Today's increased market competition requires that companies have the capabilities to manage the process of innovation, from their innovation strategy to original idea to final product. Only then companies will know with which products, services, processes or business models they will generate their revenues and profits in the near future. Innovation management is not just a means in itself, but is about developing and organising capabilities within companies and translating them into competitive advantages and profits. The challenge for businesses is to continuously innovate and in this respect it is important to cultivate the right environment where innovation can be repeated.
For small companies, which are often the most innovative, the challenge is two-fold. On the one hand, they must satisfy the demands of existing customers; on the other, they need to keep pushing the boundaries in the quest for new ideas and opportunities. Large corporations too have dilemmas related to innovation. In order to be successful, they concentrate on their best customers and their profits, trading in more sophisticated and expensive products and ignoring low-end product niches which are less profitable. It is these niches that small companies can exploit in order to take a share of the market from large companies. The recent success in internet phones is one such example.
Many SMEs and young innovative companies do not possess the entrepreneurial skills needed to exploit innovation successfully and survive in a competitive market. IMP³rove, Europe INNOVA's innovation management project, is specifically aimed at supporting innovative companies in overcoming these problems.
With the holistic approach to innovation management as described in the “A.T. Kearney House of Innovation” SMEs, intermediaries, financial actors, policy makers and academia dispose of a framework that links innovation management with business impact.
IMP³rove aims to provide innovation facilitators with new and better tools to effectively consult enterprises on innovation management issues. IMP³rove services are based on the European pre-standard in innovation management assessment (CWA 15899). The project activities support innovative enterprises, innovation intermediaries and financial as well as policy actors and is applied by academia to train innovation managers for SMEs.
SMEs will have a clearer picture of their innovation management performance and improvement potential. This will enable benchmarking against competitors in the same sector across countries or across sectors within the same country. The results of this self-assessment will be used for eliminating weaknesses in the innovation management, for marketing and fund raising purposes.
Innovation intermediaries apply IMP³rove as a high-impact approach to improve their client SMEs business performance. Intermediares are offered IMP³rove trainings and a set of innovation management consulting techniques and advice for SMEs and innovative start-ups.
Financial actors will have tangible means for evaluating companies, reducing their investment risks, and facilitating access to finance.
Policy makers will obtain first hand insights both on key success factors for innovation management and on the constraints to innovation faced by SMEs.
Academia can use the IMP³rove approach for training of innovation managers for SMEs.
Innovation management involves reducing corporate barriers and connecting research and manufacturing departments, and also reaching outside the company for new ideas. This requires two things: trust and openness. through IMP³rove we send the message that innovation can be managed.
