Innovation Management – If you’re not going forward, you’re going backwards

In today’s world, a lot of companies face many challenges in day-to –day operation. The great competition that is partially caused by globalisation causes all business owners to look for a way to gain an advantage over other companies. Running a successful establishment means a constant improvement of products, customer satisfaction and business operation.

’If you’re not going forward, you’re going backwards’

This is the reason why companies are so interested in different methods of company’s processes optimisation and product improvement. As a result, such concepts as lean management and innovation management gained in popularity. In our previous articles, we talked about lean, where it came from and how can a company implement it. Today we will talk about innovation management.

What is an innovation management?

Innovation management is a field in business that combines the management of innovation process and change management. It can be implemented not only in product development but also in various business processes and organisational elements of a company. In simple words, innovation management directs the changes in a firm. It manages alterations, from the planning through implementing to reporting to assure that all the changes are an improvement in company’s work.

The concept of innovation management is based on an idea that first appeared in the 1930s. in a book “Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy” by Joseph Schumpeter. On the pages, the author explained to his readers details of a creative destruction. The theory was a foundation for innovation management. The basic idea of creative destruction or “gale of creative destruction” says that during company’s operation new solutions are being developed at all times while the old ones simultaneously are being destroyed. This shows that businesses are constantly looking for improvement of their operations to keep up with their competitors.

Who can implement an innovation management?

Many incorrectly think that innovation management can only be implemented in companies that are manufacturers. On the contrary, this concept is not only reserved for a factory work, as innovation can be implemented on various levels of company’s operations. Commonly thinking has been adopted that innovation may only apply to a product, possibly a service. Of course innovation is mostly seen in products and services development; however, it can be applied also in such fields of business as customer experience, brand or marketing methods. And this means that virtually every company can benefit from implementing this concept.

Where can an innovation management be implemented?

We can find numerous areas of a business where innovation management can be applied. From mentioned before products and services development to marketing, networking or human resources. We just have to remember that for each area of business different tools must be applied, for instance when implementing changes in HR such tool as online recruitment or intranet might be helpful. In marketing, we can take an advantage of CRM or geo-marketing.

What are the benefits of innovation management?

There is a number of benefits of innovation management. Depending on the area that the company decides to implement innovation management the business owners can expect an improvement of customer satisfaction, business margins, employee engagement or gaining a competitive advantage.