There are many different paths to achieving business success. For some, it may be through hard work and determination, while others may find success through innovation with creativity, data, and automation.
No matter what your path is, it’s important to stay up to date on the latest trends and technologies to stay ahead of the competition. In this podcast recap blog post, we will discuss how innovation derived from creativity, data, and automation can lead to success.
Recently caught up with Alex on the Tech Backstage Podcast
The Tech Backstage Podcast is a live streamed video podcast that goes behind the scenes with today’s leaders of industry to learn what technologies are solving business problems, and how Design Thinking applied to the future of technology is impacting the world.
Tech Backstage interviewed Alex Garcia Gonzalez to learn more about his journey from adopting a dog, to building one of the biggest B2B pet care companies in Mexico.
We learned how Alex found it difficult to catch hold of better foods and treats for dogs, and how he began to dig into the pet care industries in Mexico. Alex was astonished to find that only a few industries offered innovation compared to the pet markets in the U.S.
The aim to improve and better the lives of pets lead Alex and his co-founders to launch a business to provide foods that were better for them. They started by selling brands of better foods and treats for pets through eCommerce platforms and tech tools.
The co-founders always looked forward to making a lovely and enjoyable customer journey for pet lovers and improving their pets’ quality of life.
The success of Alex’s company, Pet Markt Co, was a combination of creativity, data, and automation. Let’s look at the value of all three.
Creativity
To innovate, you must be creative. It’s that simple. Too often, people try to come up with new solutions by looking at things in a different way, when really, all they’re doing is rearranging the same information.
“To truly innovate, you need to look at problems from a fresh perspective and come up with creative solutions.”
To come up with new ideas and solve problems, you need to be creative. Many people think that creativity is a skill that you are born with, but this isn’t true. Anyone can learn to be creative if they put in the effort.
The first step to becoming more creative is to keep an open mind. Be receptive to new and different ideas, and don’t be afraid to try something new. It’s important to be flexible and adaptable in your thinking.
Five Steps to Becoming More Creative
Step One: Be Willing to Take Risks
The first step to becoming more creative is to be willing to take risks. This means being okay with making mistakes and not being afraid to try new things.
Step Two: Be Open to New Ideas
The second step is to be open to new ideas. This means being willing to listen to others and consider different perspectives. It also means being open to change and trying new things.
Step Three: Be Persistent
The third step is to be persistent. This means not giving up when things become difficult and continuing to strive towards your goals.
Step Four: Be Patient
The fourth step is to be patient. This means giving yourself time to experiment and not getting frustrated if things don’t work out immediately. Sit in the question long enough to let the answers emerge.
Step Five: Believe in Yourself
The fifth and final step is to believe in yourself. This means having confidence in your abilities and knowing that you can achieve anything you set your mind to.
Data
Data is the lifeblood of any business. It’s what drives decision-making and helps companies improve their products and services. In the world of b2b tech, data is even more important. That’s because it can be used to create innovative products that solve real-world problems for customers.
According to a study conducted by MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte, over 60% of executives say that data-driven decision-making is “critical” or “very important” to their success. However, only 24% of companies surveyed said they were very effective at turning data into insights. Clearly, there is room for improvement!
“By analyzing customer data and using it to drive product design and development, companies can create products that are in high demand and tailored specifically to their customers’ needs.”
A recent study by Forbes Insights found that data-driven innovation is the key to success for B2B tech companies. According to the report, 60% of respondents said that data was “critical” or “very important” to their innovation process. This should come as no surprise, given the amount of data that is available today.
The challenge for businesses is finding ways to make use of all this data to drive innovation.
By leveraging big data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI), coupled with strong creative thinking, businesses can gain powerful insights that help them improve operations, identify new market opportunities, and create better customer experiences.
We learned in the Tech Backstage podcast how Alex uses Google Data Studio, for example. Alex put all their ERP data into the Amazon warehouse, and from there, they pull out data using the google data studio.
First, they have their commercial forecast in terms of sales and strategies. Then, they compare themselves with how they do operations according to the plans in a day or week to check if their status matches with what they had forecasted.
With it, they can predict units and money since they are essential dimensions in sales. They can also pull their financial data and compare their forecasted EBITDA with their real-time EBITDA monthly. They can also have all the primary sales data in the google data studio that integrates the sales happening on Amazon.
We also learned how they make sure to pursue marketing and advertising efforts to move the sellout to their retail partners. Secondly, using the Data Studio, they make more predictive analyses.
These tools and data help to forecast the trends to check what will happen if they move at this rate, if they require more stock, or if they need to inform their supplier ahead of time if it is required to make more products so that it will be easier to ship when the consumers order them. Thirdly, marketers also need tools for automating campaigns on Facebook and other platforms.
Alex states that feeding the tools with the correct data is required to make them better and more efficient. Therefore, the data studio has been a faster, more innovative means of productivity.
Automation
Automation is a huge part of tech and is ingrained in almost all modern companies’ development platforms. It is because it improves accuracy and safety, reduces waste and human error, and increases productivity and ease of scalability.
For instance, let us check how Pet Markt Co. integrated the automation process from the initial stage and how it developed into a full-fledged system on its own:
● Partner with third-party logistics: The company operated by partnering with third-party logistics in Mexico. The third-party provided ready systems to operate the company’s inventory and pick orders.
● Build your own systems: Next, the company built their own warehouse to identify what orders had been ordered by customers and how fast they were delivered. The visibility and integration were successfully set up with their ERP. All the orders, deliveries, and other data went through the ERP into the google cloud database depending on the level of integration.
They were quickly notified to the slack channels about the orders if the orders were shipped, packed, or had been delivered. It did not require any reporting about the happenings in the industry.
● B2B Automation: The company also has automation in terms of marketing. For instance, when customers order products, they make sure it is validated after the account is successfully created in the e-commerce platform and mapped to HubSpot which inputs the information into their ERP.
Automation process can positively impact a business while also coming packed with various complexity, but the business will surely soar with such successful business strategies.
Pet Markt Co. is an inspiration for how it was initially founded and how it developed its business system with the help of tech tool. It challenges other companies by making better market products and helps pet parents provide their furry companions with a quality life with better foods and treats.
Conclusion
To innovate at a higher level, you need creativity and data. Many people think that creativity and data are two separate things, but the truth is that they go hand in hand. To solve problems and come up with new ideas, you need to be creative.
To determine whether those ideas are good ones, you need data. After you’ve unlocked innovation, having automation in place will help you scale it in a sustainable way.
The key to innovation is combining creativity and data to come up with the best possible solutions, and finally using automation to streamline operations at scale.
