Businesses need to rethink innovation strategy
26 Aug 2021
Businesses need to rethink new strategy especially in research, rapid prototyping and commercialisation in navigating their operation to remain resilient in facing new business landscape due to Covid-19.
Finnext Capital Sdn Bhd business director Aizat Rahim said businesses ranging from various industries, small and medium enterprises, government agencies, and bigger conglomerates are moving ahead and ready to innovate since the pandemic onset in the country over a year ago.
He said this in the Cyberview Tech Talk Webinar: The New Reality of an Endemic: Unlocking Post-Crisis Growth through Innovation on Tuesday.
According to him, most organisations are already anticipating changes and taking new and different approaches, with some growing more aggressive and others scaling down operations.
However, he added that businesses continue to face challenges in term of building cost effective solutions, optimising manpower and finding the right way to start their innovation especially in digital adoption.
“When looking to innovate, it is critical to look at the key fundamental area before moving to advance the innovation further ahead,” Aizat said.
“We must look deeply at our fundamental area first, whether it’s in terms of operation, customer support and move on to digitalise that part first-hand before jumping into innovation solely based on trends,” he added.
Additionally, Itxotic Sdn Bhd partner Ammar Zolkipli, added that the challenges are more of the struggle in finding the solution which complies with the Covid standard operating procedures that enables businesses to pivot while safeguarding the health of the public.
Currently, the business and society need to adapt to the reality of the pandemic so they can utilise the long-term gain through innovation.
Consider Japan, where businesses don’t just use technology for the sake of using it; instead, they examine the current available technology and incorporate it into their operations while considering longterm benefits, workforce supply and product measurement.
Apart from that, he also highlighted that putting the human element in innovation such as being customer-centric is also an important aspect that should not be overlooked as this will influence the customer’s decision.
“Customer are likely to spend more once they have established a connection even though the price might be a bit higher than the other competitors,” Ammar said.
Adding to it, Cyberview Sdn Bhd Technology Hub Development Division head Shafinaz Salim, said in line with one of Cyberjaya’s new masterplan clusters of smart mobility, their role is to facilitate the physical requirement to ensure the facilities are ready for innovation from time to time because things are becoming very agile these days.
“While facing disrupted market demand, most businesses are still looking to pivot. Therefore, it can be achieved if the players rethink their new way of offering by looking at the research and development (R&D), solutions and innovation strategy through the Cyberview ecosystem.”
“This is important to ensure the productivity and sustainability of each business, as well as keeping resiliency in facing rapid changes,” she said.
“At Cyberview, we want to tap into the bigger market beyond just technology and R&D by tackling larger communities that are more inclusive to all the ecosystem.”
She also added that the smarter approach would be opening a new market for Cyberjaya’s robust ecosystem especially in the area of manufacturing and security while keeping an eye for the future through technology and research.
Source: The Malaysian Reserve
