Achieving fitness you firstly have to know where you are and then what you want to achieve. Within our assessment to attain an understanding of your fitness for innovation we take two points of time, the present fitness and the type of fitness you want to achieve in the future. We have a structured method to make these assessments but we frame the ‘fitness’ around the different dynamics making up innovation.
These are both internal and external, they are seperate test and the internal one only can be undertaken. The external can always come later but as we move from a closed to a more open innovation organization, the external assessment has an increasing relevance but knowing your internal fitness has got to be the starting point first.
Internal Evaluation
The internal evaluation template will classify these into nine descriptor capability ‘thrusts’ for the more critical internal related aspects:
1) Vision, Leadership & Strategy. 2) Competency Base. 3) Creativity & Idea Management. 4) Intelligence. 5) Organization & Process 6) Culture & Climate, 7) People & Skills, 8) External & 9) Measures and Metrics with the key elements of competence needed within each classified with their degree of importance.
External Evaluation
Then a second template that considers the external aspects required to achieve a improved innovation fitness capacity and will also classify these into nine descriptor capability ‘degrees’ for the more critical external related aspects:
1) Market Orientation. 2) Customer Orientation 3) Open Innovation Collaboration. 4) Competitor Orientation. 5) Structure and classification of External Knowledge 6) Social Capital & Network Domain Management, 7) Market Environment, 8) Risk, Opportunity, Reward Evaluation & 9) Cross Industry Comparisons with the key enablers of direction needed within each classified with their degree of importance and relevance.
The external evaluation only follows the internal classification and is presently in an earlier stage of development. The external orientation comes from the platform of knowing the internal dynamics and will be seen to be more ‘open’ in classification .Modelling the potential sources of competitive innovative advantage that is appropriate to that firm is the end goal.
