Companies need to be willing to change to survive, but purely recognising the need to adapt isn’t enough. Ben Aspinall, commercial director at DoorCo, explores the importance of truly embracing innovation and having the bravery to lead by example.

Innovation is widely acknowledged as a driving force behind economic progress, social development, and organisational success. At its core, innovation involves introducing new ideas, products, processes, or ways of thinking that create value.

In an increasingly competitive and rapidly changing world, innovation is not only a nice-to-have – it’s essential for business survival and growth.

Innovators are ground breakers, challenging the status quo and pushing boundaries, but they are also organisations that keep abreast of technological advancements, shifting customer expectations, and competition. This makes them better equipped to meet new demands, improve efficiency, and differentiate themselves.

Rehashing existing products is not innovation – and organisations that think it is, risk becoming obsolete, as more forward-thinking rivals take their place.

Innovation is also important for the ecosystem of a sector. A lack of innovation makes the market more reactive, customer choice narrows, and differentiation becomes harder to achieve. A race to the bottom on price ensues and the market becomes stagnant. And we all know that in business, standing still is rarely neutral – it can quickly become a step backwards.

A brave step forward
When operating against a difficult economic backdrop, as we are today, it’s important to keep moving forward even when the desire to change and innovate can feel like a brave step to take.

Forced enhancements, where legislative updates on energy efficiency and security standards dictate focus onto developing better performing products, is not the same as innovation. We get lots of change thrust upon us without the choice of whether to adopt it, so to also choose to change involves an element of bravery – but that’s how you set yourself apart from the competition and keep your customers moving forward too.

Opportunity knocks
Whether it be transformational, incremental or process driven, DoorCo has always been brave and driven forward the opportunities true innovation presents. We recognise that those who consistently innovate are better equipped to meet new demands, improve efficiency, and differentiate themselves from competitors.

Technological advancements, shifting consumer expectations, and our desire to keep a competitive edge drives us. We understand that without innovation, we risk slipping backwards by purely trying to remain still. That’s why we continually invest in our people, product development, manufacturing, customer experience and service delivery, creating solutions that offer greater choice, convenience and performance.

Innovation at DoorCo
It is not just about big new product launches (small changes can be just as impactful), but also making improvements in customisation, digital systems, manufacturing, logistics and customer service, help deliver a more complete and competitive offering.

Take our ‘One’ campaign. It’s enabled customers to confidently move across to DoorCo as their sole supplier of composite doors, but it’s taken a lot of innovation to ensure that we not only deliver everything they need, but it is better than they had before.

‘One’ covers every aspect of our business and continues to get better through constant innovation. We moved away from traditional service models so for example, distribution customers can work on a JIT or next day delivery basis, or access additional manufacturing support.

Manufacturing customers can order online, track and communicate better. Digitalisation plays a huge role in delivering better connectivity and enhanced customer experience, and internally, with the ability for EDI integration and to streamline processes for greater efficiency without compromising quality.

Of course, product development is central. We continue to build market-leading solutions that combine performance, choice and convenience: The ever expanding BritDor range, the extensively tested FireCore range, the pioneering GripCore hybrid door, and a purpose-built Stable Door across two product ranges.

We are enhancing opportunities across our core product range, with new designs featuring premium grain effects and finishes, the largest ranges of exclusive glass designs, and a wide selection of colours, finishes and foiled components.

For DoorCo, innovation is about enabling customers to reach new parts of the market, creating new sales growth opportunities and additional revenue streams. And it’s under constant review. Innovation is part of how we operate daily and we will never stand still.