How To Innovate

Most people look at their jobs as routine tasks. In some cases the tasks and/or routines are repetitive. On the whole, we don’t often think of ourselves as innovators. However, life is always showing us that if we just stop and attempt to think ‘outside the box’ for a few minutes, we can often become innovative. It is a learned capability. You don’t need to be born with a creative mind. You can teach yourself to think creatively. It’s easy to do and just takes practice.

To learn to be more creative start small. Take one item or task you want to change and think about it whenever you have a few free minutes. Spend time looking through magazines always keeping your item or task in mind. Research it online. What are other people saying or doing about that task or item? Talk about it with as many other people as you can. They do not have to be related to the task or item in any way. Sometimes people who know nothing about what you do are best as they may have a suggestion that is way out there, but just might work. Don’t readily dismiss an idea. Maybe you can use a part of one idea combined with a part of another idea.

A few years ago we were trying to come up with a way to catch our customers’ attention and remind them that we were going to the packaging show. Every company is inundated with invitations that come via mail and e-mail reminding them to stop by the various booths at the upcoming show. We wanted to make sure that our invitation would at least be read. As a teenager I had a lot of pen pals and always looked for unusual writing paper. One year I found a box of writing paper that included small cardboard tubes. The letters could be rolled up, inserted in the tubes, labeled, stamped and mailed out. Everyone who got one loved it. We took that concept and rolled up our invitations and put them inside small translucent bottles. We labeled and stamped them and sent them out. The invitation promised a free gift if brought back to our booth at the show. We had a record number of visitors that year and got back dozens of the invitations at the booth. Everyone loved the ‘message’ in a bottle idea. All it took to come up with the idea was spending some time thinking of a new delivery system.

The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.