Why Create and Use Metrics For Innovation
Posted By Faye
Date: January 3rd, 2010
Category: Business
Have you ever been asked how you measure innovation and most of the time, you do not know what to answer? This often happens to every businessman since there is not always a ready answer when it comes to measuring innovation. According to studies, only 1/3 of the companies in the world are able to put up their metrics for innovation formally. The others remain unaware of how these innovation metrics can help them succeed.
Now, another question is why – why should you have innovation metrics for your company? One of the best reasons that you will be given here is the adage that states that whatever it is that you are able to measure will be accomplished. This is very true especially when you are in the world of business. What the metrics for innovation do is that they motivate the leaders and the managers to accept and welcome innovation generally and be able to prioritize it continually. The most important thing here is that the metrics for innovation should be communicated well so that the goals will be achieved. In return, rewards will be given not only for the company but also for those who have exerted their greatest efforts in accomplishing the tasks.
These metrics should be applied to three different dimensions in the system of innovation in every company. These are the processes, the people and the strategic planning. There are five standard measures that are being used today and these are the performance, timing, financials, development costs and the quality. These five should be utilized along with the metrics so that you will not have a blind spot when it comes to knowing the reasons why something has occurred in your company. For instance, you have obtained a report that there is a 7% drop in the quarterly profits as well as a 14% increase in the service costs. The problem here is that you will not be able to tell your customer service team what they should do next for an upcoming call.
Usually, innovation metrics are for the products and this is why there is what we call now the product innovation metrics. You can cerate metrics that will allow you to measure the efficiency of the innovation performance metrics and the effectiveness of the innovation program metrics. For the former, you can include cumulative profits for the new products and services, the growth of the impact, which can be measured by means of subtracting the product revenues from the total revenue of the company and the survival rate of the new product. On the other hand, for measuring the effectiveness, you can gather reports about the mix on innovation portfolio, the process pipeline flow and the quickness of the product to be sold on the market.
With these things in mind you do not have to worry about why and how you should measure the innovation system. This is because it will be easy for you to deploy the framework for the metrics for innovation and be able to use them in every level of your company.
