In order to innovate business, you must first acknowledge that change is happening. Traditional retailers are often finding out the hard way that change is coming, no matter what.
More than once at SAP Hybris LIVE: Digital Summit, we’ve heard variations on the phrase “Business innovation is like redesigning a plane while you’re flying it”. How do you run your traditional business at the same time as crafting new streams of revenue?
Melding old with new: How to innovate business
Ulf Bonfert is head of the Enterprise Commerce Product Group, but as a software developer he prefers to keep the solution as simple as possible. Other talks at SAP Hybris LIVE: Digital Summit have mentioned four-speed systems, but for Bonfert two speeds are enough: keep your core business as usual, and use dedicated teams for innovation.
Bonfert used Spotify as an example: the music streaming giant has small teams responsible for building and operating certain features. The teams that built those features are the biggest experts, so it makes sense for them to be responsible for the features until they go end of life.
If you really want to innovate, you need to pull teams out of your core business, keep them separate and get them coming up with new ideas. Eberhardt Weber of lieferladen.de said to just “try things out” and make mistakes, but this isn’t always possible. There is budget to consider, and others in your business need to be patient and prepared for the fact that the innovations you are creating won’t always work.
You need to be supported in your quest for innovation by every department in your business, and to do this you need to own the message. You don’t want others in the enterprise hearing about developments that may affect them on the rumor mill. “They might be afraid that they are losing their jobs, or just feel threatened,” said Bonfert.
At the same time, it’s vital not to forget your customers. They also may feel unsettled if they see you changing the way you do business. According to Bonfert, “they need to understand why you are doing it, and what value it brings for them.”
Finally, you need to come up with KPIs to measure how successful your new processes have been, and whether you integrate them or throw them away.
If this sounds like it won’t work in your business environment, there is another way. You can turn to a software vendor to take advantage of their expertise. SAP Hybris as a Service (YaaS) Markeplace, for example, offers a range of services, so you can pick and choose which you need for your own particular business environment.
The combination of Hybris Commerce and YaaS could let you easily create a dedicated commerce front-end for mobile, or spawn microsites for a new country or for a new range of celebrity-endorsed products.
Whatever you decide to do, said Bonfert, SAP Hybris is here to help. “We at SAP Hybris are fully embarked with you to help you safeguard traditional business and innovate on top of solutions we provide to you.”
