The demand for fresh, innovative ideas has never been higher. As a result, companies looking to maintain a competitive edge are increasingly turning to specialised services that can provide them with the insight and expertise they need to become more innovative. The most notable example of these services is an innovation consultancy, which can offer invaluable support to businesses at every stage of the innovation process. 

Today’s article will highlight the benefits of investing in innovation consultancy services. We will also explain how Bestiario can help you enhance your innovation lifecycle - from idea discovery to scalable product development.

What Is An Innovation Consultancy?

An innovation consultancy is a specialised service provider that helps organisations foster creativity, develop new ideas and implement more effective innovation strategies. These consultancies are equipped with experts in various fields, including technology, design, business strategy and project management, enabling them to address the unique challenges and opportunities of each client. 

By partnering with an innovation consultancy, businesses can access external insights and methodologies that enhance their internal innovation capabilities. This typically involves identifying key areas for innovation, generating and refining ideas, prototyping new products or services and guiding the implementation process to ensure successful outcomes. 

The ultimate goal of an innovation consultancy is to bring transformative ideas to life and cultivate a sustainable culture of innovation that drives long-term growth and a competitive advantage.

Benefits of Investing in an Innovation Consultancy

Most companies struggle with incorporating the concept of innovation in their day-to-day operations due to cultural resistance, lack of a structured process, and limited resources dedicated to nurturing and implementing innovative ideas. An innovation consultancy addresses these roadblocks by offering a structured approach to creativity and innovation that helps businesses generate new ideas, evaluate idea feasibility and strategically implement new innovative concepts. Moreover, even if a company has a dedicated innovation lab, they are likely to benefit from working with external partners to help them accelerate the process of coming up with and prioritising new ideas and turning them into potential solutions or prototypes.

With this in mind, let’s take a look at some of the biggest benefits of investing in an innovation consultancy.

Access to Specialised Expertise

Investing in an innovation consultancy gives businesses direct access to specialised expertise that is often not available in-house. These consultancies bring together a diverse team of experts from various fields, including strategic planners, digital technologists, designers and sector-specific consultants. This multidisciplinary approach allows for the cross-pollination of ideas and ensures that a variety of perspectives are considered when tackling innovation challenges. Moreover, innovation consultants often have broad industry experience and a deep understanding of market trends, which enables them to tailor their strategies to the specific needs of the client, providing insights that are both actionable and impactful.

Enhanced Innovation Strategy

An innovation consultancy can significantly enhance your organisation's innovation strategy by introducing structured processes and fresh perspectives. Consultants work to understand your business objectives and market environment, helping to align innovation efforts with your overall strategic goals. They provide frameworks and tools that facilitate effective ideation, prioritisation, and execution of innovative initiatives. This strategic guidance helps companies to focus their resources on the most promising opportunities and avoid common pitfalls. Plus, innovation consultancies can help to embed innovation within the company culture, ensuring that it becomes an ongoing, integral part of the business rather than a series of one-off projects.

Accelerated Growth and Competitive Advantage

Finally, investing in an innovation consultancy can lead to accelerated growth and provide you with a robust competitive advantage. These consultancies help businesses to rapidly prototype and test new ideas, reducing the time it takes to bring innovative products or services to market. By facilitating a faster turnaround from conception to execution, companies can capitalise on emerging opportunities before they become mainstream. Additionally, innovation consultancies use their expertise to identify and implement disruptive technologies and strategies that can significantly alter market dynamics. This proactive approach to innovation not only propels growth but also positions companies as industry leaders who set trends rather than simply follow them.

The Role of Bestiario in Innovation

So, how does Bestiario tie in with all of this?

Put simply, we offer a range of comprehensive services that cover the entire lifecycle of innovation - from discovery to scalable product development.

Here’s how our holistic and agile approach can help your business stand out as an innovative industry trailblazer.

Discovery and Development Processes

Our team can guide you through the initial, critical stages of innovation. This initial discovery phase is crucial for gaining a thorough understanding of where your company can most effectively apply innovative solutions to drive significant impact.

Our approach begins with comprehensive workshops with our client teams to identify their most pressing issues. These workshops are designed to unearth and understand key pain points, ensuring that any innovations are precisely targeted to address real needs. By aligning these pain points with strategic business goals, Bestiario helps set a firm foundation for subsequent innovation efforts. 

Ideation and Design Fiction

After identifying key areas for innovation, Bestiario provides a dynamic ideation process. This stage involves generating a wide range of ideas and employing design fiction to explore their practical applications. This acts as a powerful tool to visualise potential futures where these ideas have been implemented, providing a tangible sense of how innovations might play out in real-world scenarios. As a result, stakeholders can easily assess the feasibility and impact of each idea, ensuring that only the most promising concepts move forward. Ideation and design fiction also play a critical role in securing internal buy-in, as the process helps teams visualise potential benefits and encourages alignment across departments.

Agile Prototyping and Scalable Solutions

Once a viable idea has been refined, Bestiario adopts an agile approach to develop and test prototypes. This phase is characterised by rapid iteration, where feedback is continuously integrated to improve the product or service. By creating Proof of Concepts (POCs) that can be quickly tested and adjusted, Bestiario ensures that innovations are both effective and scalable. This agility allows businesses to quickly adapt to evolving market conditions without excessive investment and develop scalable, efficient solutions that are ready for broader deployment.

Venture and Innovation

Finally, we support companies in the creation of innovation strategies by building a roadmap that addresses their identified business needs, providing a clear vision and direction. As a strategic partner, we also support teams throughout the process of "selling" and getting buy-in from the business by building prototypes and materials that help unlock budgets and convert POCs into fully scalable products.

Get in touch today to find out more about our services!