“The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways. The point however, is to change it.”

Karl Marx (1818 – 1883)

Often it is necessary to motivate for budget for innovation programmes. One of the easiest ways to achieve this is to assess the current state of innovation maturity in the organisation. It usually takes the form of a quantitative questionnaire which is sent out anonymously to the length and breadth of the organisation. Generally, the resultant findings (or interpretation) are lower than expected, and it is a revealing exercise, which can create motivation for change. There is also the reassuring nature of tracking performance over time and the trended results.

With most perception and opinion based qualitative research, it indicates what people believe. It should always be considered with quantitative indicators to create a holistic scorecard. We would recommend including the number of live experiments, value of R&D tax credits, and innovation grants won, as well as resource savings made through internal projects. The ability to compare against multiple organisations, helps to create a sense of urgency too.

Often the results are broken up across recognisable functions and levels within organisations such as Leadership, Strategy, Management, Culture, and so on, which can further inform structurally where engagement and attitude is lack lustre.

Remember that a benchmark is effectively only a balance sheet view. They generally look to record manifestations and perception which doesn’t explain how or what to implement as your innovation strategy (in other words what is right for your organisation) and many questions may not be truly causal in creating and sustaining innovativeness.

 

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Read about how we secured public innovation funding for Fidel