unambiguously and without question) falling behind competitors who are.

Most people are at least peripherally aware of this. However, they may not know how in-depth and comprehensive data application can be. Sales, marketing, billing, and even human resources can all use data to drive activity.

In fact, data is now so comprehensive that the question has shifted from if you need it, to how you can manage it effectively. Precisely because every department uses data, it becomes important to consolidate it all.

“Data siloes” as they are called, refer to the condition of being unable to have your analytics feed into one another. It’s a pretty common problem, actually. Businesses rush out to adopt as much software as they can afford, but they don’t know enough to wonder how these tools will communicate with one another.

If your tech stack can’t talk, it’s holding you back. Businesses in 2023 and onward not only need vast swaths of data on hand, but they also need to know how to make it work for them. Single Source of Truth software consolidates information while ERPs (enterprise resource planning) take all of this raw information and distill it into comprehensive reports that can be used at the executive level.

Increased Risk of Cyber Threats

There is nothing new about cyber threats. They’ve been around for as long as the internet, and there is not any indication that they will be going away any time soon. However, every year, every day for that matter, new threats emerge.

Not only has the technology posing a threat grown, but motivations have shifted as well. Public serving businesses will not only be besieged by run-of-the-mill hackers but also (potentially) cyber terrorists.

Cyber terrorists behave similarly to hackers, but with the motive of creating fear and chaos. In 2021, a group called Wizard Spider took Ireland’s entire digital healthcare system hostage, rendering it useless for weeks.

The threats are real. You can protect yourself from them by staying on top of your cyber security needs. This may mean new updates, new technologies, and more comprehensive training for you and your staff.

Rethinking Leadership

It’s a little uncomfortable to list diverse hiring practices as an “innovation.” And yet, for decades now, businesses everywhere have been missing out on the many benefits that come from diverse leadership.

Businesses that hire qualified candidates from a wide range of different backgrounds benefit from a diverse spectrum of opinions. They also relate better to the public they are serving. If everyone in your company has, more or less, a monolithic background, they may not be best prepared to serve a diverse public.

Of course, the way you diversify your hiring practices makes all the difference. It’s not appropriate, respectful, or prudent to say “Ok. Now we need someone from racial group X, and sexual orientation Y.”

Instead, prioritize finding highly qualified candidates, and make sure that your job openings are approachable to everyone, regardless of their background.

Want to Achieve Excellence in Innovation Management?

Gain the knowledge and develop the expertise to become an expert in Innovation Management. Our frameworks are based on the thought leadership of leading consulting firms, academics, and recognized subject matter experts. Click here for full details.

To be competitive and sustain growth, we need to constantly develop new products, services, processes, technologies, and business models. In other words, we need to constantly innovate.

Ironically, the more we grow, the harder it becomes to innovate. Large organizations tend to be far better executors than they are innovators. To effectively manage the Innovation process, we need to master both the art and science of Innovation. Only then can we leverage Innovation as a Competitive Advantage, instead of viewing Innovation as a potential disruptive threat.

Learn about our Innovation Management Best Practice Frameworks here.