Innovation Management

In some industrial sectors e.g. the aerospace industry, public funded projects are very often used to carry out innovation projects rather cost efficiently. We support you in the decision when public funding can be useful for your innovation projects and also to find public funding calls for to place your project. We can also be of help for the subsequent phases of generating a consortium, filing a proposal with the related cost estimates and also managing finally the public funded project.

Framework Innovation Management

Preparatory Work for Idea Generation

Process and Project Management

Transfer

Support Processes

Organization Development

Public Funding

For a successful innovation management it is important to see the whole picture.
The targets of innovation management are normally set by the strategic business planning, which includes also the relevant transfer channels. Due to the importance of innovation management there exists often a dedicated organisational unit inside the company board.

We offer support for elaboration, modification and implementation of a holistic innovation management . The process consists of the modules preparatory work for idea generation, core process, transfer channels, organisational and strategic business planning and support processes. Of course individual modules can be selected according to your preference.

We support you to implement your innovation management sustainably in your business planning, which provides the thematic frame for idea search areas and the time frame for the innovation process. We can also elaborate inputs for the innovation search fields based on technologies as well as market inputs. We support you to better understand the influence of transfer channels on the innovation search fields.

A central aspect of the innovation management is the governance of the core process which comprises the elaboration of ideas to the implementation into products and processes. In general such processes are carried out as projects. One of the most popular models is the Cooper model, which exists in a basic version as well as more complex with iterations (spirals) and further elements (adaptive, flexible, agile, accelerated) adopted from other development processes.

Besides the Cooper method also other methods are available e.g. Design Thinking which focuses more on the idea generation process or the V-Model which puts more emphasis on the systems engineering aspects during the development phase. Those processes can be combined and adapted to fulfill your needs. We support you in the development of innovation processes tailored to your individual needs including the related decision gates.

Critical for a successful innovation management is the selection of the proper transfer channel or in general the proper internal customer, who also decides on the product requirements and takes over part of the innovation development costs.

Transfer channnels can be :

Innovations for existing products (programs, R&D)

Process innovations (programs, R&D, production)

Transversal product and process innovations (multi programs, R&D, production)

Innovations for new products

Business model innovations

Organisational innovations

New business development (incubator)

M&A (venture and acquisition)

Strategic networks (open innovation)

The transfer channels depend strongly on the strategic business development and have themselves strong influence on the innovation search areas.

We support you to generate a robust transfer concept.

Strategic business planning
A strong link between innovation management and strategic business planning is necessary since the latter determines the transfer channels as well as the innovation search areas (see Business Development).

Risk and opportunity management
Critical for the positive evaluation of an innovation project are very often the related ROI or NVP figures. Those are sometimes based on too optimistic and unreal sales and profit margins (see Business Development).

Know how and Patent Management
Innovation ideas usually are generated by creative and experienced employees. A company internal knowhow management can be a very efficient support. The innovation ideas have also critically to be evaluated against the technical state of the art and against potential rights of third parties. This is done by a proper patent management (see Technology Management).

Organisation development
An efficient innovation management has to be accompanied by the related organisational measures. This refers to the organsiation of the innovation management itself as well as to strategy, ressources, steering, controlling, portfolio management and the innovation culture (see Organization Development).