Reason Innovation, Identity, and Impact Are the New Success Metrics
Narendra Choradia is a seasoned business leader and entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience across ecommerce, retail, corporate wealth management, and business development. He currently leads ecommerce at Adalrich, driving the brand’s growth on Amazon and Flipkart. As Founder of Madhur Jyoti, he excels in corporate branding and gifting. Narendra has held key roles in microfinancing and wealth management with Kotak Mahindra Bank and Morgan Stanley. A former Co-Chairman of the JITO Business Network and board member of the Jain International Trade Organisation, he champions strategic growth and entrepreneurship in Bengaluru.
In a recent interaction with M R Yuvatha, Senior Correspondent at siliconindia, Narendra Choradia shared his insights on ‘Why Innovation, Identity, and Impact Are the New Success Metrics’.
Innovation, identity, and impact have emerged as vital success metrics that redefine how businesses measure true value beyond traditional financial figures. Innovation drives advance by raising breakthrough products and disruptive business models that secure a competitive advantage in a fast-evolving market. Identity builds a powerful brand presence that cultivates customer trust, loyalty, and attracts aligned talent.
Building Strong Brands through Culture and Collaboration
A thriving organization is not a non-living entity but a complete ecosystem with its own culture, values, identity, lifecycle, and milestones. The identity of the organization rests on the premise on which it operates, and every aspect of the organization revolves around this. For instance, a company identifying itself as tech-driven will place technology at its core, whereas an organization that thrives on people will keep human resources as its core. All processes and systems that follow are based on this central theme.
A well-defined path ensures speedy decisions and implementation since clarity emerges at each level. The only challenge is that all management levels need to be aligned, from the CEO to the grassroots employee. This can be achieved by regularly sensitizing employees at all levels. The core mission helps organizations ensure that communication, both internal and external, conveys a uniform message, which in turn helps create a strong brand identity.
Mechanisms need to be in place to quickly identify and address any deviations for the longevity of the organization. In corporate gifting companies, entire systems and processes are designed with the recipient in mind. The customer becomes a partner in achieving this objective, with continuous feedback and follow-ups across various processes to ensure everyone is in sync and the stated objectives are met.
Driving Brand Identity through Segmentation
Any product offering from a company must establish clear positioning, which ultimately shapes the brand identity of that specific product. A company may manage a single brand or multiple brands within its portfolio. While the overall brand portfolio is guided by the company’s core mission, individual brands are positioned according to market segments such as economy, mid-segment, and premium levels.
Companies may choose to position products in one or more of these segments, as each segment has its own unique characteristics and presence in all segments helps maximize market reach. However, companies must exercise caution to avoid mixing product segments, as this can negatively impact sales.
In gifting companies, customer feedback and emerging trends in corporate products are crucial components of the innovation process. Factors such as customer price expectations and product durability play important roles. The customization process must also be carefully planned, along with managing the time required for mass production. Once these aspects are finalized, sampling becomes a key step, requiring client approval. Sampling is a continuous, interactive process with prospects until the stated goals are achieved.
By following this structured approach, companies save significant time, energy, and resources that would otherwise be wasted without consistent feedback. Additionally, the products become market-ready for other similar segments with minimal adjustments.
Continuous innovation is no longer optional for today’s businesses but a deemed necessity.
The Power of Innovation and Efficiency in Driving Sustainable Growth
For any business, the most important metrics are either cost reduction or profit enhancement, as these lead to a visible improvement in the balance sheet. Cost reduction includes efficiency improvements in processes and decreases in the costs of inputs such as raw materials, human resources, transportation, and warehousing. Profit enhancement involves increasing margins, adding new products using the same resources, geographical diversification, maintaining a dynamic product life cycle, discovering new markets, and creating demand through marketing tools.
Proactive organizations focus on these twin goals to create efficiencies and enhance productivity. When these two objectives are achieved, it naturally leads to social impact goals, where companies work toward generating a positive social impact. Organizations that survive long term understand the importance of giving back to society, making corporate social responsibility (CSR) an essential activity.
Continuous innovation is no longer optional for today’s businesses but a deemed necessity. Any growing organization must invest in daily, small improvements across every process whether in procurement, sales, branding, communications, dispatch, or employee training. This approach helps the organization evolve continually without experiencing transition shocks. Every lesson must be analysed and communicated to employees, making it an integral part of the organizational culture.
Every employee and partner should be encouraged to share their ideas and experiences. With such an open culture, any deviations are quickly identified and corrected, thereby saving significant costs. This environment also helps employees become responsible, continuous learners and fosters the ongoing growth of the company.
Also Read: The Power of Strategic Innovation and Technology Integration for Brand Growth
Looking Ahead - Creating Brand Emotions
Today’s world demands speed with minimal mistakes, making continuous improvement in existing processes and systems essential. This approach helps organizations ‘achieve more with less’ by either reducing costs or improving net margins. Regular cost-benefit analyses are conducted, and any activities that do not fit within this framework are discarded. This exercise prevents the pursuit of unproductive efforts and focuses attention on money-generating activities.
When a new product is introduced following thorough market research, close attention is paid to the returns it generates. If the product performs well, new features are continuously added. Conversely, if it fails to meet initial expectations, features are adjusted to better suit customer requirements or the product is discontinued. Companies also measure product life effectiveness by considering returns, opportunities for new market segments with minimal adjustments, potential demand based on client interactions, and the creation of product mix permutations to generate new demand by targeting fresh segments.
Continuous innovation in product development, packaging, branding, pricing, bundling, delivery, communication, partnerships, aggregation, channels, and promotion must be driven at all management levels. Ultimately, the company takes pride in being an agent that generates a happiness quotient for the giftee, since the gifting industry is about creating positive emotions that enhance employee productivity, sales, and brand equity for customers.
