How do you measure success? – Greg Fainberg
February 9th, 2010 • Related • Filed Under
Probably one of the most daunting subjects when it comes to innovation is “how do you measure success?” The old management adage applies here of course, You can’t manage what you can’t measure. In my experiences and interactions with various groups both from private and public institutions I find that alot of lip service is paid to innovation but not much is done in terms of entrenching it into the organizations strategy or defining critical success factors or measures.
- What do you think the key measures of innovation should be?
- How do you measure innovation in your organization?
- What are the key lessons learned that organizations that are serious to make innovation a success should do in terms of measuring innovation?
My insight was that it is always useful to use balanced score card methodology.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this most important aspect of managing innovation.
Greg Fainberg
Hi we are busy looking into this topic. One way is to measure your inputs, process of value creation and your outputs regarding innovation. I have a diagramme that I will ask saine to publish regarding this. Some people say that the ultimate company success is the final measure for innovation. I think it is more usefull to look into your innovation capability and and measure it to improve it. A recent benchmarking study done by Dr Harry Swart shows that your over all capability should be measured as above 70% before you can actuially say that your innovation capability is posiively influencing your organisation’s capability to create competitive advatage. This benchmark was developed based on data from more than 300 firms in South Africa.
I agree with Audrey’s comments about inputs, process and output measures. If you are serious about innovation in your organsaition you have to be serious about innovaiton measurement. To be able to track your progress is vital, therefore I am a firm believer in the creation of an innovaiton baseline to enable you to track your progress over time and identify your strenths and weaknesses. There are various models/criteria for measurement but probably the most effective are the ones that are customised to our own environment, that is carefully thought through and simple to administer and understand. Innovation measurement must assist in planning your innovation initiatives and help you determine and showcase your ROI “return on innovation”. I think innovation measurement tools should at least track the following at different levels:
Your innovation process
The strategic alignment/impact of your ideas
Your implementation ratio and success rate
Your innovation culture
Much more can be added to the above but as long as it is context driven I believe it will be effective
the impact of innova
Check out this really great article from Robert Brands Innovation Coach on measuring innovation.
http://www.innovationcoach.com/observe-measure-when-validating-innovation/