Entrepreneurs are continually on the hunt for small business ideas to spur business growth. Most small business owners feel a major innovation will put their business on the fast track. The reality is, in the mad dash to innovate, entrepreneurs overlook seemingly insignificant opportunities that are certain to stimulate business growth. Daniel Isenberg, Professor of Management Practice at Babson College, has a much more practical small business idea – minnovation!
Isenberg describes minnovation as mixing small parts of novelty and creativity with huge helpings of flexibility scrappiness and a generous portion of hard-driving execution or, as he more succinctly defined it on the Harvard Business Review Blog, small tweaks and excellent execution. That makes such sense, doesn’t it.
Although fanciful dreams of spearheading the next big innovation the likes of Marc Zuckerberg of Facebook, Larry Page of Google, or the late Steve Jobs of Apple linger in the mind of many entrepreneurs, the likelihood of innovation of that magnitude is questionable. Implementing the principle of minnovation, however, can stimulate a significant growth spurt in your business.
As a strategic coach, I experience the phenomenon of minnovation in action every day. It’s not the major overhaul or substantial innovation that puts a business on the track to growth, it’s the small tweaks that support sustainable business growth. Whether it’s fine-tuning an existing business idea, putting a different spin on a current product or service, upgrading the business model, invigorating marketing practices – the opportunities for minnovation are endless.
Don’t overlook the growth opportunities in your business – become a “minnovator”.
