Bertus S schreef op 7 augustus 2011 12:47:
What is innovation management? July 26, 2011 - 9:04 am
How do you measure success for innovation management processes?During a recent Sopheon Webinar broadcast, Phil Carlson, Vice-President for Business Development for Sopheon, shared a metrics-based business case model for senior executives, explaining the value to be gained from a structured approach to innovation. Attendees learned how many of today’s innovation leaders have invested in Sopheon’s Accolade software solution to help them increase top-line growth and make bottom-line improvements.
What do you mean by “best practices”?The term “best practices” is quite often misunderstood. What it is NOT is a one-size fits all set of must-do’s that will guarantee success. Sopheon uses the term best practices to indicate (as Dr. Robert Cooper and his colleagues have documented) those key performance indicator (KPI) categories that have been proven to be associated with sustainable, high-performance product development. Think of it in terms of the relationship between strategy and tactics. Best practice new product development strategy includes consideration of such KPI categories as cross-funtional participation, more investment early in development, clear prioritization criteria, etc. The tactical HOW to address the KPI’s is very much situational for the specific company. The important thing is that identifying and incorporating best practice KPI’s into the development process helps an organization to put a framework in place that includes known influencers on successful business outcomes.
Can you structure your process for a small company 10 or less people directly tied to NPD?Innovation processes can be scaled to meet the needs of both small and large organizations. The challenge is to manage to the key decisions that need to be made and to make sure that you are addressing those key issues. The rigor that you apply to this is dependent on the amount of risk that your organization is willing accept. For example, a small company may have a $1 million investment that is a “bet-the-farm” project. You absolutely need to do your homework because the risk associated with doing that project may threaten your company’s very existence. Conversely, the same $1 million investment may not be considered a large investment for a multibillion company. What is important is that the process and the tools used to manage these investments are scaled to reflect a company’s aversion to or endurance of business risk.
What do you mean by “value”? Does this apply only to anticipated monetary returns?It’s been said that “beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.” The same principle applies to value. What one person finds valuable, another person does not. Only 33 percent of companies base their decisions solely on monetary metrics, such as ROI, NPV, or defined payback periods. The rest extend their definition of “value” to include risk tolerance and strategic impact. The right combination of all three components to value — their mission, shareholder expectations, and their ability to execute in competitive environments — is situational to each company; all must be taken into account. Sopheon strongly believes that gate scorecard criteria must reflect a company’s definition of value through well thought out articulation of what criteria is most important to that organization, as well as a particular KPI’s relative importance as part of the total, consensus score.
Regarding, gate scoring: What organizational functions should have a vote in a gate score?High-performing businesses are twice as likely as low-performing businesses to employ cross-functional teams in generating gate scores. That said, what functions should be involved inside of any given company depends on the company’s organizational structure and who has a stake in the relative and ultimate success of a project. Typically, this includes nearly every function over the lifecycle of the product. Core functions that are always included are marketing, R&D / engineering, finance, supply chain, manufacturing operations, quality control, and legal. In certain instances, regulatory and/or clinical affairs may also be involved. Our recommendation is that creation of the gate score be driven at the project team level and that it be arrived at by consensus building.
Do you find a different degree of complexity when developing products vs. services? Do the metrics change considerably?Each business model has its own complexities that need to be considered. However, we believe that the questions asked by senior management when making a decision are fairly standard across every company. Is it real? Is it worth it? Can we “win?” Accolade’s ease of configuration allows the client to use the metrics that matter most to them when answering these questions. For example, companies typically use net present value or a derivative thereof. If the margins or costs associated with a project or group of projects doesn’t change substantially, senior executives may only look at top-line sales. Another possible consideration would be the amount of risk associated with the likelihood of technical and/or commercial success of a proposed product or products. Once you get beyond such top-line measurements, the key performance indicators do vary from business to business, and even within businesses of the same type, to reflect a company’s unique strategy and business goals. Bottom line, both product companies AND service companies can benefit immensely by better managing their innovation processes.
How long does it take to implement your solution? And how long does it typically take to make a cultural change in fully adopting a new process / tool?Typically, an Accolade implementation requires between 10 and 14 weeks, depending on the state of readiness in the client’s environment. Some factors that come into play include the maturity of the client’s product development process; how much training is required and how the company plans to rollout our tool; and whether or not the customer requires any customization of Accolade to better meet their company’s specific needs (i.e. new Accolade reporting screens, additional functionality, and/or integration with existing applications, like ERP systems). Sopheon’s implementation process follows a Stage-Gate® methodology, beginning with creating the configuration blueprint, then moving to first and second iterations of the Accolade configuration in a test server environment, and finally moving to the production server along with rollout to the user population.
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achieving the desired business outcomes you seek.
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whatisinnovationmanagement.acareerina...Bertus S.