Innovation, entrepreneurship and
projects
Innovation
…the process of bringing any new problem
solving idea into use
… it is the generation, implementation and
acceptance of new ideas
Incremental or Radical
Proactive (Push)
–Serendipity
–Creativity
Reactive (Pull)
–Goal
–Problem
Phases
• Initiation
(Birth of an idea)
• Investigation
• Implementation
• Stabilisation
(Successful development)
Birth of an idea - creativity
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Diverse information service
Staff with diverse interests
Supportive management
Failures willingly tolerated
Freedom to pursue own ideas
Success recognized
Suggestion programmes
Patent programmes
Nonconformity tolerated
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Risk taking encouraged
Adequate resources
Good strategic direction
Free information exchange
Brainstorming encouraged
Access to external stimuli
Non-constraining environment
Technically competent team
Challenging environment
Succesfull development
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Adequate funding
Adequate personnel
Management belief in project
Risk-taking encouraged
Strong project champion
Senior project champion
Strong project leader
Good project selection process
Good source of project ideas
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Aligned to company objectives
Clear project objectives
Full-time team members
Enthusiastic co-operative team
Empowered team
Use of external expertise
Users’ needs understood
Good contact with users
Thorough development
Roles in innovation
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Initiator (Idea Champions)
Investigator
Feasibility Leader
Project Leader
Project Team
Senior Manager (Sponsor)
Consultant (Change Agent)
Resistance to innovation
Organizational Resistance
– organisational structure
– narrow focus of change
– group inertia
– threatened expertise
– power resources
– influence
Who said you could work on this?
Individual Resistance
– habit
– selective perception
– economic factors
– insecurity
– social factors
– lack of understanding
Can you define your product or service and
give us a three year projection within
+/- 10%?
What's the return on investment?
Why should we attack that market, and if
we do, what happens to our existing
products?
Your feasability study is not made in the
standardised format
The innovation paradox
…the more your firm pays attention to innovation, the less
likely it will be to be successful at innovation…
…the culture and bureaucracy of your organization identifies
an external intruder that has not aligned itself with the
organization and function of the rest of the body, and tries
to force the innovation program or capability to adopt the
decision making processes, risk tolerances, timeframes,
perspectives and "best practices" that are part and parcel of
the rest of the organization…
Readings
• Nobelius: Towards the sixth generation of
R&D management
• Chiesa: Global R&D project management
taxonomy
Discussion questions for April 19th
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Each group shall make short summaries of the literature and be prepared to present this
summary in class (about 4 pages). This especially applies to Chiesa’s article that shall be
summarised in 10 bullet points.
Nobelius present paradigms of innovation work in terms of different generations and
patterns. For each generation, state the main characteristics of projects belonging to that
generation.
For each step between generations (for example, the step from gen 3 to gen 4), what are
the main advantages and the main problems appearing?
For each of the generations, what is the five main characteristics that you want from a
project manager?
Nobelius speake about six generations. Which one will be the 7th?
HOW CAN THE INNOVATION PARADOX BE AVOIDED? WHAT IS THE ROLE
OF STANDARDISED PROJECT MANAGEMENT METHODS IN THE
INNOVATION PARADOX?
All summaries and answers/reflections to questions shall be handed over to Johann in
paper format at the beginning of the seminar. Use the standardised cover form!!!
Avoiding the innovation paradox?
• What can the management do to avoid the
paradox, i.e. how can they organize
innovation projects in a way that preserves
creativity and openness?
• Presented as concise advice to managers