Description
After understanding the basic concepts and pillars of theenterprise innovation capability audit, we can start discussing a simple...method for conducting, executing, evaluation and planning based on the audit findings. To be able to evaluate and audit each pillar of the enterprise innovation capability audit framework, we have designed major question to be answered for each sub pillar. The detailed guide includes the questions of each sub pillar in a consolidated view.
Goals
- Assess the main pillars that defines the enterprise innovation and inventiveness capabilities.
- Identify the current statuesque of the enterprise innovation processes, methods and tools capability, maturity and readiness.
- Understand the current capabilities to better plan how to achieve the desired maturity.
- Identify the gaps, weaknesses and strength compared to desired state to be achieved.
- Audit analysis result is the major input for all the steps to follow from planning to execution.
How to Use
The 8 enterprise innovation capability audit pillars excluding the competitiveness pillar can be categorized into three main groups. The first group includes the core pillars, second group includes the support pillar and the last group includes the input pillars which have direct impact on the overall enterprise innovation capability.
- The enterprise technical innovation capability audit is recommended to be conducted by a professional innovation audit assessor.
- Assessor needs to conduct interviews with different stakeholders to fill the audit questions.
- Target groups to be interviewed are recommended to represent the different organization populations. Including different siniority levels, different genders, age groups and most important different number of years within the organization.
- Interviewing the top management is a must including the CEO of the enterprise with an objective to understand his/her perspective and perception of innovation.
- It is recommended to formulate an internal innovation committee with wide supporters and influencers participation. This is incase the enterprise does not have a established innovation management function yet.
- If it is acceptable from the top management, it will be optionally prefered to include a limited number of external stakeholders as suppliers, partners and maybe customers to understand their perception and expectations from the enterprise innovation positioning.
- The audit needs to be done yearly following the PDCA methodology in a periodical manner.
Details
To be able to evaluate and audit each pillar of the enterprise innovation capability audit framework, we have designed major question to be answered for each sub pillar. The detailed guide includes the questions of each sub pillar in a consolidated view.
For each sub pillar we need to answer the following question:
Core Pillars
Main Pillar Question:
How new product concepts are identified, validated and selected?
What is the sources of Innovation?
Audit Implication:
• Systematic Monitor for Market Needs
• Use feedback from customer
• Building long-term relation with customers
How the organization is structured to support & encourage Innovation?
Audit Implication:
• Supporting new product ideas and initiative from employment
• Rewarding entrepreneurial behavior
• Circulating new product ideas
• Structuring organization for favoring creativity & inventiveness
How you are planning for innovation and TDP- Technology Development Plan?
Audit Implication:
• Cross-functional screening of new product concept ideas
• Matching Technological Capabilities to Market Needs
• Market led planning process
• Prioritizing product development projects
• Integrating processes for generating new product concept, planning product innovation and releasing new product
How you asses, evaluate, select and fund innovation?
Audit Implication:
• Evaluating alternatives for developing new business opportunity
• Selecting venture alternatives for entering new business
• Using governmental funding mechanisms
Main Pillar Question:
How innovation is taken from concept, to development, transferred to productization and reaches commercialization?
How NPD- New Product Development is managed & cross functional teams are integrated?
Audit Implication:
• Managing the product development process
• Integrating all relevant function in the product development process
• Facilitating communication among the different groups
• Managing process parallelism
• Rapid feedback from manufacturing to design and engineering
• Defining the states of project managers in the organization
• Use of cross functional teams
How Engineering and Manufacturing are linked, & changed are handled?
Audit Implication:
• Linking Manufacturing and engineering
• Handling engineering changes
How Manufacturing and Product design are integrated and linked?
Audit Implication:
• Incorporation of industrial design into product development
• Use of inside and outside design experts
How customer, experience and needs are considered the process?
Audit Implication:
• Creating mechanism for customer requirements information to be integrated into product design.
Main Pillar Question:
How innovation is implemented into manufacturing process?
How existing capability are asses, & matched to market demand?
Audit Implication:
• Evaluating the capabilities of existing production processes
• Establishing a formal procedure for generating a manufacturing strategy
• Matching the process capabilities to the requirements of the market place
• Linking process innovation to product innovation
• Allocating resources to develop new process technologies
• Monitoring sources of new process innovation
How suppliers are integrated & the ability to adapt based on capability VS needs?
Audit Implication:
• Matching technology complexity to the capability to adapt
• Managing the links with suppliers in the development and implementation
• Accompanying production process innovation with the appropriate change in the organization
• Modifying performance measure to reflect the capability of the new process
Process, method & tools to identify gaps and bench-marking?
Audit Implication:
• Identifying opportunities of improvement in the process
• Integrating process improvement with quality control
• Bench-marking production process performance
• Involving manufacturing process developers in improvement after installation
Main Pillar Question:
How technology is managed, acquired and developed?
How systematic monitoring of trends, technologies, competitors are in place?
Audit Implication:
• Systematically Monitoring trends in existing and future technologies.
• Assessing competitors technology capabilities
• Identifying emerging technologies
• Understanding core technologies & competencies of the firm
• Building the required core competencies based on the technology capabilities
• Relating technology to the business objectives and strategies.
How technology selection is applied and Technology Development Plan is compiled?
Audit Implication:
• Choosing sources of technologies in-house R&D, licensing, partnering, external alliances
• Use of both qualitative and quantitative methods to evaluate R&D projects
• Corporate procedure for selecting R&D projects
• Identifying Key issues in R&D organization supporting the firm technology policy
• Favoring communication, creating structural interface of R&D with other functions to optimize resources corporate wide
How IP is protected and exploited in a systematic manner?
Audit Implication:
• Protecting IP-Intellectual property (patenting, trade secret,...)
• Exploiting IP (Licensing out)
Support
Main Pillar Question:
How systems, tools and methods are properly deployed and used?
How systems are in place to support NPD- New Product Development?
Audit Implication:
• Information and products used to support the process for product development
• Systems enhancing communication in the innovation process
How they placed to promote creativity, capture customer feedback & measure performance?
Audit Implication:
• Use of tools to capture customers feedback, needs and demands
• Use of tools for design of new products
• Use of tools for promoting creativity
• Use to tools to capture new product development ideas
• Use of tools to capture organization best practices and knowledge sharing
• Use of tools to capture customer complains, incidents and improvement proposals
• Linking all organization data sources togather to generate correlations, insights and the accessibility of this for different team members within the organization
How quality is integrated in the life cycle?
Audit Implication:
• Managing quality in the design
• Managing quality in the development
• Managing quality in the aftermarket
• Integrating process improvement and product innovation with quality management
Main Pillar Question:
How human and financial resources are allocated and deployed?
How support functions and resources are integrated & allocated?
Audit Implication:
• Identify the key roles needed for managing innovation process
• Recruiting, developing, evaluating and rewarding human resources
• Establishing career developing paths for technical people
How funds are allocated, flexible and managed?
Audit Implication:
• Stability of funding of R&D activities and technology acquisition.
• Sharing risks and reducing costs of innovation, through alliances networks.
• Flexibility of funding of product and process development
How talent is sourced, engaged, involved and trained?
Audit Implication:
• Identifying the core distinctive competencies
• Capitalizing on the core competencies through building the proper soft and hard skills through continues talent development programs
• Designing and implementing the proper performance evaluation mechanisms
• Proper in place talent acquisition strategies for current and future needed competencies
• Building and enforcing the suitable technology based organization culture and mode of operations from process, policies and methods with consideration of agility paradigm
How R&D, Manufacturing, support functions & resources are integrated & allocated?
Audit Implication:
• Defining the firm mission in technology and innovation
• Building innovation strategy into corporate strategies and plans
• Identify the core competencies
• Defining the perspectives of innovation and technical functions
• Designing the organization support functions role within the innovation process and how they support enforcing and leveraging the corporate innovation culture from process, policies, methods and tools
Input
Main Pillar Question:
What is the leadership support, sponsorship?
How leadership provide directions and support?
How much innovation strategy is integrated in corporate strategy?
Audit Implication:
• Decide the overall innovation management strategy either in-house or external
• Define the innovation competitive measure and KPI including the corporate innovation impact definition
• Guarantee the innovation objectives cascading allover the organization different level
• Defining the organization priority and balance between normal operation and innovation resource allocation including conflict resolution mechanisms
How much organization structure is in favor of supporting innovation?
Audit Implication:
• Defining the enterprise innovation management function roles, responsibilities and structure
• Allocating the proper caliber from competency and capacity perspective
• Allocating the needed resources capacity allocated to innovation and new product development activities
• Defining the relation between innovation organization and other internal organizations and functions
How organization encourage ideation, risk taking and intrapreneurship?
Audit Implication:
• Encourage new idea development, risk taking and entrepreneurship.
• Defining performance measurement system encouraging innovation.
• Degree of which innovation processes and policies are shared and understood in the organization
Main Pillar Question:
How you are interacting with external stakeholders in the different stages and pillar?
For which degree you are integrating with your customers, suppliers and partners?
How you are applying and engaging in open innovation from ideation to commercialization stages?
How customer validation and feedback is integrated?
Audit Implication:
• Idea validation strategies and degree of involvement for current and anticipating customer
• Degree of involving customers feedback and opinion in ideas selection
• Wait of customer desirability within the idea selection
• Channels and processes of validation concepts, POCs and Prototypes with customers
• Customer Relation Management insights integration within the innovation process
• Integration of Incident management and complaint management systems within the innovation process
• Mechanisms of capturing customer feedback and improvement proposals within the new product development life cycle
How needs, demands & competition are monitored & considered?
Audit Implication:
• Continues monitor for industry trends and new technologies
• Continues monitor for consumer needs and expectation
• Continues monitor of mega trends, demographics and social change/disruptions
• Continues analysis for consumer buying habits and purchase decision criteria
• Continues analysis for competitors products
• Continues analysis for competitors offerings
• Continues monitor and analysis for industry dynamics changes
• Continues monitor for substitutes and major disruptions from other industries
• Monitoring emerging startups and new business models
Degree of open innovation involvement and openness to external stakeholders
Audit Implication:
• Degree of involvement with universities and research centers
• Industry academia collaboration processes and strategies
• External funds and research support programs participation level
• Sponsorship of research and post graduate activities
• Undergraduate support activities and involvement
• Level of participation with standard bodies and business representative organization
• Existence of strategies, policies and processes for scientific papers publications, conferences attendance and scientific community engagement
• Level of involvement with startup communities and existence of processes and policies supporting such partnerships
• Establishment of startup funding mechanism
• Existence of merger and acquisition strategies with needed allocated funds