To stay ahead in the market as an organization, it is necessary to constantly improve your products and services. Therefore, organizations continue to innovate and experiment continuously. Often, innovative developments are carried out in project form. However, how such a project is managed can have a major impact on its success. In fact, the degree of innovativeness of a project requires different management approaches and tools. Radical innovation projects, for example, have a higher risk factor, so organizations tend to allocate resources more often to the less innovative and risky projects. After all, there are not always enough resources available to implement every project. This insight provides some tips to encourage even the more radical innovation projects. After all, these radical innovations are essential to keep innovating as an organization!
1. Proper strategy and evaluation and assessment criteria
A proper strategy and evaluation and assessment criteria are important to successfully manage different projects within your organization. For this, projects should be differentiated based on novelty and degree of risk so that resources are also made available for the more radical and risky projects. To provide and assess the right resources for each project, the following way of managing projects can be used:
Strategic buckets
To create the right balance between projects, you can use the so-called “strategic buckets,” a way of portfolio management. This is a strategic approach to allocate your available resources to projects. To start working with strategic buckets for innovation projects, there are roughly 6 steps to take:
A key advantage of strategic buckets is the ability to link strategy and spending. In fact, available resources are allocated to projects using your strategy. In addition, it is possible to use different criteria for different project types, such as projects for new product development and product renewal, because of the different buckets. It is also possible, for example, to differentiate between projects targeting existing markets or new markets.
2. Collaborations internally and externally
Collaborations with internal colleagues and external partners are important for projects in order to get the right knowledge and resources. Especially for larger innovative projects, it is often important to join forces internally with departments, but also externally when certain knowledge or resources are lacking.
Internally
To stimulate internal collaborations, building bridges between departments is important. In practice, it often happens that cooperation is not optimal and projects run alongside each other and therefore knowledge is not shared. As a result, projects can be laborious and innovation is hindered. It also does not always benefit efficiency. To stimulate cooperation between different departments and thus make innovative projects more successful, one can work with:
- An internal innovation platform. On this platform, ideas can be shared and discussed with each other and the progress of projects tracked. All employees can actively contribute, for example, by posting ideas or responding to an idea. The feasibility and potential of an idea is thus discussed and the best ideas are created in collaboration. In addition, collaboration between units, departments and branches is encouraged. Through the platform, ideas can be stimulated top-down (through challenges) or bottom-up.
- Expert groups. Examples of expert groups might include artificial intelligence, virtual reality and blockchain. People with knowledge about one of these topics can form an expert group together and take on projects in addition to their work for their own department. They can also be brought in on ongoing projects to contribute this specific knowledge. Having formed an expert group makes them easier for their colleagues to find.
External
Radical innovation projects can also be stimulated through collaborations with other corporates or startups (e.g. IP licensing and alliances). By collaborating with other companies, the (internally) missing complementary resources/competencies/knowledge can be obtained, making more radical innovation projects more successful. Start-ups have potential technological strengths that, for example, a corporate does not have. Conversely, coporates may have certain resources that start-ups lack, for example, financial resources, a large network and name recognition. There are many variations on which to collaborate. These range from buying (or hiring) certain knowledge, to entering into a “strategic alliance,” where multiple organizations work together on an, often innovative, project.
3. Involve end users
Innovation can also be stimulated by involving your end user in the development of new products or services. By involving your end user in the development process, the user is more encouraged to think about possible improvements and thus can contribute positively to the development of products/services. When this is done, the value of the innovative product or service is increased, which will lead to even more innovation and customer satisfaction. In addition to better ideas and products, closer end-user involvement can also lead to cost savings and a faster time to market for your product or service. Customer loyalty and customer retention are also strengthened, resulting in less customer turnover and more repeat purchases and brand ambassadors.
