Innovation management
Encyclopedia
Innovation management is the discipline of managing
processes in innovation
. It can be used to develop both product and organizational innovation. Without proper processes, it is not possible for R&D to be efficient; innovation management includes a set of tools that allow managers and engineers to cooperate with a common understanding of goals and processes. The focus of innovation management is to allow the organization to respond to an external or internal opportunity, and use its creative efforts to introduce new ideas, processes or products. Importantly, innovation management is not relegated to R&D; it involves workers at every level in contributing creatively to a company's development, manufacturing, and marketing. By utilizing appropriate innovation management tools, management can trigger and deploy the creative juices of the whole work force towards the continuous development of a company. The process can be viewed as an evolutionary integration of organization, technology and market by iterating series of activities: search, select, implement and capture.
Innovation processes can either be pushed or pulled through development. A pushed process is based on existing or newly invented technology, that the organization has access to, and tries to find profitable applications to use this technology. A pulled process tries to find areas where customers needs are not met, and then focus development efforts to find solutions to those needs. To succeed with either method, an understanding of both the market and the technical problems are needed. By creating multi-functional development teams, containing both engineers and marketers, both dimensions can be solved. The lifetime (or product lifecycle) of new products is steadily getting shorter; increased competition therefore forces companies reduce the time to market
. Innovation managers must therefore decrease development time, without sacrificing quality or meeting the needs of the market.
Common tools include brainstorming
, virtual prototyping
, product lifecycle management
, idea management, TRIZ
, stage-gate process, project management
, product line planning and portfolio management
.
Innovation is the change that outperforms the previous practice. To lead or sustain with innovations, managers need to concentrate heavily on the innovation network which requires deep understanding of the complexity of innovation. Collaboration is an important source of innovation. Innovations are increasingly brought to the market by networks of firms, selected according to their comparative advantages, and operating in a coordinated manner.
When a technology goes through major transformation phase and yields a successful innovation then it becomes a great learning experience not only for the parent industry but for other industries as well. Big innovations are generally the outcome of inter and interdisciplinary networking among technological sectors along with combination of implicit and explicit knowledge. Networking is required but network integration (networking of networks) is the key to success for complex innovation in today’s era where diverse technologies are available at its best. Social economic zone, technology corridor, free trade agreement and technology cluster are some of the ways to encourage organizational networking and cross functional innovations. To win with innovation in a flat world we definitely need complex networking and crowd-sourcing.
Management
Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively...
processes in innovation
Innovation
Innovation is the creation of better or more effective products, processes, technologies, or ideas that are accepted by markets, governments, and society...
. It can be used to develop both product and organizational innovation. Without proper processes, it is not possible for R&D to be efficient; innovation management includes a set of tools that allow managers and engineers to cooperate with a common understanding of goals and processes. The focus of innovation management is to allow the organization to respond to an external or internal opportunity, and use its creative efforts to introduce new ideas, processes or products. Importantly, innovation management is not relegated to R&D; it involves workers at every level in contributing creatively to a company's development, manufacturing, and marketing. By utilizing appropriate innovation management tools, management can trigger and deploy the creative juices of the whole work force towards the continuous development of a company. The process can be viewed as an evolutionary integration of organization, technology and market by iterating series of activities: search, select, implement and capture.
Innovation processes can either be pushed or pulled through development. A pushed process is based on existing or newly invented technology, that the organization has access to, and tries to find profitable applications to use this technology. A pulled process tries to find areas where customers needs are not met, and then focus development efforts to find solutions to those needs. To succeed with either method, an understanding of both the market and the technical problems are needed. By creating multi-functional development teams, containing both engineers and marketers, both dimensions can be solved. The lifetime (or product lifecycle) of new products is steadily getting shorter; increased competition therefore forces companies reduce the time to market
Time to market
In commerce, time to market is the length of time it takes from a product being conceived until its being available for sale. TTM is important in industries where products are outmoded quickly...
. Innovation managers must therefore decrease development time, without sacrificing quality or meeting the needs of the market.
Common tools include brainstorming
Brainstorming
Brainstorming is a group creativity technique by which a group tries to find a solution for a specific problem by gathering a list of ideas spontaneously contributed by its members...
, virtual prototyping
Digital prototyping
Digital Prototyping gives conceptual design, engineering, manufacturing, and sales and marketing departments the ability to virtually explore a complete product before it’s built. Industrial designers, manufacturers, and engineers use Digital Prototyping to design, iterate, optimize, validate, and...
, product lifecycle management
Product lifecycle management
In industry, product lifecycle management is the process of managing the entire lifecycle of a product from its conception, through design and manufacture, to service and disposal...
, idea management, TRIZ
TRIZ
TRIZ is "a problem-solving, analysis and forecasting tool derived from the study of patterns of invention in the global patent literature". It was developed by the Soviet inventor and science fiction author Genrich Altshuller and his colleagues, beginning in 1946...
, stage-gate process, project management
Project management
Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, securing, and managing resources to achieve specific goals. A project is a temporary endeavor with a defined beginning and end , undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, typically to bring about beneficial change or added value...
, product line planning and portfolio management
Project Portfolio Management
Project portfolio management is a term used by project managers and project management organizations, , to describe methods for analyzing and collectively managing a group of current or proposed projects based on numerous key characteristics...
.
Manage Complex Innovation
To manage complex innovation, ask the right questionsInnovation is the change that outperforms the previous practice. To lead or sustain with innovations, managers need to concentrate heavily on the innovation network which requires deep understanding of the complexity of innovation. Collaboration is an important source of innovation. Innovations are increasingly brought to the market by networks of firms, selected according to their comparative advantages, and operating in a coordinated manner.
When a technology goes through major transformation phase and yields a successful innovation then it becomes a great learning experience not only for the parent industry but for other industries as well. Big innovations are generally the outcome of inter and interdisciplinary networking among technological sectors along with combination of implicit and explicit knowledge. Networking is required but network integration (networking of networks) is the key to success for complex innovation in today’s era where diverse technologies are available at its best. Social economic zone, technology corridor, free trade agreement and technology cluster are some of the ways to encourage organizational networking and cross functional innovations. To win with innovation in a flat world we definitely need complex networking and crowd-sourcing.
See also
- Technology ScoutingTechnology ScoutingTechnology scouting can be regarded as a method of Technology forecasting or in the broader context also an element of corporate foresight. At the same time Technology Scouting also contributes to Technology Management by identifying emerging technologies, channel technology related information...
- Technology forecastingTechnology forecastingTechnology forecasting attempts to predict the future characteristics of useful technological machines, procedures or techniques.-Important aspects:...
- TandemLaunch Technology Scouting
- Technology Transfer and scouting Blog