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Approaches in innovation managementt

Approaches in innovation management

More than Design Thinking

What is this article about?

Companies must remain innovative and disrupt themselves from within! The competition for outside the box and creative minds is increasing! Innovation management is a must, otherwise you won't be able to keep up with the fast-paced competition!

You've probably heard one or two of these things before. But is the topic of innovation management being tackled properly? What are the steps that need to be taken at the beginning?

In this blog post, we would like to take a closer look at the various approaches to innovation management and provide you with two creativity techniques that can be helpful when developing new ideas, concepts or even innovation processes.

Innovation management

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    Innovation management is a strategic approach that aims to systematically promote, develop and implement innovations within an organisation. It comprises a structured process that includes identifying opportunities, generating ideas, prioritising projects, allocating resources and implementing and evaluating innovations.

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    The aim of innovation management is to strengthen the competitiveness and long-term viability of an organisation by continuously developing new products, services, processes or business models. By practising a culture of innovation, an organisation can adapt to changing market conditions, identify customer needs at an early stage, achieve efficiency gains and tap into new markets.

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    When developing an innovation strategy, companies are faced with the challenge of utilising their resources in a targeted manner, incorporating external knowledge or even entering into long-term partnerships. There are various approaches for generating ideas, sharing knowledge, solving problems and thus promoting innovation.

1. Open Innovation

What is open innovation?

With the open innovation approach, companies consciously include external sources in their innovation process. Instead of relying exclusively on internal resources, companies open themselves up to the creativity and expertise of external partners, customers, suppliers, universities or even the general public. This open approach enables a dynamic exchange of ideas, knowledge and resources that breaks through traditional boundaries and can significantly increase a company's innovative strength.

Open innovation in practice

  • Outside-in process

    Outside-in process

    If knowledge from external stakeholders is integrated into the company, this is referred to as outside-in innovation, e.g. through technology scouting, crowdsourcing, lead user conferences or collaborations with universities or start-ups.

  • Icon Inside-out Process

    Inside-out process

    In the inside-out process, intellectual property (IP) or technological knowledge is shared by the company with external parties. It is the riskier type of open innovation. Such an inside-out process can take the form of out-licensing, joint development agreements, spin-offs or so-called incubator programmes, for example. This process is well suited to developing new business models within large companies.

  • Icon: Coupled-process

    Coupled-process

    The coupled process is a hybrid of the outside-in process and the inside-out process: the internalisation of external knowledge in conjunction with the externalisation of internal knowledge. Coupled open innovation results in strategies such as joint development, complementary partners through alliances and joint ventures.

Advantages and disadvantages of open innovation

+ Accelerated innovation:

By collaborating with external partners, companies shorten innovation cycles and bring products or services to market faster.

+ Creation of ecosystems:

Formation of innovation ecosystems that create long-term competitive advantages and enable collaboration between different players.

- Competitive risks:

Open innovation processes can give competitors insights into strategies and innovations, leading to imitation and competitive risks.

- Loss of control over intellectual property:

Disclosure of sensitive information harbours the risk of intellectual property theft.

2. Strategic partnership

What is a strategic partnership in the context of innovation?

What is a strategic partnership in the context of innovation?

Strategic partnerships describe long-term and targeted collaborations between established companies, start-ups, research institutions or organisations. They are a powerful instrument for increasing the innovative capacity of companies, enabling access to new resources and markets, promoting the exchange of knowledge and sharing risks and costs. By carefully planning and selecting the right partners, companies can effectively implement their innovation strategies and strengthen their position in the market.

Advantages and disadvantages of a strategic partnership:

+ Cost reduction:

Sharing resources and infrastructure can significantly reduce the cost of research and development projects.

+ Access to new technologies:

Partners can benefit from the technological advances and expertise of their partners without having to develop them themselves.

- Conflicts of interest:

Differences in partners' objectives and expectations can lead to conflicts and disagreements.

- Confidentiality and protection of intellectual property:

There is a risk that confidential information may be misused or disclosed to third parties. A partner could use or appropriate intellectual property unlawfully, which could lead to legal disputes.

3. Idea management

Regardless of the size of the company, effective idea management encourages all employees to contribute their creative thoughts and suggestions. The content focus is deliberately kept open in order to promote space for ideas in all areas of the company. This collaborative approach enables companies to access a wide range of internal resources and develop innovative solutions.

idea management

Advantages and disadvantages of idea management

+ Promotion of innovation:

Utilising the creative potential of employees to develop new products, services and processes.

+ Strengthening the corporate culture:

Building an open and creative corporate culture that promotes innovation and collaboration.

- Complexity of the process:

An overly complicated or bureaucratic idea management process can inhibit the participation of employees:inside.

- Cultural barriers:

Resistance and lack of support within the corporate culture can hinder the success of idea management.

Creativity techniques in innovation management

No matter which approach is chosen, the generation of ideas and therefore the development of innovations requires creativity. There are a variety of tools and methods that can support the innovation process by encouraging creativity and facilitating idea generation, concept development, prototyping, evaluation and implementation. We present two of these methods below!

1. The Walt Disney method

As the name suggests, the Walt Disney method goes back to the famous film producer and successful entrepreneur Walt Disney, whose cartoon characters, nature films and theme parks made him one of the most colourful personalities of the 20th century.

In the Walt Disney method, an individual or a group takes on the roles of dreamer, realist and critic in order to develop ideas and concepts. These are exchanged several times between the roles until a satisfactory result is achieved. For a clear change of context, it is advisable to separate the individual roles from each other spatially.

  • Icon Dreamer

    Dreamer

    The DREAMER generates and plays with ideas without worrying about their realisability - ‘Anything goes!’. He is orientated towards the future and potentials or possibilities.

  • Icon Realist

    Realist

    The REALIST focuses on the current situation and looks for pragmatic options for action. They consider what needs to be done, what resources are already available and what aids still need to be procured.

  • Icon CRITIC

    Critic

    The CRITIC considers the strengths and weaknesses of ideas. He tries to identify aspects that have not yet been considered and asks himself what could be improved.

2. The headstand method

The headstand method is a creativity technique for finding ideas and solving problems. By reversing the task, new and unexpected insights can be gained.

1. Schritt 06

1. Reverse the problem

  • 1. Reverse the problem

    • Formulate the original problem as the opposite.
    • Example: ‘How can we increase turnover?’ becomes ‘How can we reduce turnover?’.

  • 2. Collect reverse ideas

    • Develop as many ideas as possible to solve the reverse problem.
    • Creativity and openness are important here.

  • 3. Reverse ideas

    • Reverse the collected ideas to apply them to the original problem.
    • Example: ‘Provide poor customer service’ becomes ‘Provide excellent customer service’.

  • 4. Identify practicable solutions

    • Analyse the reverse ideas and identify those that make sense and can be implemented.
    • Prioritise the most promising solutions.

  • 5. Plan realisation

    • Develop concrete steps to implement the identified solutions.
    • Create a detailed plan, including resources and timeframe.

  • 6. Gather feedback

    • Implement the solutions on a small scale and collect feedback.
    • Adapt the solutions based on the feedback and scale them accordingly.
Would you like to find out more about innovation management or receive advice? Please feel free to contact us!
Your contact person: Sebastian Karl
Your contact person
Sebastian Karl
+49 89 189 235 96
sebastian.karl@leitwerk-consulting.com
..or write us via our contact form.
Contact us!

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