MICRO, small and medium enterprises (MSME) exporters are called to continuously innovate harder or faster and more efficiently to meet the needs of the consumers and employ a human-centered approach to innovation to achieve business success.
During the recent Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) National Capital Region (NCR) Mini Caravan 2024, lawyer Jocel Isidro Dilag, chief innovator at Bughaw Creative Consulting, said innovation should be anchored deeply in what the users need.
“We need to change the thinking from making people want the things that we create to creating things that people actually want,” Dilag said. “If we are talking about exporting, intentionally, we should be looking for information about what the people in other countries actually want, where (they) would actually buy.”
“We should not be focusing on (the fact that) I am a Filipino, this is my ‘Filipino-ness’, you should like products because I am Pinoy. We can be brand ambassadors of our ‘Filipino-ness’, our Filipino brand, but it shouldn’t shortcut the initial process of first understanding who you are selling it, or who the people would be appreciating your innovative products and solutions,” he added in mixed English and Filipino.
Dilag underscored the importance of “design thinking,” a human-centered approach to innovation.
Citing global design firm IDEO chief executive officer Tim Brown, he said, such an approach “draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of the people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.”
“We talk to people wherever they are. They have feelings, they have wants, they have needs, and they have personalities different from us. The beauty of design thinking as a framework is that we put that person in the middle of everything that we do. So at the end of the day, at the end of the process, you are creating a solution that will be appreciated by them and definitely, they will want to park their money for your product or your service,” Dilag said.
He added product preferences of consumers in different countries vary.
Dilag said the intersection of desirability, feasibility and viability is what is called the “most valuable design.”
“Innovation need not be grand. What is important is that you are continuously innovating,” he said. “It may be as simple as changing the materials or changing the way you communicate something to the market –that would already be innovation.”
“If innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower, you don’t want to just follow another business success. You want to be paving your own roads to success and that means that you should know what kind of new business you could enter into,” he added.
Dilag said it is thus imperative to innovate how a business model looks using a business model canvas.
He said a business model canvas is a simplified plan that can be put on a single page, detailing and describing how a business intends to make money.
“It allows companies to visualize and assess the current status of their business to help them understand and analyze what could be subject to innovation,” he said. / PHILEXPORT NEWS AND FEATURES