A NEW BENCHMARKING STUDY FOR MEASURING EFFECTIVENESS OF YOUR INNOVATION ACTIVITY
WHY
2021 will be a challenging year for getting innovation done. So how do you get the most out of the limited resources you’ve got? What missing bits in the innovation “infrastructure” will you work on – is it alignment between the innovation activity and the company strategy? Employee engagement, or involvement from the management team? Speed and efficiency of decision making?
ABOUT
The Effective Innovation Index is an annual survey designed by Hack Belgium Labs’ team of innovation specialists with real-world experience in corporate and startup innovation, both from the client perspective and as consultants. Questions have been fine-tuned based on feedback of our panel of innovation managers, and results are benchmarked to leading companies and calibrated with machine learning tools.
The Index is constructed of six components: Resources, Process, Culture, Ecosystem, Strategy, and Sustainability. The combined score can be used to realign the innovation processes inside a company if needed, and to raise awareness of the innovation priorities among company’s management.
SIX COMPONENTS OF THE EFFECTIVE INNOVATION INDEX
Resources
No resources = no results, no matter how creative your colleagues are, or how diligently you fill and progress your funnel.
So, does your company set aside enough of your colleagues’ time and enough cash to come up with new ideas, investigate them properly, evolve and scale the good ones? Can you effectively tap into outside funding from government or private sources?
Process
Whether you have vast resources at your disposal or not, having a good process for deploying them (generating ideas, building teams, scaling up, handing projects off to business) is critical.
Does your innovation process produce consistent results? Does it deliver on business objectives? Can you effectively scale your innovative ideas?
Culture
No matter how many amazing new ideas are in your pipeline, they won’t be of any use if you struggle to recruit enough of your colleagues to work on them.
Is the management team behind you? Do the middle managers stop all innovation in its tracks with a severe case of the not-invented-here syndrome? And, can you effectively fix the cultural issues you see?
Ecosystem
In the days of increasingly scarce resources, it’s a company’s ability to get things done by leveraging outside resources that push you forward.
Can you quickly and effectively identify companies that have shared interests and complementary resources? Get your hands on the newest science? See the bigger picture of the world, and recruit the right experts to help you navigate it?
Strategy
You know this better than we do: if the entire company isn’t plugged into the innovation process, there’s no way innovation can be effective.
So, is there alignment between the company’s strategy and innovation? Do you have specific, measurable objectives for innovation beyond vanity metrics? Is there enough focus on breakthrough innovation, or is it all incremental?
Sustainability
In 2021, it’s no longer enough to do a few token actions for sustainability here and there. It’s time for everyone in the company to take it seriously.
Are you changing your products or services to be kinder to the environment and human beings? Are you fundamentally rethinking your business model? And, are you building the capability to keep adapting to the ever-changing world?
HOW DOES THE EFFECTIVE INNOVATION INDEX WORK?
The Index questionnaire is divided into 6 sections and takes about 20 minutes to complete in its entirety. After you’ve answered the questions in each section, you’ll receive a preliminary score for that section, benchmarked to top innovation companies.
Once we’ve gathered enough answers across several industries and company sizes, you’ll receive a refined score based on the entire sample. And, in a few months we will offer industry-specific and company-size-specific analytic reports.
THE MAIN QUESTIONNAIRE AND THE TOPLINE ANALYSIS
ARE FREE, BY THE WAY.
WHAT’S THE CATCH?
READ IT IN THIS BLOGPOST
BECAUSE A HACKATHON
IS COMPLICATED TO ORGANIZE,
IT DESERVES ATTENTION FROM
ONE OF OUR FOUNDERS, LEO.