Against the backdrop of this new challenging framework, product innovation has simply turned into a gambling game. However, innovation remains the lifeblood for brand continuity. Therefore, businesses today need to assess whether their brand will be “the disrupter or the disrupted.” This is the first step towards devising the right strategy that can help them not only weather turmoil when it hits, but also set a strong foundation for the future.

No sooner has the pandemic restrictions begun to ease, than the world found itself grappling with a new uncertainty: the Russian-Ukraine war. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has exerted a visible toll on the economy rocking the global supply-chain balance. The prices of the commodities spiked as export activity crippled.

Post pandemic customers are increasingly critical of service quality and more demanding of meaningful engagements with their brands. They are on a lookout for real connections as well as unique and high-quality experiences that improve the way they live and work. To rise to today’s customers’ expectations, brands need to go beyond basic segmentation and halt the use of mass campaigns that fail to provide them with profound insights of customers’ expectations. This is where the need to innovate kicks in.

Organizations that place their customers at the heart of everything they do recognize innovation – especially amid commotion – as an opportunity that enables them to stand out. Through innovation, they can resolve consumer tension by providing exceptional experiences that can fashion lifelong loyalties.

Real innovators have the ability to take a deep dive into human understanding and use their imagination to envision how things could be based on people’s current behaviors. Focusing on the why rather than what enables innovators to unlock insights and present novel ideas and opportunities that prompt growth forward.

Modern world innovations cannot be based on personal motivations but rather on other’s desires and aspirations. For an innovation to be relevant, it must speak to both the heart and mind of the end user. Innovators need to tactfully craft meaningful solutions for long-standing problems that have often been taken for granted.

Once the understanding, the vision, and empathy are established, innovators need to figure out the unknowns in order to complete all the pieces of the puzzle. At this point research and testing are required to help find and address the blind spots. In this regard, the agility within the development process coupled with fast and efficient consumer research are the key to making the final product reach its full potential.
 

Challenges are opportunities in disguise. They can be the trigger for innovation, which may not be altogether new but instead better and necessary. Demands change every day, but change demands new ways to innovate and resolve tension. With understanding, vision, agility, testing and learning innovation, no matter how subtle, can be a breakthrough.