SYLVIA TIDY-HARRIS was busy taking bookings for her public-speaking agency when she was suddenly inspired. She realised she had far fewer women than men on her books and yet there were a lot of talented women who were experts in their field and would make brilliant speakers.

She trawled through possible website domain names and when she found www.womenspeakers.co.uk was still available she knew that it was too good an opportunity to miss.

Earlier this year the Women Speakers Agency was launched and now represents 120 high- profile women. They include the singer Toyah Wilcox, the runner Sally Gunnell and the former MP Edwina Currie. Tidy-Harris books them to speak at dinners, conferences and events.

“When I first had the idea I was astounded that nobody else had already thought of it,” said Tidy-Harris. “I have had an enormous amount of interest from companies looking for women speakers and I have had a huge amount of enthusiasm and support from women I asked to join the agency. Since the agency was launched we have taken as many bookings as we did for my original speakers agency.

“I knew that without innovation any business is going to become stagnant. You just can’t rest on your laurels and wait for something good to come along. You have to do something to make sure this happens.”

Adrian Collins, managing director of Ziggurat, brand consultant, said that innovation was vital to a business if it wanted to stay ahead of its competitors.

“Innovation is an ongoing process of staying ahead,” he said. “As soon as you think you have got it right, you need to tear it up and start again, because the hounds are always snapping at your heels. The minute you think you have got it right, warning bells should go off.”

Collins said the secret of successful innovation was being brave enough to take the plunge — and then being committed to seeing it through.

“We live in an analytical age where people are looking for safe bets and formulaic approaches to getting things right. But achieving success in business is all about being brave. Once you have an idea the key is to go out there and fight for it.

“You can have a great idea but if nobody knows you have it, it will wither on the vine. You have to work at it and stick at it.”

Collins pointed to the iPod as a classic example of how innovation could help a company stay one step ahead.

“Apple, the company behind it, could have sat back and enjoyed iPod’s success. But instead it increased capacity from 5 gigabytes to 10 and then to 40, and developed a smaller model. The company has kept on redefining the goal. Meanwhile, its competitors are still trying to catch up with the first iPod.”

Andrew Marsden, category director at Britvic Soft Drinks, said it was important to decide right from the start exactly what you were trying to achieve through innovation. The second step was to decide how much time and money you could afford to devote to innovation. The third step was to appoint someone in your business to be the champion of innovation and to ensure that it was pushed forward and produced results.