What is innovation management?
Innovation management is the process of managing new ideas – collecting, developing, and bringing them into a reality.
Ideas are put into practice through innovation processes such as design thinking. It represents a problem-solving approach with the five stages to reach the company’s innovation objectives.
- Empathize: deep-dive into the research to know what your users need.
- Define: determine your users’ pain points
- Ideate: generate ideas.
- Prototype: create the prototype based on the knowledge from the previous steps.
- Test: time to test the solution
The process often emphasizes the end-user in the center and can involve the participation of the internal ecosystem and stakeholders.
According to Accenture, 65% of high-growth companies plan to collaborate with customers during innovation process, compared to 54% of other companies.
Innovation management can also refer to internal processes such as improving organizational structure and operations and developing new markets and products. At the same time, it could refer to improving existing products, processes, customer experience, and even business reinvention as part of the innovation management process. It’s a powerful practice for companies to evolve and keep relevant in the market.
In theory, it sounds straightforward – innovation management deals with all measures to promote innovation in organizations: new ideas, new business, new ways of working, new models, products, and services.
But what does it take to innovate? Is it that straightforward?
Innovation requires all these pillars to implement the most viable ideas in practice:
- Strategy – a clear vision and plan to achieve the company’s defined goals
- Process – a way for a strategy implementation – who, what, when, why
- Structure – the proper organizational structure in the company allows innovation more effectively
- Culture -company mindset, bring the best of each person into the company
