The Operational and Creative Mindsets in Innovation Portfolio Management
As an innovation leader, you have to enable creativity and exploration while ensuring rigor and discipline—you need both the Creative and Operational mindsets.
The Classic Mismatch: Expectations for Innovation from Different Levels in the Organization
Business leaders and consultants have been talking about the importance of working across functions to improve innovation performance, for decades. But lack of alignment across levels of the organization is just as problematic for innovation, if not more so.
Measurement for breakthrough projects – Practitioner’s Dispatch Series
With this post, we’re excited to launch the Practitioner’s Dispatch, a new series featuring innovation practitioners’ battle-tested advice on common problems. First up is Stewart Witzeman, who has more than 30 years of experience in innovation management. We asked him to give you his best advice on measurement for breakthrough projects.
Communication is Job 1 of your innovation measurement system
I heard an innovation leader at a Fortune 100 company remark recently, “There are lots of jobless innovation managers out there who will tell you—’if I knew then what I know now, I would have communicated better.’” I hadn’t thought of it quite that starkly before, but I have always thought communication is overlooked as a skill for innovation managers.
How to Measure Your Innovation Project: A Guide
Since starting Commodore a few months ago, we’ve talked with dozens of innovation practitioners who know how important it is to measure performance, but …! But they’re
Measuring Innovation Performance — A Better Framework
A lot has been written about measuring innovation in recent years. I’ve been reviewing this literature as we build our service offering for Commodore Innovation.
Companies struggle to measure well at the front end of innovation
We think companies can measure better all along the innovation pipeline, but if you asked us what sorts of activities need the most improvement vis-à-vis
Your MVP is useless without innovation accounting – Innovation Book Series
Ask people in the startup or innovation community about Eric Ries’ The Lean Startup, and I bet “innovation accounting” won’t come up in 9 out
Why ‘Dead Reckoning’?
We thought we’d better go ahead and address this one right up front. What is “dead reckoning” and why on earth would we pick that
More efficient innovation may be critical to staying competitive
One of the reasons we started Commodore was concern about a decline in Total Factor Productivity (TFP) in many major economies (e.g., US, China, the
After a strong Q3, where next for innovation investment?
Innovation spending grew strongly in Q3. But how will your competitors respond to increasing pressure on budgets as the economic outlook worsens? Review their spending patterns in our data visualization tool.
Will AI dramatically alter the economics of innovation?
What will AI mean for innovation productivity? We review the fundamentals (which look strong) and some examples of AI in innovation (which are exciting, but lack high-quality data on impact).
Budget cuts are here. Time to bolster the case for innovation.
Innovation teams are facing budget constraints for the remainder of 2020 and into 2021. But the impact of COVID-19 means innovation is more important than ever. Act now to bolster the case for sustained investment in innovation.
COVID-19: Your innovation strategy’s been updated. Now what?
Many firms are updating their innovation strategies in response to COVID-19. Those changes will only be implemented if they are effectively communicated.
COVID-19: Business R&D Spending Will Fall by at Least 5-6%
With a recession imminent, innovation leaders will soon be facing budget pressure. We look back at R&D spending in recent US recessions to understand what might be coming—and consider how to prepare.
How to improve measurement of innovation performance in your organization.
Our advice to organizations who are deciding to do something to improve their innovation performance measurement system, including when to do it in-house and when to get outside help.
The Innovation Culture Balancing Act
We all agree that culture is important for innovation, and even agree on the elements of culture matter most. So why is culture still such an obstacle? More importantly, how can we move things in the right direction?
Benchmark Innovation Performance
Benchmarking innovation performance can help innovation leaders monitor the adequacy of the innovation function’s performance, communicate about ambition and achievement, and target performance improvement efforts.
Most Companies’ Innovation Performance is Declining. Is Yours?
Studies show innovation performance is declining in most companies. That raises three important questions innovation leaders must be able to answer.
The Innovation Performance Measurement System Check-up
High-performing companies know good metrics help improve innovation performance. And yet most organizations don’t take the time to review the effectiveness of their measurement systems. If your organization is among those, follow our 3 step check up.