Embracing a Growth Mindset to Drive Business Innovation and Customer Focus

Subheading: How To Stay Ahead of the Market Whilst Servicing Your Client Needs

Can embracing a growth mindset unlock new opportunities for your business?

There are several reasons why your business could benefit from adopting a growth mindset. Companies that take this approach strive to create a culture of innovation, continuous improvement, and collaboration. However, businesses with a fixed mindset can hinder growth and block innovation.

Atlassian, Woolworths Groups, Canva and Afterpay are some iconic companies that have embraced growth. One of the key benefits of embracing a growth mindset in business is its impact on innovation, creativity, and adaptability. Businesses need to constantly innovate to stay relevant and competitive in a rapidly changing market. A growth mindset can create an environment where employees are encouraged to explore new skills and ideas, take on challenges, and learn from their failures. Individuals with a growth mindset see them as opportunities to learn and grow.

In this article, we look at how businesses use a growth mindset to foster innovative and creative workplaces. Additionally, we focus on how businesses can win by embracing innovation and boosting productivity in the next financial year by prioritising their customers’ needs today and developing customers’ needs in the future.

Funding Consultant Tips to Foster Your Business Growth Mindset

• Provide Resources and Support: Your resources and the support you provide to your employees play a crucial role in your business growth. This might involve everything from access to the newest tools and technology to financing for research and development. Leveraging technology and digital transformation drives innovation and enables business growth. Telstra, the number one Telco provider of Australia, ranks globally in the top investors in research and development. Read below for how to gain business funding for your R&D.

 

• Innovation and Competitive Advantage: Evaluate your abilities and boundaries and introduce new skills, processes, and ideas. Innovation allows businesses to stay ahead of the competition by developing unique products and services. Embracing innovation gives you continuous improvement, allowing you to better meet market demands and maintain leadership. The Australian Government offers multiple grant funding opportunities to develop innovative solutions to challenges faced in the Australian market. See details below. Leverage these opportunities and explore available grant funding opportunities provided by the Australian Government to support the development of innovative solutions tailored to the Australian market’s challenges.

• Embracing Innovation Whilst Focusing on Customer Needs: Businesses that put a strong emphasis on their customers while innovating achieve strong success. By prioritising getting to know their customer’s requirements intimately, and making an effort to anticipate every stage of the customer journey, they reap rewards for elevating their business in a crowded marketplace. Here, a clear advantage emerges as your customers can distinguish your business from your competitors. 

How to Foster a Customer-centric Growth Culture with Market Innovation 

Embracing a customer-centric approach can transform business growth. Every stage of the customer journey is influenced by a business framework, which encourages a positive customer experience. A company that practices customer-centricity aims to foster customer loyalty and advocacy. Here are five key steps to enable a customer-centric business:

• Understanding and Involving your Customers: This involves gathering data and using it to empathise with customer needs and wants. Incorporating customer feedback into developing and improving products and services can help grow your business. Techniques such as focus groups, mystery shoppers, surveys, and social media listening are effective ways to understand customer preferences and tailor your offerings accordingly, fostering stronger relationships and loyalty.

• Aligning your Organisation:  Everyone in the business should be focused on delivering value to the customer. Empower your employees by equipping them with the tools and resources to serve customers effectively, whether it’s through digital solutions like CRM systems or physical resources like comprehensive training programs and customer service manuals

• Learning and Adapting: Continuously monitor customer feedback and use it to improve product and services. Technology and platforms can help boost this process. These include Google My Business for online presence management; monitoring social media platforms for customer sentiments and engagement; as well as conducting regular customer surveys all in a bid to gather insights into areas where firms can further improve on diversity and inclusion efforts. Through the adoption of these practices into their operations, businesses can demonstrate their commitment to ongoing improvement and responsiveness to the needs of their diverse customer base. 

• Understand your Customer’s Journey: The more you delve into your target audience, the better you will understand the customer journey, which refers to customer interactions with your organisation, from initial awareness to post-purchase support, ultimately leading to a deeper comprehension of what leads to customer satisfaction. 

• Provide Proactive Customer Service: One of the most effective methods to set your organisation apart from its competition is to give your clients extra value that goes beyond the time of purchase. This shows them that you’re truly invested in creating a delightful customer experience and will go above-and-beyond to deliver it to them.

 

 

Latest Australian Funding Opportunities for Your Business to Grow

Make this year count by accessing a range of grants and funding support to grow or assist your business. All these funding opportunities require you to be registered for tax, and when applying for these opportunities, you need an Australian Business Number (ABN) or an Australian Company Number (ACN).

• Research and Development Tax Incentive: Research and Development Tax Incentive (RDTI) totals more than $4 billion in funding for businesses each year. It promotes innovation by providing tax relief to businesses investing in qualifying R&D projects in Australia. The R&D Tax Incentive registration applications for FY24 are just around the corner, opening on July 1, 2024.   

1. R&D entities with aggregated turnover of less than $20 million: can claim the corporate tax rate plus an 18.5% premium as the refundable R&D tax offset.

1. R&D entities with aggregated turnover of $20 million or more: can claim the corporate tax rate plus an incremental premium as the non-refundable R&D tax offset. Premium increments are determined by your R&D Intensity. This is a percentage of your eligible R&D expenditure as a proportion of your total expenditure for the year. For any eligible R&D spending that amounts to up to 2% R&D Intensity, a non-refundable R&D tax offset is applied, equivalent to your corporate tax rate plus an additional 8.5%. For any qualified R&D expenditures exceeding the 2% R&D Intensity threshold, the non-refundable R&D tax offset increases to your corporate tax rate plus a 16.5% premium.

• CISRO Kick-Start Program: The CISRO Kick-Start Program is Australia’s second-most common government grant for businesses accelerating their growth. This program provides businesses with dollar-matched funding to promote research and innovation. Funding provided can be utilised for:

1. Researching a new product or service idea with commercial potential.
2. Developing an innovative or improved product or service idea. 
3. Testing a new product or service idea

            For this program to be eligible for the CISRO program, your business will need to   

            demonstrate your financial capability to dollar-match the funding provided, and either 

            have an annual turnover of less than $10 million, in the current and each of the 2 

            previous financial years, or have been a registered company for less than 3 years.

• The Business Research and Innovation Initiative:  (BRII): this challenge-based innovation program offers business funding for SMEs for Research and Development (R&D) for new-to-market technologies. This initiative is perfect for innovative businesses wanting to supply to government agencies and access national and international markets in order to drive their growth mindset. Business challenges are set and feasibility grants of up to $100,000 are awarded for the best solutions. 

Let FundFindrs grant specialists be your guide to unlocking countless opportunities.  Book a free consultation with our experts and discover how to unlock your business growth mindset with grant funding.