This is the age of value creation and I strongly think the quote “knowledge is power” should be revised into value creation is power. This is not to say knowledge has no value in our society, but the reward is higher when it is transformed into a product or service. The freelance marketplace is built solely on this new concept and it is creating the platform for innovative professionals to thrive. It is expected that this trend will redefine the workplace and reward only value creators. How then do you awake your creative ability and join this caliber of professionals? Here is my take on how anyone can awake their skills for innovative value creation always.
Get informed
Value creation is only accessible to people who are aware of the opportunities within their chosen niche. However, you cannot change what you don’t have adequate knowledge about. If I must say, it is easier this day to catch up with the current state of things in a business sector. So, don’t just watch the market, get involved and understand the limitations and anticipate the next need or opportunity. At every second someone is thinking about how to outweigh an existing idea and offer a better solution. An example is how the CEO of Innovart Design, Wei Cheng Chou and his team are using technology to change the way drivers communicate with each other and minimize the age-long issue of road rage in the process. Their device is called Carwink and it is rapidly bringing an end to traffic cones and other traditional means of car to car communication. However, this would not have been possible without Wei Cheng Chou and his team investing their past years to acquire the needed knowledge about the industry.
Get involved
There is a saying that “if you can’t beat them join them”, in my world “if you want to beat them you must join them”. Now that sounds more like it right! How can you beat them if you don’t have both the knowledge and experience in that niche business? So, get involved and soon you will identify an opportunity to innovate and create value. For example, there is nothing new about rearing chicken and selling eggs. However, when Betsy and Brian became creative with this business by providing additional value as they encourage openly raised chickens and pastured raised eggs their customer base and network grew. They started with just 6 chickens and work their way to the top by being involved in the process. The company now has over 250 network of farms producing pasteurised raised eggs.
Get the skills
There is no way you can create something different unless you are willing to come up with a new approach. To achieve such level of success one might need to learn, update and unlearn certain skills. This is the stage where diligence becomes an important virtue to have because most people prefer to be handed everything they need in life. When Jennie Doyle bagged his degree and became an expert in renewable energy it was just a step towards acquiring the skills needed to realize his goal. Today he is a founder of one-stop review sites for portable solar kits. He had to familiarise himself with different types of renewable technologies, particularly solar kits, website management and content development skills. Nowadays, it is easier to acquire the skill you need without having to spend years in an academic institution. There are affordable online courses on how to create a website if you wanted to take a business idea online. There are free courses on the programming language or software applications. It’s not as difficult as it used to be, so get the necessary skill to enhance your value creation and increase business sales.
Get support
Money has often been used as an excuse to fail but not in the digital age. There are quite numbers of outlets like Crowdfunding and kick-starters that can be used to drive your product ideas. However, funding is not always the answer sometimes, what you need might be expertise or collaboration to get you started. The best support anyone can ask for is mentorship. Take time to look for winners in your niche and mirror their strategies. It’s not really hard to find one these days with the social media tools at everyone’s disposal. We are all a pyramid of people pushing each other upward so choose your support carefully. You don’t want to find yourself on the ground.