This brief presentation introduces an approach towards auditing the innovative and creative capabilities of organisations. It shows four main pillars of these capabilities, gives credit to respective literature and provides questions to ask in an actual audit.

1. Felix Zappe23.03.2017Kurs: Thema | Fakultät | Institution
Disclaimer
Conducting an Innovation
and Creativity Audit
as held in IOT 5029 –
Innovation in organisations
at the Edward de Bono Institute
on 10th January 2017

2. 23.03.2017
IOT 5029: Innovation in organisations: Innovation & creativity audit at MFCC
Edward de Bono Institute | University of Malta
Disclaimer
2
Four pillars of an Innovation and Creativity Audit
Innovation Strategy
• Status of innovation throughout the company
• Capability to react to market changes
Creativity & Idea Formation
• Creative potential of the employees
• Creativity fostering working routines
Innovation Process
• Innovation management routine
• Innovation management assessment
Organizational Culture
• team values and encouragement
• Knowledge transfer

3. 23.03.2017
IOT 5029: Innovation in organisations: Innovation & creativity audit at MFCC
Edward de Bono Institute | University of Malta
Disclaimer
3
The auditing questions within the pillars
Innovation Strategy
• What do you understand by innovation?
• Is innovation an essential feature of your corporate strategy?
• Is the innovation approach understood throughout your company?
• How responsive and agile is the organization in regard to the environment?
• When you implement innovations, how do you commercialize them,
especially in respect of channels, staff, incentives and business value?
Back-Up:
• Are you aware of your competitors’ actions in the market?
• Are you part of any networks etc. that foster innovation or help you to react or
even shape the market?
• Is your innovational effort also financially backed up?
Creativity & Idea Formation
• How do you manage feedback from your employees?
• Do you foster feedback & ideas from all employees across all different levels
of hierarchy and from your stakeholders, respectively?
• Do you consider your staff creatively gifted and Is that a top trait you look
for in an employee?
• In your daily work, how do you implement, conduct, teach and assess
creativity?
Back-Up:
• How do you assess the creative capability of the team needed in a given
situation and how do you ensure your team matches this?
• How does your talent management work?
• How do you ensure a good innovation context? Is it important?
• Do you use innovation techniques and tools? How do you collect, apply and
assess them?
Innovation Process
• By what criteria do you select ideas?
• Do you support innovation throughout your company?
• Do you use any metrics to determine the success or current state of a project
in your innovation process?
• How do your stakeholders react to your innovation efforts?
• Is there a project review mechanism?
Back-Up:
• Do you have a standardized innovation process (e.g. funnel / stagegate)?
• Do you ensure participation of all stakeholders and especially the idea givers
of the innovation process?
• Is leadership needed within the process? Which skills are the most important
ones and how do you recognize and foster them?
Organizational Culture
• Are there distinct corporate or team values? Where do they derive from and
are they respected by all individuals?
• How do teams work within the company? Are thy competitive /
cooperative?
• To what extent is knowledge transfer necessary for your company, how is it
managed, valued and done?
• How are innovators encouraged, enabled and rewarded?
Back-Up:
• Do you consider your team open, committed and enthusiastic?
• Do you foster teambuilding, leadership & organizational culture?
• Are organization representatives enablers of innovation?
• How does your knowledge transfer infrastructure look like?
• In terms of hierarchy, team coordination, communication & decision
making how would you describe the company?
• What main tools for a better working environment do you use?

4. 23.03.2017
IOT 5029: Innovation in organisations: Innovation & creativity audit at MFCC
Edward de Bono Institute | University of Malta
Disclaimer
4
The theoretical background of the Innovation and Creativity Audit
Mediterranean
Innovation Alliance:
Handbook on
Innovation Audit
Cooper & Mills:
Innovation Diamond
McKinsey: 7 S FrameworkMobbs: Innovation for Growth Audit

5. 23.03.2017
IOT 5029: Innovation in organisations: Innovation & creativity audit at MFCC
Edward de Bono Institute | University of Malta
Disclaimer
 Cooper, R. G. and Mills, M., 2005. Succeeding at new product the P&G way: A key
element is the ‘Innovation Diamond’. PDMA Visions, 29 (4), pp. 9-13.
 Mediterranean Innovation Alliance, 2008. Handbook on Innovation Audit. [pdf]
Medinnoall. Available at: http://www.medinnoall.eu/sites/medinnoall.eu/
files/Handbook%20on%20Innovation%20Audit%20(web).pdf [Accessed 3 January 2017].
 Mobbs, C. W., 2011. What are Innovation Audits. [pdf] Innovation for Growth. Available
at: http://www.innovationforgrowth.co.uk/resources/What-are-innovation-audits.pdf
[Accessed 3 January 2017].
 Waterman, R. H., Peters, T. J. and Phillips, J. R., 1980. Structure is not organization.
McKinsey Quarterly, in-house journal. New York: McKinsey & Co.
References