INNOVATIONS MANAGEMENT

1. INNOVATIONS MANAGEMENT

2. INNOVATION MANAGEMENT
 Innovation management is a combination of the
management of innovation processes, and change
management. It refers both to product, business process,
and organizational innovation. Innovation management includes
a set of tools that allow managers and engineers to cooperate
with a common understanding of processes and goals.
 Innovation management allows the organization to respond to
external or internal opportunities, and use its creativity to
introduce new ideas, processes or products. It is not relegated to
R&D; it involves workers at every level in contributing creatively
to a company's product development, manufacturing and
marketing.
 By utilizing innovation management tools, management can
trigger and deploy the creative capabilities of the work force for
the continuous development of a company. Innovation
management helps an organization grasp an opportunity and use
it to create and introduce new ideas, processes, or products
industriously.

3. FRUGAL INNOVATION
 Frugal Innovation is about doing more with less.
Entrepreneurs and innovators in emerging
markets have to devise low cost strategies to
either tap or circumvent institutional
complexities and resource limitations to
innovate, develop and deliver products and
services to low income users with little
purchasing power.

4. INNOVATION PROCESS
STEP: 1 IDEA GENERATION
 This is the first step in an innovation process. It is
where you decide on the concept that you want to
develop and come up with reasons why you want to
improve the idea. It is important for you to involve
your employees and customers. Involving many
knowledgeable people will enable you to get a
better understanding of the market.
 Besides, it will give you an opportunity to look at the
idea in different angles. At this stage also, experts
will also provide many viable ideas. There are five
places where you can draw ideas for your
innovation:

5. CUSTOMER INNOVATION
 As you work on an innovation, remember that you
should have your customer in mind. Your customers
should be the inspiration for all innovations. Hence,
consider the feedback that they give to come up
with an innovative idea.
 This is an important source because if you innovate
something that does not meet the needs of the
customer, then the innovation is likely to fall. You
can get the feedback from the social media
platforms, customer feedback forms, and your
employees can report to you what the customers
say.

6. EMPLOYEE INNOVATION
 Your employees relate with the customers so closely so
they know their needs. Moreover, they also get first
hand compliments, complains, and suggestions from the
customers.
 When a customer wants a service or a product, they
explain to your employees so they can keep tabs on
what customers want. Besides, they are in a position to
identify products that are irrelevant to the customer.
 When you innovate a product, your employees will be
important so as to explain how a product is used to the
customers. In contrast, if they do not feel as part of the
innovation, they might disregard the product. As a result,
they may never speak well of the product.

7. STEP: 2 ADVOCACY AND SCREENING
 Not every idea that is generated is worth implementing,
for that reason; you must screen all the ideas presented.
When screening, ensure you measure the benefits and
risks of each idea to determine its viability.
 Any idea that has a futuristic approach should be chosen
for the next stage.
 Moreover, participants in this stage develop the idea to
enhance it. If an idea is not considered ideal, make sure
you communicate the reasons to the person who had
suggested the idea.

8. STEP: 3 EXPERIMENTATION
 At this stage, the idea is tested using a pilot test. The
test takes place within a targeted market. As you test
your product, remember you want to know if the
customers will accept it, if the price is acceptable,
and if they like the innovation. The aim is to test if the
idea is ideal and suitable for the company at a
particular time.
 Therefore, if an idea is too complex for the
organization or it’s a premature idea, then it should
not be implemented. You should set aside premature
ideas in your idea bank for a later date.

9. STEP: 4 COMMERCIALISATION
 When you get to this stage, just know the product is
ready for the market. The major work at this stage is to
persuade your target audience that the innovation is
good for them.
 To do this, explain how the innovation will be of use to
them, when it will be used, and demonstrate the benefits
of the innovation using the prototypes. Be very specific
about the idea in regards to any information that could
attract customers to your idea.

10. STEP: 5 DIFFUSION AND IMPLEMENTATION
 Diffusion and implementation are two different stages:
diffusion is where the company accepts the innovation
and implementation is setting up everything that is
needed to develop and utilize or produce the
innovative idea.
 Knowledge brokers are used to diffuse the idea in an
organization. The knowledge brokers communicate the
specification about the idea and its usability. This
information helps your employees to understand the idea
in a deeper way. After they understand it, then they
implement the idea.