Along with its development, a company will face numerous challenges which bring significant changes. Over the past three decades, businesses around the world have been adapting to the relatively new waves of Industrial Revolution 4.0. While companies adapt to this dynamic, the pandemic also generates issues which influence the way businesses work. In dealing with such challenges, companies can stay afloat as long as it stays innovative. Innovation keeps a company in motion that it may not only survive difficult times, but also thrive above competitors. Here are 7 ways in which companies can create innovative culture.

1. Maintaining Good Communication

As social beings, we gain insight through discussions with other people whose ideas may be something we haven’t thought of before. To ensure innovation lives on, good communication must be maintained. This is why companies such as Netflix keep their innovation culture alive by keeping their internal communication effective through internal memos.

2. Respecting (and even Encouraging) Diversity

While differences in diversity may lead to conflicts, diversity also means diverse ideas. Celebrating diversity helps companies innovate through the unique minds of their employees. This is why gender and ethnic diversity will contribute a lot to a company. In innovative companies such as Microsoft and Twitter, gender diversity can be found even at the board level, where 33-42% of board members are women.

3. Nurturing the Oddballs

Great innovation rarely comes from following what’s acceptable. Today’s leading companies come from odd ideas which go against existing trend. Google, for example, was created at a time where searching phrases on a computer was unheard of. In the era of Friendster and MySpace, Facebook was not a necessity for internet users. Without oddballs who pursue strange ideas, these companies wouldn’t come into being.

4. Taking Safety Nets into Account

Innovation culture shouldn’t always be about going forward. Innovation will certainly be needed when things go wrong. Before the 2008 economic crisis happened, Michael Burry was noted as “the first investor to recognize the mortgage crisis”. Upon realizing this, his company switched investment and went against the trend. By making innovative investment, he gained $100 million personal profit and earned $700 million for his investors while shares were plummeting rapidly. 

5. Treating Failures as A Part of the Process

Adobe has an interesting story which shows how the company nurtures its innovative culture. To develop its Kickbox program, Adobe once offered $1000 for employees who would like to test their ideas – even if the ideas result in total failure! As a result, Adobe could test out 1000 ideas much faster. In a company where innovation culture thrives, failure is a part of a learning process where there will be tons of trials and errors. So, resources are never wasted on “failures”. 

6. Keeping Its Working Environment Humane

How do innovative companies such as Google keep its environment humane? By going as far as providing sleeping pods for employees to take a nap. For innovative companies, the human factor is never off the table. After all, ideas are a human thing.

7. Collaborating with Potential Allies

What is better than one innovative company? Answer: two or three innovative companies. In 2006, a merger between Walt Disney and Pixar happened. We can only imagine how innovative culture of the two companies collide, but we can see how countless ideas have become unique movies that yield billions.

Telkom DWS is a company that is committed to innovative culture. In the first year, Telkom DWS innovatively collaborated with Mitratel, and this innovative action resulted in 30% more efficiency and higher profitability. Innovative culture is needed even more during these uncertain moments. In many cases, innovation culture has proven to be a great ally for Telkom DWS, and it will always be.