Lighthouse Examples to Foster the Innovation Ecosystem...Measuring innovation capabilities in a...

Lighthouse Examples to Foster the Innovation Ecosystem January 2017

IMP³rove – European Innovation Management Academy www.improve-innovation.eu 2


Table of Content

Executive Summary 5

Roadmaps to enhancing innovation management capabilities 7

Roadmaps for policy-makers 7 Roadmaps for intermediaries 8 Roadmaps for consultants 9 Roadmaps for managers 11 Roadmaps for academia 12

Overview on case examples and lessons learnt 13

Selection criteria for the case examples 13 Selected case examples themes 13

Selected case examples 14

Assessing trends in innovation management leveraging a global network 14 Creating awareness for innovation management as a key success factor for enterprises and economies 16 Enhancing international competitiveness by innovation in developed countries 19 Promoting design as a driver for innovation 21 Measuring innovation capabilities in a large company with a heterogeneous set of Business Units 23 Mastering challenges in transforming a successful family-owned business 24 Providing advice to consortia running publicly-funded projects on developing a sustainable (business) model 26 Analysing and comparing the innovation management capabilities and performances of SMEs in agrifood clusters across Europe 28 Fostering digital innovation capabilities with the Digital Innovation Quotient 30 Providing on demand training “Introduction to Root Cause Analysis” for an Enterprise Europe Network Consortium 32

Facts and figures about IMP³rove 37

The IMP³rove global databases 37 The IMP³rove global networks 37 The IMP³rove training offerings 37 The IMP³rove – European Innovation Management Academy – a born global start-up 38


Abbreviations 39

Table of Figures 39

About IMP³rove – European Innovation Management Academy 40

Contact 40


Executive Summary Innovation management has become a common topic of discussion in public, in academia and within organisations. It is well understood that innovation needs to be part of any organisation to adjust to the changes in technologies, customer demand and behaviour, sustainability requirements, market trends and global challenges.

The IMP³rove services, established now for 10 years, reflect this development. In the meantime, the IMP³rove database is the largest global benchmarking database1 on innovation management with more than 7,000 enterprises that have completed at least one of the IMP³rove assessments. Thus, the database provides a solid basis for research on innovation management data on firm level, a level of detail that is hardly achieved by national or regional statistics. The IMP³rove databases offer unique insights into SMEs’ needs in innovation management support. Research has been initiated on the specific support requirements of SMEs in defined regions, industry sectors or for special enterprises’ size classes.

The benchmarking tools including IMP³rove Assessment, the IMP³rove Root-Cause analysis and the IMP³rove Sustainability Driven Innovation Management, will be complemented by Digital Innovation Quotient (IMP³rove DIQ) in 2017 supporting enterprises in identifying their digital readiness in comparison to their peers.

Figure 1: Service portfolio of IMP³rove – European Innovation Management Academy

1 For further details on the IMP³rove benchmarking databases please also see section “Facts and figures about IMP³rove”


Complementary to the benchmarking tools and services the IMP³rove training programme has been developed. It now addresses all key dimensions of innovation management, with training programmes on the following topics: developing an innovation strategy for SMEs, removing cultural barriers to innovation, developing the innovation lifecycle processes and innovation value networks, design and innovation management, and business model innovation. These thematic training courses are complemented by benchmarking tool-focused courses, such as: “Introduction to the IMP³rove Approach”, “Introduction to Root-Cause Analysis”, and “Introduction to the IMP³rove DIQ”2

Demand for consulting services and technical assistance came from both the private and public sector. Guidance on how effective innovation support programmes should be established was provided to public institutions. Private companies were looking for support in benchmarking as well as in identifying the right strategic direction for SMEs, e.g. in the manufacturing sector, given the challenges from digitisation and industry 4.0.

These services are designed for immediate impact by improved innovation management capabilities. Moreover, in the longer-term the organisations’ strategic positioning, and in the case of private organisations, sustainable profitable growth is also expected to improve. The roadmaps outlined in this collection of case examples illustrate the value for the various target groups that the IMP³rove services are designed for.

The following collection of case examples is the second one published by IMP³rove – European Innovation Management Academy - highlighting the diversity of stakeholders that benefit from IMP³rove’s services, and the wide variety of implementation approaches.

We would like to express our sincerest thanks to the European Commission represented by Dr. Sven Schade and EASME, represented by Gunnar Matthiesen for their support, guidance and most valuable input in making IMP³rove future ready.

2 To be launched in 2017


Roadmaps to enhancing innovation management capabilities The IMP³rove innovation management support services have been used in very different ways by the various actors in the innovation eco-system. In the following sections, typical roadmaps illustrate the versatility of the IMP³rove services to develop innovation management capabilities. These examples are illustrative and have been, and will be, adapted to the specific actors’ needs in the future.

Roadmaps for policy-makers Once policy-makers see the need for action e.g. due to lack of competitiveness of enterprises, the first objective is to gain transparency in the enterprises’ – mainly SMEs’ – innovation management capabilities, and their growth in the number of employees. In a second step, the policy-makers aim to introduce measures to enhance the SMEs’ innovation management capabilities with effective support measures. In a final step, the impact from the innovation policies is measured.

Figure 2: Roadmap for policy makers

For gaining transparency in the enterprises’ innovation management capabilities, the IMP³rove online assessment is the basis. To mobilise a representative number of enterprises, these IMP³rove Assessments can be collected as part of the application for the IMP³rove Award or an innovation management award. The enterprises in the sample will immediately receive feedback on their innovation management capabilities, in comparison with the growth champions and the average. The automatically generated IMP³rove benchmarking report highlights the firm’s strengths and weaknesses. Identifying the gaps will help management define actions to close those gaps.

The data collected on firm level with the IMP³rove Assessments establish the basis for the IMP³rove research and analyses in which areas the companies in a certain region or a defined industry sector have their weaknesses and need further support. It also shows in which areas they have already demonstrated their strengths for (re-)gaining competitiveness. This helps policy-makers to focus their innovation policies, aiming at improving the SMEs’ innovation management capabilities.


The publicly funded support actions are delivered via a tailored IMP³rove training programme, that is complemented by consulting and coaching services delivered by IMP³rove trained business advisers and consultants.

The impact of the support measures is assessed again e.g. by the SMEs’ participation in an IMP³rove Award after the improvement measures. It creates transparency on the innovation policy’s effect.

With such an approach, a large country with almost 80 million people managed within three years to mobilise more than 800 companies to participate in the national innovation award that is based on the IMP³rove Assessment. Funding to support the SMEs in developing their innovation management capabilities was allocated on a regional level to address the specific requirements in the various regions. Trained IMP³rove consultants provide assistance during the IMP³rove Assessment, as well as afterwards, when the gaps were identified in the IMP³rove Assessment report and action plans had to be developed.

In a large European country, the development agency provided support services to high growth SMEs based on the IMP³rove Assessment results. For a specific sector, the agency requested the insights from research on the IMP³rove database. In a sanitised presentation, the specific requirements of this sample were illustrated and explained. The research results helped the agency focus their support directly on those companies with strong need for innovation management support.

Roadmaps for intermediaries Intermediaries - such as trade associations - might not have the financial power to organise a national or even international award in order to mobilise their members taking part in the IMP³rove Award. The motivation to participate is triggered by the association’s marketing activities to position their members on international trade shows and conferences at potential customer groups etc.

These associations invite their members to complete the IMP³rove Assessment. Once the defined number of benchmarking reports have been generated, they ask IMP³rove Academy for a detailed analysis to highlight the members’ strengths. On the flip side, the association wants to understand their members’ weaknesses in order to support them to achieve a higher level of competitiveness.

Figure 3: Roadmap for intermediaries to support their members


If the associations’ members have already completed their online IMP³rove Assessments because they were part of a cluster initiative or of a national programme, the association immediately can ask for the IMP³rove research and if required, for IMP³rove coaching.

A national trade association that is (re-)presenting their members at international trade fairs highlight their members’ innovation management capabilities as an asset for international customers and business partners. Thus, the IMP³rove Assessment and the IMP³rove research services help both the companies and the trade association.

Figure 4: Roadmap for intermediaries to develop their staff

Intermediaries also leverage the IMP³rove support services for the professional development of their staff members. The IMP³rove training programme includes training courses on basic, beginners, intermediary and advanced level. Furthermore, the IMP³rove Certificates indicate the level of expertise that the trainee has achieved. These levels include: “IMP³rove Guide”, “IMP³rove Expert”, “IMP³ove Senior Expert” and “IMP³rove Auditor”. Each certificate is based on the proof of practical experience in innovation management assessment and support as well as of the knowledge gained in innovation management.

A public agency has included some of the IMP³rove levels of proficiency in their job descriptions as an asset for candidates that apply for these vacancies. Thus, they motivated their staff to take the exams required to achieve the next level.

Roadmaps for consultants Consultants supporting SMEs in developing their innovation management capabilities need to prove their effectiveness and efficiency, as well as their differentiation in the highly competitive consulting market. In addition, they need to be at the frontend of innovation management thinking. With the benchmarks that the IMP³rove Assessment offers, the IMP³rove online assessment tools, the IMP³rove training and certification programme, plus the international network of like-minded experts, consultants appreciate the value that these services create.


Smaller private consultancies in particular differentiate their services by presenting the IMP³rove logo on their website and highlighting the effectiveness and efficiency of these services. In addition, they can state that these services are compliant with the European standardisation documents (CWA 15899 and CEN TS 16555). The IMP³rove Approach gives them a clear structure for their support services that they can communicate to their SME clients. This gives the SME manager confidence that the consulting support is manageable from the client side.

Figure 5: IMP³rove approach

The consultants’ IMP³rove roadmap usually starts with training, before they acquire a licence to get access to the IMP³rove online services, and gain practical experience in leveraging the IMP³rove Assessment tools during the consulting process.

Building on many years of industry experience a senior manager decided to establish his own consultancy. As a start-up, he was forced to win consulting projects quickly. With the IMP³rove Approach he turned seven out of ten IMP³rove Assessments into consulting projects within less than 12 months. This is far beyond the average in this industry.

Many consultants have their own tools, however, they would like to develop their knowledge in innovation management issues. They make use of the advanced training programme to expand their expertise in key dimensions of innovation management. At the same time, these training programmes offer unique opportunities for peer-learning, networking and future collaboration.

By involving consultants, IMP³rove has taken an innovative approach in developing the next generation of the innovation assessment: The Digital Innovation Quotient. The structure of this assessment, as well as the questions, have been co-developed and validated with many consultants in Europe and beyond. Their focus was on ensuring that the questionnaire is applicable to and digestible by SMEs.


Roadmaps for managers Managers seeking approaches to further develop their organisation and prepare it for future challenges start their “IMP³rove journey” with the IMP³rove Assessment, either with support of a consultant or solely with internal resources. When they analyse the IMP³rove Assessment report they might identify areas where they would like to further improve their capabilities and performance. In these cases, they might engage in a consulting project, in further training in innovation management, or in a workshop with a clearly defined topic related to innovation management. Very often these workshops centre around strategic issues, such as how to embrace digitisation as a strategic direction for the organisation.

In another case, the owner of an international wholesaler for medical devices wanted to explore the opportunities involved in entering the field of B2C online business. Therefore, he sent two members of his management team to get trained in innovation management as a test. For the other managers, the training is planned to take place as an in-house training programme. The steps that needed to be explored in more depth were how to develop the online business as a separate unit to the core business.

Figure 6: IMP³rove Assessment Report

Ambitious managers use the opportunity of an innovation award where they submit their IMP³rove Assessment report as one of the criteria to qualify. Contrary to other innovation awards, each participant will have already gained valuable insights during the application phase. The contestants receive detailed benchmarks in innovation management just by taking part in this contest. This creates the basis to prepare for increased competition in the market in the future.

In particular, SMEs that have a limited budget for marketing present their performance in the IMP³rove Assessment on their website. They upload the IMP³rove radar diagram that features their company’s scores in comparison to the growth champions and the average. Thus, the SMEs demonstrate their focus on innovation, while at the same time indicate in which of the five key dimensions of innovation management they have already reached above average rates.


Roadmaps for academia Universities strive for innovative approaches to education. They often seek also more collaboration with local enterprises. For their research, they are looking for unique and valid data. Therefore, there are three different entry points for academic institutions to tap into the IMP³rove offerings. The programme “IMP³rove for Students” offers an innovative, action-learning oriented approach. Students in master courses on innovation management-related topics are trained in the IMP³rove Assessment, and use the online tools to support SMEs in completing the IMP³rove Assessment. Once the SMEs have generated the IMP³rove Assessment report, the students will analyse it and develop effective improvement measures suitable for the SMEs’ situation, for their level of ambition and the firm’s size. The students will present and discuss their recommendations in class before they present their results to the SME’s management. The students will document this real case-based experience in their paper - including the feedback from the SME’s management - that will be part of the results the students have to deliver for their credits.

Such a programme is easy to integrate in any master programme, with focus on innovation management. However, it takes some lead time until the university administration has incorporated it into their curriculum. Only then can the students receive the credits.

Figure 7: Benefits from “IMP³rove for Students”

A large technical university with a strong international reputation has already completed the fourth year of this “IMP³rove for Student” course. The application for this course usually exceeds more than 50 percent of the course’s capacity. Other universities have launched this programme or are currently initiating it.

With the IMP³rove for Student programme, universities also strengthen their network of local enterprises for joint projects and research activities.

Another entry point for universities and research institutions is the large global innovation management benchmarking database of thousands of enterprises in different industry sectors, different countries and regions. Various research topics can be enriched with real data at firm level. As of 2017, the IMP³rove assessment on digital innovation will complement the existing and still growing IMP³rove databases.


Overview on case examples and lessons learnt The cases for this second IMP³rove collection have been selected to complement those from the first collection and confirm the feasibility and adaptability of the IMP³rove innovation management support services in very different contexts.

Selection criteria for the case examples The following criteria were applied for the selection of the case examples:

• International scope

• Diversity of stakeholders and services covered

• Scalability of the cases

• Key learnings and adaptability

• Uniqueness

Selected case examples themes The selected cases illustrate very different challenges and demonstrate how these could be turned into opportunities. The themes include:

• Assessing trends in innovation management leveraging a global network

• Creating awareness for innovation management as a key success factor for enterprises and economies

• Enhancing international competitiveness by innovation in developed countries

• Promoting design as a driver for innovation

• Measuring innovation capabilities of a heterogeneous set of Business Units

• Mastering challenges in transforming a successful family-owned business

• Providing advice to consortia running publicly-funded projects on developing a sustainable (business) model

• Analysing and comparing the innovation management capabilities and performances in agrifood clusters across Europe

• Fostering digital innovation capabilities with the Digital Innovation Quotient

• Providing on demand training in “Introduction to Root Cause Analysis” training for an Enterprise Europe Network Consortium


Selected case examples The following case examples illustrate the way different stakeholders in the innovation eco-system made use of the IMP³rove innovation management support services in very different regions, countries, industries and contexts. The case examples highlight success factors that representatives from very different stakeholders can learn from, such as: from the global reach of the Global Innovation Index, to the individual SMEs that benefitted from the IMP³rove innovation management support and from national innovation initiatives, to meeting the demand of a small team of consultants by further enhancing their innovation management capabilities.

Assessing trends in innovation management leveraging a global network This case describes how IMP³rove Academy contributed as a knowledge partner to the publication of the Global Innovation Index

The stakeholders In 2015 and 2016, IMP³rove – European Innovation Management Academy has been serving as a knowledge partner of the Global Innovation Index (GII). The GII is co-published on an annual basis by Cornell University, INSEAD, and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The GII serves as an action-oriented tool for policy-makers to identify the relative strengths and weaknesses of their countries in offering an enabling environment for innovation. Moreover, the GII can serve to inform businesses who are considering to extend their business footprint to new countries.

The stakeholders’ need/demand for innovation management support The Global Innovation Index consists of two key elements: Firstly, a ranking of countries with regards to innovation inputs (institutional environment in a country, education, infrastructure and others) and innovation outputs (such as intellectual property), covering a total of approximately 80 indicators. Secondly, the GII covers a range of content chapters every year, centred around a specific theme. In 2016, the theme of the GII is “Winning with global innovation”. In this context, the publishers were seeking to cover a business perspective on the theme of the GII – providing fresh data and analysis.

IMP³rove support provided In 2016, IMP³rove – European Innovation Management Academy and A.T. Kearney surveyed more than 100 executives in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australia to assess their perspectives on global innovation management in 2020. The survey utilised our large network of innovation experts around the globe. The survey focused on five areas of interest:

• The future role of innovation for their company

• Changes in the footprint of their innovation activities

• Changes in the structure of their innovation partner networks

• Key challenges and benefits of global innovation management

• The role of public organisations In the following, we will share selected key results of the survey.


Figure 8: Expectations regarding the development of innovation networks

The executives represent a broad range of companies, and the findings demonstrate surprisingly broad agreement that innovation activities are becoming increasingly global.

Figure 9: Expectations regarding the importance of innovation partnerships in 2020 and review for last year

Moreover, executives expect innovation to become increasingly collaborative. This view of global innovation, in which the best-suited partner for a specific goal can be included in the innovation process regardless of his or her location, is both promising and challenging. An obvious challenge is how to find a partner for an innovation topic, which is especially difficult if the appropriate specialist is located far from innovation hot spots. Then there is maintaining an overview of the changing needs of global customers, and a list of potential start-up and small business partners - two groups whose importance as innovation partners is expected to grow exponentially in the next five years. Such challenges were almost impossible to overcome before digitisation allowed companies to interact with global customers on an individual basis, and before small-business partners located in remote parts of the world could join innovation networks.


Today, more than half of the executives anticipate that their organisations will lose one-fifth or more in revenues within five years as a result of disruptive innovation, if they do not change the ways in which they operate. Digitisation, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence are all disruptive sources of innovation that represent a clear call to action.

For free access to the full report, please see www.globalinnovationindex.org.

Impact achieved The Global Innovation Index received much media coverage to stimulate the discussion on how to further enhance framework conditions for innovation activities and their output: 30 days after the press conference, 6,506 media items were found mentioning “Global Innovation Index” or variants in the six UN languages, plus German and Japanese.

Potential way forward Policy-makers and businesses can utilise the Global Innovation Index to inform their assessment of framework conditions for innovation in various countries. Combined with company-level data on innovation capabilities, a comprehensive knowledge base can be created as a basis for policy development.

Creating awareness for innovation management as a key success factor for enterprises and economies This case outlines how public institutions gain knowledge on innovation management as the basis for better support services

The stakeholders Public organisations, such as ministries for economic development, development agencies, and trade associations face the challenge to enhance the innovation management capacity of enterprises. Their staff, however, often has a background that is not related to business administration in general, nor to innovation management in specific.

The stakeholders’ need/demand for innovation management support Ministries’, development agencies’ and trade associations’ staff responsible for programmes to enhance innovation management capacity in enterprises, especially in SMEs, seek insights into how innovation management generates impact on the companies’ sustainable growth, and on their ability to create jobs and secure employment. This is the basis they need to understand how they can best support these companies.

IMP³rove support provided International organisations - such as UNIDO, Asian Productivity Organisation, European Commission among others - have been supported in knowledge transfer on innovation management. This knowledge transfer includes the awareness-raising, education and measures that create impact on a national, on a regional level, on a firm level, as well as on the level of management and the individual employee.

Awareness-raising addresses the key success factors of innovation management, its implementation within organisations and across regions and countries. The shift needs to be taken away from the perception that innovation management is the process of generating ideas, developing them into new offerings and successfully commercialising them - to a more holistic approach. In the holistic approach, the innovation strategy, innovation culture and organisation, the innovation-enabling factors (such as IP management,

http://www.globalinnovationindex.org/


knowledge management, IT, financing etc.) are also considered, and effectively managed to contribute to the sustainable growth of the organisation.

Awareness creation turns into education when the public organisation’s representatives need to understand how the performance of an organisation’s innovation management and the interplay of the innovation management’s success factor can be measured and compared with other sectors or regions. This is the prerequisite for designing and implementing effective innovation support programmes. The IMP³rove assessment tools, as well as the large global IMP³rove benchmarking databases on innovation management, provide the necessary insights into developing the most suitable measures.

Defining the right measures to develop regions or national economies based on more effective innovation management follows two main criteria: the scope and the ease of implementation. The scope is defined by the number of various beneficiaries in the innovation eco-system and the intensity of the support. The ease of implementation is defined by the time and the effort required from the decision to the start of an innovation support action.

Public institutions that aim for a rather high impact and easy to implement support action usually start with an innovation management award. Depending on the design of this award, enterprises – both large and small - can be invited to the contest. In addition, trade associations, development agencies, clusters and other intermediaries are involved to mobilise their members. The key benefit of an innovation management award that is based on the IMP³rove Assessment is the fact that each participant will receive immediate feedback on their innovation management performance. Detailed benchmarks from “growth champions” and the average provide the management with clear insights into the strengths and weaknesses in each of the five key dimensions of innovation management, within less than 30 minutes after they have completed the IMP³rove Assessment questionnaire. This transparency will help the companies, and also their business advisers, to define measures that will address the specific improvement areas.

Longer-term oriented public support measures then use the research results that are based on the country’s or region’s aggregated IMP³rove assessment results, to design the support measures for those SMEs that demonstrated a clear growth ambition and the capability to further enhance their innovation management performance.


Figure 10: Development path for public programmes

The challenge is that public agencies are often subject to election cycles. In democracies, continuity of innovation support programmes bear the risk that they are only limited to a few years. Measuring the impact in the following election period is either no longer on the agenda, or if so, is difficult to implement. The SMEs that were the beneficiaries have no obligation or incentive to respond to surveys collecting insights into the innovation support actions’ impact.

Impact achieved With the examples from different countries, we see that awareness for innovation is rising in public institutions. This is visible in the names of those institutions. The dominating terms “research” and “technology” in the names of these institutions were either complemented by “innovation” or replaced by the latter. It is also visible in the programmes they launch. Technology transfer support is now next to innovation management support. In one country, the national innovation award has mobilised more than 800 companies. The public authorities now can build on this national database to analyse the local companies in comparison to the global benchmarking database, to identify the areas where further support actions might be needed. Thus, the award helps to focus the innovation support action. Public spending also becomes more targeted.

Furthermore, the level of innovation management knowledge in public institutions is growing. The support actions implemented contribute to the education of the staff in charge of these programmes. Hence, the measures also become more tailored, reflecting the size, the age, the level of ambition and the growth track record of SMEs. With the data on firm level, the IMP³rove database can compare, for example, the very young SMEs (age 3-5) with the slightly older ones (age 6-10) to identify what different support actions are required to extend the longevity of young companies.


Figure 11: Comparison of young companies’ performance in defining innovation process parameters

Potential way forward Best practice examples will help to support large international and national institutions to increase their awareness of and their knowledge about innovation management and its impact on sustainable growth. The detailed innovation management benchmarking databases, that are continuously developed both in breadths and in depths, will establish the foundation for more educated and therefore more effective innovation management support measures.

Enhancing international competitiveness by innovation in developed countries This case outlines how the IMP³rove approach and support services are introduced to a national innovation agency

The stakeholders In a developed country, rather isolated by its geographic position, the national innovation agency supports enterprises to become more competitive by innovation. Given the rather small national economy, competitiveness on an international level is the only means for local companies to scale up. Therefore, focus of the national innovation agency is on turning research and development results into successful offerings at national and international markets. To achieve these objectives, the agency offers a wide range of services. They include support on technology and product development, access to experts to solve technology and business problems, knowledge-sharing related to technologies and innovation, developing innovation skills, as well as access to finance for R&D investments. The innovation skills development programme starts with the IMP³rove Assessment to create a baseline of the company’s innovation management capabilities and international competitiveness.


Besides the national innovation agency’s staff, a number of private consultancies deliver in-depth innovation consulting services. They offer assistance to companies during the IMP³rove Assessment. Thus, they help the firms’ management to gain insights into the international benchmarks on topics such as time-to-market, time-to-profit, and effective practices in innovation processes. Building on these insights the companies receive in-depth consulting services.

The stakeholders’ need/demand for innovation management support Given the limited market size, the innovation agency aims to enhance the local companies’ competitiveness on an international scale. The international benchmarks provided by the IMP³rove benchmarking database (with more than 7,000 companies from 80 countries3 around the world and from very different industries) build a solid basis to gain insights into the local companies’ specific innovation support requirements. Therefore, in 2016, the national innovation agency decided to get their experts trained in the IMP³rove Approach. To reach scale, the agency also invited external experts to take part in the training and thus develop the innovation eco-system. 50 percent of the participants were agency staff members, and 50 percent came from local and international consultancies. With the support of the trained experts, a national database of companies will be developed that will build the basis for research on the strengths and weaknesses in innovation management. The research results will create transparency on the specific support actions and policies required to enhance the innovation management capabilities and performance for international competitiveness.

IMP³rove support provided The experts were trained in the IMP³rove Approach on site, and received online support during the assisted assessments conducted at local companies. Thus, the IMP³rove trained local experts could deliver the IMP³rove support services to local companies in a most effective and efficient manner.

In order to also meet the need for more in-depth innovation management consulting support, an online training programme was implemented that focussed on the strategic part of innovation management. In a pragmatic and modular approach, the participants learned the key steps to develop an innovation strategy in line with the company’s level of ambition and their competitive pressure.

Impact achieved The number of companies in this country that benefitted from the IMP³rove Assessment increased to almost 30. Many of them also received comprehensive consulting support from private consultants that were trained by IMP³rove – European Innovation Management Academy, not only in the IMP³rove Assessment and the benchmarking approach, but also in how to develop an effective innovation strategy. This innovation strategy was developed based on a thorough analysis of the IMP³rove benchmarking report combined with close interaction with the company’s management team. The international benchmarks helped to identify best practice in time-to-market and time-to-profit, as well as in growth in revenues and profit from innovation.

Potential way forward As a national institution, the innovation agency has to balance scale and impact. It should reach as many companies in the country as possible and support them with effective services to help the companies significantly increase their competitiveness by innovation. The involvement of external consultants rendering these services will help to achieve both the scale and the impact. However, many support services are provided to companies when their innovation management capabilities are not yet assessed. This bears the risk that these companies do not have the capacity to fully absorb the new technologies or new innovation services, and hence cannot increase their (international) competitiveness. As a result, the resources of both the 3 Figures November 2016


company and the national innovation agency are not allocated in the most effective and efficient manner. Therefore, a more needs-based approach is recommended. The need is identified by the IMP³rove Assessment. The external trained consultants can help to assess more companies and identify the support services that will have the biggest business impact. Then the national innovation agency can provide the – publicly-funded – support measures that will best contribute to the strategic goals of economic development. This approach will move from the “cafeteria” concept (choose what you like), to a strategic and impact-oriented offering that is needed to successfully compete in international markets.

Promoting design as a driver for innovation This case demonstrates how the IMP³rove – European Innovation Management Academy contributed to the planning and execution of an awareness-raising event on design-driven innovation management organised by a member of the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN).

The stakeholders In recent years, “design” has been identified as a key enabling factor for fostering innovation activities within organisations across industries and regions alike. In order to leverage this enabling factor on a regional level, a member of the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) wanted to raise awareness for this topic among key stakeholders of the regional innovation eco-system, encompassing representatives of small to medium-sized companies (SMEs), investors, business advisors and intermediaries.

The stakeholders’ need/demand for innovation management support A lot of discussion has been going on about how to utilise design methods, skills, and tools in order to foster innovation within firms. A number of case studies published in academic journals, blogs and newspapers outline the benefits of design approaches in a given situation. Yet, many companies, and especially SMEs, are still not aware of the benefits that design approaches offer to them beyond the tangible design domains, such as product or graphic design. Moreover, many firms struggle with transferring these approaches to their particular business contexts and managing design holistically within the firm. Hence, design-driven innovation initiatives often remain at a workshop level and many companies do not fully exploit the potential that design offers on a strategic and organisational level.

For these reasons, intermediaries and business advisers play a pivotal role in spreading the knowledge of design-driven innovation among firms and in helping them to implement design processes, skills, and tools on a sustainable basis. However, a large share of intermediaries and business advisers struggles with supporting their clients on design-driven innovation topics, given that the explorative and iterative nature of the most-widely used design approaches are perceived to be contradictory to their traditional, more linear consulting approaches. Consequently, in order to spread the use of design further, there is also a training demand among intermediaries.

Finally, given prominent examples of high-growth design-driven companies, and a number of studies indicating a positive relationship between design orientation of firms and financial firm performance, investors have also become interested in design as a driver of innovation. Yet, for many of these stakeholders, design remains a “fuzzy concept” that is difficult to measure and to extract from other factors influencing firm performance. Thus, if design shall be considered in the frame of investment decisions as well, and thereby further support its wide-spread use, frameworks and measurement approaches need to be communicated to financial actors, too.


IMP³rove support provided A member of the Enterprise Europe Network, who realised the stakeholder needs outlined above on a regional level, sought to address these needs by organising an awareness-raising event on design-driven innovation management at their premises. IMP³rove Academy supported this initiative from the very start. First, the scope of the event in terms of the content and participants was defined jointly. Building on IMP³rove Academy´s expertise in the given field, it was recommended to start the session with a holistic overview on design-driven innovation management by demonstrating frameworks, tools, and best practice examples. Moreover, it was proposed to enrich this session with an interactive workshop format, that shall enable the participants to experience the benefits of design in class. Second, IMP³rove Academy contributed to the event organisation by proposing a second speaker beyond an IMP³rove Academy staff member. In more detail, IMP³rove Academy suggested to take over the presentation of design-driven innovation management as a holistic concept and proposed to invite another guest speaker from IMP³rove Academy´s European network of experts in this field. This expert should have complementary capabilities that are required for facilitating design-driven innovation activities on an operational basis. Third, the EEN member and IMP³rove Academy jointly decided to invite a proper mix of stakeholders, rather than only one group, in order to spur on the topic discussion between the groups. In doing so, it was hoped that the multi-stakeholder perspective would contribute to a joint understanding of how to foster and utilise design-driven innovation within the local innovation eco-system.

Impact achieved Almost 50 stakeholders from the local innovation ecosystem participated in the awareness-raising event. The discussions with the participants during and after the session already indicated an increased interest in the topic. Moreover, many stakeholders confirmed that they gained clarity on the concept of design-driven innovation management and some indicated interest in further assessing opportunities for implementing design methods within their firms or within their clients´ firms respectively. Most notably, a representative from a locally-based company, whose business model was significantly affected by an unforeseen shift in the market, perceived the presented methodologies to be of particular importance for adapting their current business model. In turn, IMP³rove Academy sent further materials about related innovation management methods and tools to this company and remained at their disposal for providing further assistance on this topic.

Potential way forward This awareness-raising event provides a blue print for spreading the knowledge on design-driven innovation management across Europe and beyond. Moreover, further comparable events would contribute to a shared language of design-driven innovation among the various stakeholders of the innovation ecosystem. This shared language will be instrumental to effectively spur on innovation and create business impact. Hence, IMP³rove Academy will pro-actively search for further opportunities for co-organising such events.


Measuring innovation capabilities in a large company with a heterogeneous set of Business Units This case outlines how larger companies can gain by benchmarking their business units internally and externally in innovation management

The stakeholders An engineering company with heterogeneous business units in different industries, including aerospace and automotive, was represented by the COO and a team of lead engineers.

The stakeholders’ need/demand for innovation management support The client is facing challenges of broadening capability requirements, moving from a classic engineering business to business areas which require competencies in both IT and engineering. With this change, the required focus, effectiveness, and speed of innovation activities is also increasing to remain competitive. The client seeks to assess and benchmark innovation management capabilities of four Business Units (BUs) to identify improvement potential.

IMP³rove support provided In collaboration with consultants in the client’s country, we conducted a comprehensive benchmark of the company’s innovation management capability – across all business units.

The assessment took place in four phases: In the initial phase, all involved company representatives were briefed on the assessment, on required inputs and on expected impact of the assessment tool, to ensure a common understanding of its objectives, while simultaneously ensuring a common understanding of the key metrics considered in the assessment.

The second phase, the assisted assessment phase, then served to gather the required data and complete the IMP³rove Assessments in interaction with the client to enable an excellent contextual understanding of the client’s business - a key success factor for the assessment. Moreover, the consulting team was carrying out selected validity checks to ensure comparability of the inputs provided by the business units. An illustration of the assessment results is provided in the figure below.

In the third phase, a benchmarking class was selected in order to generate evaluation reports automatedly on the IMP³rove platform (www.improve-innovation.eu). In this phase, the IMP³rove database was instrumental. For example, in the assessment phase, it turned out that the time-to-market for one business unit was 18 months, for the other 36 months.4 Without further specific context, this finding would have been hard to interpret. The benchmarking database helped to highlight specifically in which business units these values were lagging behind the industry average and the performance of “Growth Champions” – leading companies in growth of revenues, profits, and number of employees.

In the third phase, we then developed a roadmap to enhance innovation management capabilities jointly with the client.

4 Numbers randomized to ensure anonymity.

http://www.improve-innovation.eu/


Figure 12: Illustration of an anonymised summary of benchmarking results for 4 business units based on IMP³rove Assessments

Impact achieved Utilising the IMP³rove database with more than 7,000 company-level assessments of innovation management capabilities, we provided concrete benchmarks for key performance indicators – e.g. clearly showcasing that the time-to-market for some offerings was significantly higher than the average time-to-market of other companies in the same industry and in comparable size.

The client gained a clear picture of competitive strengths and weaknesses in innovation management and received specific recommendations for improvement. Jointly with the client, a high-level roadmap to enhance innovation capabilities has been developed.

Potential way forward The heterogeneous nature of the business units clearly showed that aggregated, company-level assessments will not be successful. Assessments on the basis of business units helped to interpret the specifics of each business unit, while maintaining a highly effective and efficient approach based on online assessments and the ability to generate reports automatically using the IMP³rove platform. We recommend this approach with specific business unit investigation for any company covering a diverse set of business units (whether large or small).

Mastering challenges in transforming a successful family-owned business This case outlines how IMP³rove Academy supports SMEs in their transformation into a digital-ready organization

The stakeholders Many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that have completed the IMP³rove Assessment realise that they need to develop a strategic focus on their future growth. In most of the cases, these businesses are

1. AVG: Average; 2. GC: Growth champions (10% best performing companies); 3. New products or services, introduced within last 3 years; Source: A.T. Kearney, IMP³rove – European Innovation Management Academy

Average gap to GC 20-40<5 5-20 40-60 >60

Dimension Score Comparison to growth champions Illustrative

BU3BU2BU1 GC2AVG1BU4

Innovation strategy

Organisation and culture

Innovation life cycle processes

Enabling factors

Innovation results

1

2

3

4

5

• Success rate: few, mostly incremental projects, high success rate

• Speed: Time-to-Market for key product is 24-30 months depending on BU, AVG is 15 months

• R&D intensity: x% of sales, average in benchmark sample is x%

• Income from innovation3: BUs with x-y% of revenues driven by innovation – Growth Champions >30%

• Vision and innovation strategy: Lack of a consistent innovation strategy that serves to pro-actively focus efforts on future business growth areas

• Cultural readiness: Good innovation culture, passion for innovation with high score; partly lack of focus on impact

• Innovation organisation: Currently limited role of partnerships

• Learning and knowledge: documented, shared lessons learnt from project mgmt. not yet consistently leveraged

• Targets and controlling: Targets in innovation projects not yet consistently defined

9080706050403020100 100


family-owned. This creates not only a challenge from the business perspective, but also from a human and psychological perspective. When these companies are currently still very successful, an innovative approach to secure the company’s sustainable growth is rather difficult to implement, if this is against the conviction of the older generation that still represents the founders.

First generation well-established family-owned businesses with a solid track record are usually led by the founder or owner. The middle management (the level below the CEO) is often staffed with family members from the next generation in combination with non-family representatives. This diversity has the potential to either successfully lead the company to the next level or to create tension between the hierarchies and/or within the middle management. To channel the different perspectives on the strategic development of the organisation, the company has several options: they can initiate a family-internal discussion, or a discussion only led by the “young leaders”. The family-internal discussion limits the frictions within the family. The “young leader” approach, where also non-family members are included in the strategic discussion, creates motivation, commitment and loyalty beyond the family boundaries. However, it might lead to controversies with the CEOs representing the older generation.

The stakeholders’ need/demand for innovation management support Successful family-owned businesses often operate on international scale and provide their products to customers in many industries. They have a very good understanding of their customers’ (technical) problems and often co-create the solution together with their customers. On the other side, the still visible start-up mentality “help any customer that is willing to pay” increases complexity within their organisation by serving customers in very different markets. Their success is based on high customer intimacy. The management of these companies need support in defining their innovation strategy to focus on future growth opportunities, and in developing their organisation to translate their strategic goals into actions.

IMP³rove support provided Ambitious and growth-oriented family-owned SMEs are looking for advice on how to maintain the growth and competitive positioning of their organisation. Building on the IMP³rove Assessment, they gain insights into their strengths and weaknesses in innovation management. As a next step, they want to maintain and even further gain in competitiveness. To provide guidance and focus, a strategy workshop facilitated by an IMP³rove consultant as an initial “spark” for the organisation will trigger the activities needed to take the company to the next level.

In one case, the management of a well-established machinery company with about 70 employees decided to include their “young leaders” in this workshop. Thus, they had the chance to think and plan their own future. These “young leaders” represented both family members and non-family members. On purpose, the owners and founders were not taking part in the workshop to allow an open discussion on any strategic topics that were deemed interesting for the participants. The participants first defined their level of ambition in terms of growth and innovation. This gave them a common understanding of the dimension of change that they want the organisation to go through, as well as the timeframe within which they want to achieve their goals.

Based on a trend analysis they discussed the pros and cons of moving from manufacturing into big data business. Many of them saw clear opportunities in the mid-term. Equipping their machines with sensors that could collect the data would provide huge amounts of information. A deeper discussion then revealed that merely collecting data is not sufficient. Intelligence had to be developed from this data. In addition, the market and competition in big data analytics was an unknown area for the company. Therefore, for the short-term the company focussed more on their core competences in providing highly customised solutions in their specific manufacturing expertise, yet including solutions that will help their customers to capture the opportunities that


automation and connectivity yield. They decided to leverage their expertise by entering new geographic markets and new value networks and partnerships.

Essential for the long-term success is the readiness of the workshop participants to take the defined actions to the next level, and of the management to allow for innovative solutions, while giving up much loved processes and habits. Detailing and implementing the actions were part of the commitment of the management and the “young leaders”.

Impact achieved The company translated the strategic advice provided during the workshop into action in the following months. Thus, the company progressed on their journey from a family-sized to a multinational business They balance technology disruptions and new opportunities in the digital world on the one side, and the development of their core competences on the other side. Taking an outside view and identifying the opportunities, as well as the threats, helped the company to analyse in more detail which way to go as basis for taking more educated strategic decisions. It helped to think about the impact on the business from disruptive technologies and what measures to take to prepare for these changes.

Potential way forward Not only well-managed and highly successful family-owned business need to take this strategic view on their future challenges and opportunities. Moving from the benchmarks provided in the IMP³rove Assessment to longer-term actions includes the discussion on the strategic direction that the company should go. Getting prepared for the dramatic changes that are expected from disruptive technologies can start with a well-structured innovation strategy workshop. During this workshop, a clear 10-step approach is applied to define the company’s path to the future. This will help the participants to identify the opportunities and to keep on track. It has to be followed by an internal innovation project that details and implements the actions required to secure the company’s future.

Providing advice to consortia running publicly-funded projects on developing a sustainable (business) model This case outlines how the IMP³rove Academy provides advice to other EU-funded projects on potential routes for offering the developed services beyond the lifespan of the project.

The stakeholders Many publicly funded projects aim to develop methods, tools, services or other assets that are not transferred, per se, to the contracting authority, but that could be further utilised beyond the lifespan of the project. The question is, who will be the owner of these newly developed assets? The consortia running these projects are often comparably large and diverse in terms of both their consortium members, as well as their members´ organisations and strategic objectives. For example, it is not unusual to run a publicly-funded project jointly with representatives from academic institutions, public bodies, intermediary associations and the industry. The capabilities of the involved consortium members and member organisations are needed in order to properly carry out the tasks at hand, develop the necessary infrastructure and disseminate the findings among a broader audience. At the same time, the size and heterogeneity of these consortia also create a challenge when it comes to using or offering the project´s outputs on a sustainable basis. Public institutions may not be allowed to offer these services, whereas the private companies in the consortium may not have the funding to pay for the license for the intellectual property.


The stakeholders’ need/demand for innovation management support Typically, all consortium members have the same rights and obligations concerning the project. Hence, for making decisions on how to deal with the project´s outputs beyond the project´s scope, it is instrumental that all consortium members align to one specific model. Yet, with increasing heterogeneity and size of the consortium, the diversity of expectations and the number of objectives related to that particular model increases as well. This complexity often yields contradictory perspectives and ends in unresolved discussions on the most suitable model for offering the projects outputs, beyond the lifespan of the project. Consequently, the developed assets are not utilised further at all, or at least not to their full extend possible.

IMP³rove support provided IMP³rove Academy, as a best practice example in itself, often receives requests from consortia running publicly funded projects on how to manage the transition from a publicly funded project to a sustainable (business) model. For instance, a well-established large multi-national consortium, that received public funding over many years to create a knowledge platform for a specific innovation topic, received two coaching sessions from IMP³rove Academy. The discussions centered on the steps required for developing a sustainable model out of the project’s results, and for aligning the partners with their specific strategic intent. Defining a sustainable model puts the focus on the market and customer requirements. The alignment on the partners’ strategic intent often requires several iterations, as opportunities might arise again when the partners define their concrete roles in the new to be established entity. The two processes usually are executed in an interdependent approach. External expertise was recommended to accelerate the process and mitigate risks from too much “politics” within the consortium.

In a similar vein, IMP³rove Academy provided advice to a publicly funded project, which is still at an early stage. The consortium driving the project consists mainly of stakeholders from large corporations and academic institutions, while it also encompasses representatives from public organisations. Despite the early project phase, the consortium already considered the sustainability aspect of their work. In fact, promising approaches and methodologies that were proven to be successful, and that may further be shaped during the course of the project, could be utilised beyond the project’s scope. Yet, the consortium was wondering how this can be done and by whom? It was clear that a final answer to these key questions would have implications on the project´s execution. Hence, the consortium wanted to stimulate a discussion around this topic early on in the project. In particular, IMP³rove Academy was invited by the consortium to present their transition from an EU-funded project to a sustainable business model as one potential outcome of the project. Beyond outlining the key steps taken by the preceding IMP³rove project consortium, IMP³rove Academy pointed out the key lessons learnt, as well as potential pitfalls to be avoided, and contributed to the ensuing conversation further by providing an external view on the consortium´s current situation.

Impact achieved Both consortia mentioned above provided very positive feedback on the support received. The involved consortium members reported to have significantly benefited from the experiences that IMP³rove Academy has made, as well as from their guidance for further developing a suitable sustainability model for their particular consortia.

Potential way forward IMP³rove Academy is still in contact with the consortia that requested support on developing a sustainable model, utilising the developed assets beyond the project´s lifespan. Follow-up meetings, calls and other support actions are likely to be requested in the near future, in order to provide further guidance to these


consortia. Given the number of publicly funded projects where most valuable results are generated, even more consortia could build on this best practice experience to more effectively utilise these results in the future.

Analysing and comparing the innovation management capabilities and performances of SMEs in agrifood clusters across Europe This case outlines how IMP³rove Academy supported an EU-funded project on assessing the innovation management capabilities and performances of agrifood SME clusters spread across Europe.

The stakeholders The consortium running the EU-funded project encompasses stakeholders from academic institutions, regional development agencies, and other public and private bodies based in Europe. The key objective of the project is to foster open innovation activities within and across clusters of agrifood SMEs in Europe. In order to do so, an analysis of participating SMEs´ current innovation management capabilities and performances was needed. This analysis should provide the consortium with a baseline for identifying necessary improvement potentials among the participating SMEs and clusters respectively, and also enable the consortium to propose specific improvement measures.

The stakeholders’ need/demand for innovation management support In order to holistically analyse the innovation management capabilities and performances of SMEs involved in the project, while at the same keeping the required time for these SMEs to a minimum, the consortium was looking for a suitable approach that would properly balance these two objectives. One consortium member, a certified IMP³rove Consultant, sought advice from the IMP³rove Academy on the most suitable approach for conducting the respective task. Initially, the consortium intended to develop an interview questionnaire, that would capture various qualitative information. It was expected that this would keep the required effort from the SMEs at the lowest level. However, a discussion with IMP³rove Academy uncovered two particular things. Firstly, the envisaged qualitative approach would have yielded data that is comparably difficult to analyse, when it comes to assessing the differences between companies and clusters respectively. Secondly, the interviews would have hardly provided immediate benefits for the participating SMEs. Hence, IMP³rove Academy proposed to use a more quantitative, standardised and web-based approach that would enable the consortium to evaluate the SMEs’ innovation management capabilities properly, while at the same time enable participating SMEs to gain clear and concise feedback on their own performance, in comparison to that of their peers.

IMP³rove support provided In order to support the EU-funded project and to provide further benefits to the participating SMEs, IMP³rove Academy has started a strategic partnership with the consortium. This partnership encompasses the following aspects:

1. Presenting the importance of innovation management and the use of the IMP³rove Assessment during the project´s launch conference

2. Introducing the details of the IMP³rove Assessment tool to consortium members via an interactive webinar

3. Providing access to the IMP³rove platform for 140 companies (including 1 voucher code per participating SME for generating an IMP³rove Benchmarking Report)

4. Supporting the consortium in analysing the aggregated data gathered from the SMEs participating in the project

To mark the start of the collaboration, IMP³rove Academy held a presentation on the importance of innovation management in the agrifood value chain, and presented the IMP³rove Assessment at the project’s launch


conference. Almost 60 stakeholders, mainly representatives from food businesses and regional agencies, attended the event.

By introducing consortium members to the details of the IMP³rove Assessment tool, IMP³rove Academy sought to enable the members to encourage SMEs in the respective local agrifood clusters to use the assessment, and to support the interested SMEs throughout the assessment and benchmarking process. A virtual meeting with all consortium members in the form of a webinar was chosen for the introduction to the IMP³rove Assessment. This format provided a pragmatic approach to familiarising consortium members with the key functionalities of the tool, while avoiding the cost, time and environmental drawbacks of a physical meeting. Moreover, consortium members received a manual that explains the steps SMEs need to take from registering on the IMP³rove platform to generating an IMP³rove Benchmarking Report. Taken together, these measures provided sufficient basic guidance on the assessment for both the consortium members as well as the SMEs.

In order to provide an incentive to agrifood SMEs, IMP³rove Academy provided the consortium with sufficient voucher codes for generating one IMP³rove Benchmarking Report per participating SME. Doing so should help the consortium members achieve high response rates when contacting SMEs, while it should also encourage SMEs to provide the most accurate information when filling out the IMP³rove Assessment. In fact, based on the benchmarking approach, the participating SMEs themselves would only gain from the IMP³rove Benchmarking results, comparing their answers to those of their peers, if their input data is reliable and does truly uncover the gaps to the average and growth champions in their selected benchmarking sample.

Having gathered the data from all SMEs, IMP³rove Academy will support the consortium by analysing the aggregated information. The analysis will provide a baseline on the current innovation management capabilities and performances of SMEs. It will also provide insights into the similarities and differences among agrifood clusters and point at potential measures for improving SMEs´ innovation capacities.

Impact achieved The strategic partnership between IMP³rove Academy and the consortium has already contributed to a better understanding of a comprehensive innovation management system among key stakeholders operating within European agrifood clusters. In particular, the IMP³rove Assessment compliant with the respective international standard (CEN/TS 16555), encompasses aspects related to firms´ innovation strategy, innovation organisation and culture, innovation life-cycle processes, innovation-enabling factors and innovation results. Hence, the presentation of the method during the project´s launch conference raised awareness for the aspects that need to be taken into consideration in order to properly manage innovation within firms. Secondly, the virtual training provided consortium members with a better understanding of the firms´ key innovation management dimensions. Thirdly, representatives of agrifood SMEs that participate in the project and conduct the IMP³rove Assessment will benefit from a better understanding of the key dimensions of innovation management.

The enhanced knowledge of innovation management among these actors, has already paved the way for fostering collaborative innovation activities in a systematic and sustainable way, among key stakeholders within and across European agrifood clusters.

Potential way forward In the upcoming months, IMP³rove Academy will support the consortium by analysing the data gathered from the agrifood SMEs based on the IMP³rove Assessment. The results of this analysis shall feed into the development of more tailored support measures, addressing specifically the innovation management capabilities and performances of agrifood SMEs in Europe. Special attention will be paid to factors fostering or preventing open innovation approaches. By comparing the different agrifood clusters against each other, the


analysis may also uncover regional differences that imply the need to further differentiate support measures according to these necessities.

Fostering digital innovation capabilities with the Digital Innovation Quotient This case outlines how the new IMP³rove assessment tool on digital innovation is designed to give enterprises guidance on developing their digital innovation capabilities

The stakeholders This study was developed by a management consultancy and a trade association in Eastern Europe, with support from IMP³rove – European Innovation Management Academy. More than 200 members of the association participated in the study.

The stakeholders’ need/demand for innovation management support Digital is a key driver for innovation: Uber is a leading taxi company, but owns no taxis. Airbnb is among the largest accommodation providers and owns no real estate. Considering the broader context, current studies observe a growing business impact of digital, and – also in highly competitive economies such as Germany – the need to further accelerate digital innovation.5 In this context, many companies seek for orientation on how to develop digital innovation capabilities. On a macro-level, the association was seeking to highlight challenges and opportunities of digital innovation. On a micro-level, members of the association were seeking to identify or sharpen their agenda for digital innovation, and to move to implementing this agenda as a driver for enhanced business performance and value creation.

IMP³rove support provided IMP³rove – European Innovation Management Academy developed the Digital Innovation Quotient – a structured assessment which considers to what degree digital innovation contributes to a firm’s business performance and value creation.

5 German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (2016): “Monitoring Report Wirtschaft Digital 2016”


Figure 13: Digital Innovation Quotient - Overview

On a company-level, the Digital Innovation Quotient assessment prototype was applied in Slovenia with 220 participating companies in collaboration with A.T. Kearney. Regardless of the size segment, more than a quarter of participants observe that digital trends affect their companies. Interestingly, this awareness is higher among large and small companies (including start-ups) than among mid-sized companies.

Figure 14: Share of companies affected by digital trends, for top 3 digital trends which were most frequently referenced

IMP³rove Digital Innovation QuotientTo what degree does digital innovation contribute to your firm’s overall business performance and create value?

• Characteristics of digital innovation strategy

• Growth expectation– Revenue growth

expectation– Expected digital

performance impact• Digital innovation

trends affecting the firm

• Ambition for digital innovation

• Organisation of digital innovation

• Development of digital capabilities

• Financial resources for digital innovation

• IT, risk and compliance– Specialised expertise in

IT, risk management, legal and tax issues

– IT process efficiency– IT resilience– Cyber security awareness

and measures• Impact measurement

of digital innovation

Source: IMP³rove – European Innovation Management Academy 2016

• Digital ecosystem– Contribution of

employees and external partners to digital innovation

– Business partner connection

– Development of digital partner ecosystem

• Digital culture– General digital

capabilities– Incentives for digital

innovation

• Characteristics of customer interaction

• Technology enablement– Data capturing– Data analytics

• Economic indicators– Revenue– Growth in revenue– Operational profit– Growth in operational

profit– Growth in number of

employees• Digital performance

impact

• Role of long-term digital innovation projects

• Time-to-market• Process automation• Digital marketing

– Investment in digital marketing

– Return on digital marketing

– Size of social media network

• Digital sales– Digital customer

conversion– Revenue generated via

digital sales channels

5 questions 11 questions 8 questions 5 questions 8 questions

Digital business model

Digital processes

Digital ecosystem & culture

Enablers for digital innovation

Digital innovation strategy

€ …

From trusting institutions totrusting communities

Analytics driven process optimisation

30% 47%Growth of communities and shared interest groups

44%

Analytics driven process optimisation

Analytics driven predictivedecision-making

27% 43%Analytics driven process optimisation

42%

Business development inpartnerships

Process integration with partners

27% 43%From physical to digital offerings 38%

Medium size companies(50-249 FTE)

Large companies (250+ FTE)

1 11

Small companies (1-49 FTE)

2 22

3 33

Source: A.T. Kearney Digital Survey based on IMP³rove Digital Innovation Quotient, 2016


Unsurprisingly, many companies across size segments are not yet prepared to benefit from digital innovation opportunities. This can be illustrated by considering the share of companies that have a digital strategy or state that employees are aware of digitisation objectives, to navigate the potential transformation ahead of them.

Figure 15: Share of companies having a digital strategy documented in writing and share of companies stating that employees are aware of digitisation objectives

Impact achieved More than 200 companies have participated in the assessment and received feedback on their current performance in digital innovation. The IMP³rove DIQ is applicable across company size segments, industries, age segments, and geographies.

Potential way forward The approach is ready to be rolled-out to other countries. It creates a high degree of transparency on “what works” and “what doesn’t” in digital innovation for all participants. Associations or, more broadly, intermediaries, generate unique data which can be utilised for a publication on the state of “digital innovation” in the industry.

Providing on demand training “Introduction to Root Cause Analysis” for an Enterprise Europe Network Consortium This case outlines how IMP³rove Academy supports business advisers to gain even deeper insights into innovation management benchmarks, and how to leverage them in strategic discussions with their clients

The stakeholders An Enterprise Europe Network consortium that aims to provide comprehensive support in innovation strategy development in EU-funded projects, as well as in projects with larger companies, asked for support from IMP³rove Academy to enhance their consulting offer. The consortium is specialised in the development of innovation strategies and has extensive experience in this field, as it has in conducting the IMP³rove Assessment. In particular, the consortium wanted to learn how the IMP³rove Root Cause Analysis can be leveraged to gain in-depth insights into drivers and hurdles of a company’s innovation management capabilities and performances. A profound understanding of these drivers and hurdles was considered as meaningful to be able to design an innovation strategy.

Small1-49 FTE

Medium 50-249 FTE

Large250+ FTE

19% 12% 50%

MP³rove Digital Innovation Quotient, 2016

Small1-49 FTE

Medium 50-249 FTE

Large250+ FTE

56% 52% 63%


The stakeholders’ need/demand for innovation management support For consultants in innovation management, it is rather common to encounter quite disparate starting situations in companies. Clients’ ambition, motivation, competencies and challenges always make up a unique case for the consultant. Such different existing performances and capabilities in innovation management require flexible approaches, e.g. in order to develop an innovation strategy. The consortium identified the need to dive deeper into very specific aspects of innovation management.

Therefore, on the one hand, the consortium wanted to leverage the IMP³rove Root Cause Analysis to enhance their capacities in developing an innovation strategy, and to better react to the specific initial situations of companies’ innovation management.

On the other hand, the consortium saw the opportunities of the IMP³rove Root Cause Analysis in delivering concrete references to define an action plan. The concreteness of the IMP³rove Root Cause Analysis was regarded as very helpful in building the path to an innovation strategy, bearing in mind identified gaps and strengths in innovation management.

IMP³rove support provided IMP³rove Academy responded to the enquiry of the consortium by setting up a customised training course on how to leverage the IMP³rove Root Cause Analysis in the development of an innovation strategy. To do so, IMP³rove Academy aligned with the consortium leader on the participants’ existing level of knowledge and experience, and on the expectations of the consortium, both content- and set-up wise. As a sufficient number of participants was interested in the new training format, an in-house training could be offered. During the actual training, IMP³rove Academy facilitators maintained responsiveness to upcoming questions and demand. By this means, a highly interactive session, enriched with in-depth discussions, took place.

Impact achieved Feedback collection is part of the usual procedure of IMP³rove training courses to facilitate their development further and adapt to upcoming demands ahead of time. The consortium trained in “Introduction to Root Cause Analysis” provided highly positive feedback, in particular with regard to the question regarding to what extent the objectives have been achieved.

The training’s main objectives were to enhance the business advisers’ capabilities in leveraging the IMP³rove Root Cause Analysis for better innovation management support. When the training participants were asked whether they gained additional insights into client's innovation management capabilities and increased their confidence in analysing companies' strengths and weaknesses, they responded with an average of 4,67, respective 4,5 (on a scale from 1 to 5 with 1 = ”Do not agree at all”; 5 = “Fully agree with the statement”). Furthermore, the trainees stated that they feel better prepared to support their clients in implementing the Root Cause Analysis in the future.

The IMP³rove Root Cause Analysis helps detect very concrete drivers and hurdles of companies’ innovation management capabilities and performances. The report covers 79 questions structured along five key dimensions of the “House of Innovation”, provides numerous concrete ideas ready for implementation, and is therefore a valuable complement of the IMP³rove Assessment. As companies must have gone through the IMP³rove Assessment already, they build on previously gained skills, and an existing level of innovation management expertise. Because of this, the IMP³rove Root Cause Analysis facilitates a profound, yet easy-to-access, extension and deepening of innovation management support.


Potential way forward The newly developed and piloted training course “Introduction to Root Cause Analysis” has been incorporated in IMP³rove Academy’s curriculum and training calendar. The demand by the consortium is further seen as a reason to put more emphasis on the specific characteristics and benefits of the IMP³rove Root Cause Analysis within IMP³rove Academy’s marketing communication. Consequently, as a first step, the basic training course “Introduction to the IMP³rove Approach” will be refined with respective content.

The IMP³rove Root Cause Analysis is easy for companies to go through, as the procedure is similar to the one of the IMP³rove Assessment. The Root Cause Analysis creates not only benefits for the company’s management and investors, but also for the business advisers. With the concrete actions that can be derived on an operational level, the company’s performance can be improved in the short and long-term. Through this, very targeted support could be offered, adjusted to the specific demand of companies in different initial situations.

The training course “Introduction to Root Cause Analysis” will provide training participants with a tool that supports them to deliver very concrete insights to their clients’ innovation management performance, and to suggest actions built on a profound and broad data base. Measures or procedures that companies with the highest value growth in sales, employment and operational margin are showing, serve as best practice and pool of ideas. Companies, which strive for outperforming their competitors in innovation management performance, are recommended to build on the detailed IMP³rove Root Cause Analysis. Table 1 gives an outlook on where additional benefits of the IMP³rove Root Cause Analysis can be generated, in comparison to the IMP³rove Assessment.

Table 1: Comparison of exemplary questions of the IMP³rove Assessment (IMP) and the IMP³rove Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and their additional benefit for companies. The first indicated number refers to the dimension of the questionnaire (1 = innovation strategy, 2 = innovation organisation and culture, 3 = innovation life cycle management, 4 = innovation-enabling factors, 5 = innovation results) and the second to the item.

Question from the IMP³rove Assessment

In-depth equivalent in the IMP³rove Root Cause Analysis

Additional benefit

IMP-2-Q1: How would you rate staff attitudes to innovation?

RCA-2-Q1: How do you handle failures?

Answering options provide concrete instructions and evidence on what kind of reactions to implement and to avoid: • Root causes are analysed • Failures are used to learn from and to take

measures for improvement • Mistakes are not analysed in detail • Failures are generally avoided • Lessons learnt are communicated to other

innovation project members • Lessons learnt are communicated across

all hierarchical levels and functions of our firm

• Discussions about failures usually imply blaming others




Additional benefit

IMP-2-Q2: How many months does it take for your most profitable product/service groups from beginning of the development to getting them on sale (Time-to-market)?

RCA-3-Q9: How regularly are the following criteria applied to assess and select ideas? RCA-3-Q14: Which measures do you take to optimise your product/ service/ process/ organisational or business model development?

Answers provide range of ideas on possible criteria when selecting ideas: • Market potential • Fit with innovation strategy • Profitability • Costs • Technical capability to develop idea • Time-to-market; or on how to enhance the development phase: • Utilisation of virtual reality • Outsourcing testing to customers • Outsourcing prototyping • Allowing failures and taking consequences

at an early stage • Modular prototyping to test the appropriate

functions • Utilisation of low cost prototypes (e.g.

paper-based prototypes)

IMP-4-Q4: For innovation projects in the last three years, what percentage had targets defined with respect to time, budget and quality?

RCA-4-Q5: Please specify how you share and distribute results from project reviews, lessons learnt and other information available within your company? RCA-4-Q9: What do you do when a project goes beyond the predefined targets (e.g. budget, timeframe) set in the early phase of the project?

The IMP³rove Root Cause Analysis contains subsequent questions, which build on insights derived with the help of the IMP³rove Assessment. Answers provide suggestions, e.g. how results from reviewed projects could be disseminated: • Intranet • Communities of interests • Files • Manuals • Debriefings • Briefings • Trainings • Mix of junior and senior members in teams; In case a set target can’t be met, the IMP³rove Root Cause Analysis proposes strategies/reactions: • A clearly defined risk mitigation process is

in place • A clearly defined refunding and time

allocation process is in place • Additional resources are added to fill the

gap • Project is stopped




Additional benefit

IMP-5-Q10: What is the current and future impact of Innovation Management on your business success?

RCA-5-Q14: In your industry, how applicable are the following issues with respect to technology and market dynamics?

The IMP³rove Root Cause Analysis adds an outside-in perspective to the company’s evaluation, providing indications that might have a direct effect on CEOs’ awareness: • In your industry technologies change

rapidly • In your industry technological changes offer

large opportunities • It is difficult to anticipate where your

industry will be in 2 to 3 years in a technological sense

• In your industry many innovations were enabled by new technologies

• Key technological changes do not take place in your industry

• In your business the customer demand changes rapidly

• Your customers continuously ask for new products/services

• You receive inquiries from customers for new products/services that haven't been your customers before

• New customers' demand for product/services differ from your existing clients' demands

• You usually serve customers that you have served in the past

Figure 16: Comparison of IMP³rove questionnaires from the IMP³rove Assessment and the IMP³rove Root Cause Analysis


Facts and figures about IMP³rove The IMP³rove global databases The IMP³rove global databases on innovation management are structured along the five key dimensions of the A.T. Kearney “House of Innovation”. They cover all NACE6 Codes, all company size and age classes, and cover more than 80 countries globally.7 In future, these databases will be complemented by the digital innovation database. The respective assessment will be available in 2017. Regular updates on the IMP³rove web-site (https://www.improve-innovation.eu/our-services/consulting/research-on-demand/ ) provide information on the size and structure of the IMP³rove databases.

The IMP³rove global networks IMP³rove Academy has developed a global network of almost 2,000 innovation management practitioners, experts, researchers and followers registered on the platform. They represent almost 90 countries and organisations, such as: private consultants, publicly funded business advisers, investors, trade associations, chambers of commerce, regional development agencies and ministries, clusters, technology parks, universities and research institutions. (https://www.improve-innovation.eu/improve/UserList/UserList.do?type=DIRECTORY_CONSULTANTS ) More than one third of these IMP³rove network members have used the IMP³rove Assessment tools to support enterprises in developing their innovation management capabilities. Public sector organisations have leveraged the research results and studies provided on the IMP³rove website on regular basis.

The IMP³rove training offerings Besides the innovation management assessment tools, IMP³rove Academy provides training and certification on innovation management related topics at their premises or in-house at the client’s site. An overview on the current training programme (https://www.improve-innovation.eu/our-services/training/) is presented in the figure below:

6 NACE = Nomenclature statistique des Activités économiques dans la Communauté Européenne 7 Figures as of December 2016

https://www.improve-innovation.eu/our-services/consulting/research-on-demand/

https://www.improve-innovation.eu/improve/UserList/UserList.do?type=DIRECTORY_CONSULTANTS

https://www.improve-innovation.eu/improve/UserList/UserList.do?type=DIRECTORY_CONSULTANTS

https://www.improve-innovation.eu/our-services/training/


Figure 17: Overview on current IMP³rove Academy training offerings

The IMP³rove – European Innovation Management Academy – a born global start-up IMP³rove - European Innovation Management Academy, non-profit (www.improve-innovation.eu) was established in 2014. It offers innovation management support services to enterprises, consultants and intermediaries. It also provides financial actors, policy-makers and academia with consulting support and technical assistance related to innovation and innovation management. The services include: innovation management benchmarking for enterprises, training and certification in innovation management, research on innovation management issues and promotion of best practices in innovation management. With its global network, IMP³rove Academy has set the standard for innovation management assessment. IMP³rove - European Innovation Management Academy emerged from the European Commission's flagship programme "IMP³rove". It was supported by the European Commission's Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme and receives continued support by Horizon2020.

Introduction to action plan development

Introduction to action plan development

Introduction to innovation management tools

Introduction to innovation management tools

Success in digitisation

Introduction to business model innovation

Business adviser skills

Introduction to innovation in value networks

Introduction to innovation strategy development

Source: IMP³rove – European Innovation Management Academy 2016

Available training courses addressing innovation management comprehensively

Introduction to innovation life cycle management

Removing cultural barriersto innovation

Design-driven innovation management

Available training courses to address specific deep-dives

Certificates Auditor


Abbreviations B2C Business to Consumer

BU Business Unit

COO Chief Operating Officer

EEN Enterprise Europe Network

IM Innovation Management

KPI Key Performance Indicator

SME Small and Medium-sized Enterprise

Table of Figures Figure 1: Service portfolio of IMP³rove – European Innovation Management Academy ........................................................ 5

Figure 2: Roadmap for policy makers ..................................................................................................................................... 7

Figure 3: Roadmap for intermediaries to support their members ........................................................................................... 8

Figure 4: Roadmap for intermediaries to develop their staff ................................................................................................... 9

Figure 5: IMP³rove approach ................................................................................................................................................ 10

Figure 6: IMP³rove Assessment Report................................................................................................................................ 11

Figure 7: Benefits from “IMP³rove for Students” ................................................................................................................... 12

Figure 8: Expectations regarding the development of innovation networks .......................................................................... 15

Figure 9: Expectations regarding the importance of innovation partnerships in 2020 and review for last year..................... 15

Figure 10: Development path for public programmes ........................................................................................................... 18

Figure 11: Comparison of young companies’ performance in defining innovation process parameters ............................... 19

Figure 12: Illustration of an anonymised summary of benchmarking results for 4 business units based on IMP³rove Assessments ....................................................................................................................................................... 24

Figure 13: Digital Innovation Quotient - Overview ................................................................................................................ 31

Figure 14: Share of companies affected by digital trends, for top 3 digital trends which were most frequently referenced .. 31

Figure 15: Share of companies having a digital strategy documented in writing and share of companies stating that employees are aware of digitisation objectives.................................................................................................... 32

Figure 16: Comparison of IMP³rove questionnaires from the IMP³rove Assessment and the IMP³rove Root Cause Analysis ............................................................................................................................................................................ 36

Figure 17: Overview on current IMP³rove Academy training offerings ................................................................................. 38


About IMP³rove – European Innovation Management Academy The IMP³rove - European Innovation Management Academy, non-profit (www.improve-innovation.eu) offers innovation management support services to enterprises, consultants and intermediaries. It also provides financial actors, policy makers and academia with consulting support and technical assistance related to innovation and innovation management. The services include innovation management benchmarking for enterprises, training and certification in innovation management, research on innovation management issues and promotion of best practices in innovation management. With its global network, the IMP³rove Academy has set the standard for innovation management assessment. The IMP³rove- European Innovation Management Academy emerged from the European Commission's flagship programme "IMP³rove". It was supported by the European Commission's Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme and receives continued support by Horizon2020.

Contact IMP³rove – European Innovation Management Academy EWIV (non profit)

Dr. Eva Diedrichs Dreischeibenhaus 1 D-40211 Dusseldorf Germany

Tel.: +49 211 1377 2266 Email: [email protected]

Dr. Martin Ruppert Dreischeibenhaus 1 D-40211 Dusseldorf Germany

Tel: +49 211 1377 2390 Email: [email protected]

Dr. Nils Dülfer Dreischeibenhaus 1 D-40211 Dusseldorf Germany

Tel.: +49 211 1377 2265 Email: [email protected]

Web-site: www.improve-innovation.eu

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