The Valen Group - Organizational Management of Innovation

ORGANIZATIONAL MANAGEMENT OF INNOVATION

The Valen Group has worked in growth and innovation serving clients who are leaders in innovation for more than a decade. That experience and sole focus shapes our philosophy and comprehensive view in what organizational factors are important in innovation. We have assembled and use a set of proven survey instruments and best practices in our assessment model that meld the best from academia and practice from the fields of creativity, problem-solving, research and product development.

Organizational Improvement in Innovation Building organizational capabilities that deliver on innovation to achieve sustainable profitable growth is a top challenge facing executives. We begin with an assessment of the organization, innovation process and the innovation environment. We utilize some of the best creativity and problem solving applied theory to explore not just individual abilities, but also elements of the company culture, decision-making methods and tools/processes to identify ways to improve the innovation outcomes of teams and organizations. From this assessment, we can develop with confidence a plan for improvement while maintaining actions that support innovation through a change management and training program. In addition, the survey instruments and assessment of benchmarks set can be reassessed again in six months to a year to actually measure progress, learn which changes work and which do not, to optimize the innovation environment. Innovation Metrics Management Many multinational companies have established growth targets and innovation processes within their organizations. Yet, executives struggle with determining if their processes are truly effective, and if they have the right metrics to manage activities. In many cases, metrics may not be causally linked to performance drivers and strategic goals, there may be too few or too many metrics, there may not be an appropriate mix of “leading” and “lagging” measures, or some metrics may actually encourage undesired behaviors. By setting innovation metrics we can help executives:
	Set clear expectations
	Manage effectively the "what" not the "how" with limited time
	Signal and direct activities toward a change in strategic direction
	Easily and efficiently report to stakeholders progress
We work with clients to develop or enhance a cohesive set of a few key performance metrics through its innovation metric development methodology. We also help clients set up and manage a periodic system to effectively deploy, collect and report on results against these metric.
Innovation Process Improvement Developing ideas and new product concepts is only half the battle, taking these concepts to market is the other half. One process must link all of these activities together and this process must link to the business strategy and resource management processes. Client objectives for projects may include:
	Conduct best practice benchmarking with appropriate peer group within a market or globally and make recommendations on enhancements to the innovation process; activities of focus may include insight discovery, product development and/or execution
	Link in supporting insight research techniques and methods in a flexible framework to improve probability of success in front-end innovation
	Define a venture development process that manages higher risk growth projects separate from core business
	Streamline the innovation process to reduce non-value added process and investment
We facilitate change by involving the people who use the processes regularly to ensure they are designed for ease of use and link to the executive's strategic objectives and base our work on extensive research and experience in strategic planning, innovation, market research, product development and entrepreneurship.
Current Issues and Studies: Improving the Innovativeness of Your Organization Abstract: There are three key components involved in innovation: The Right People, The Right Process, and an often-missing component: The Right Environment....