Much of my focus within my work is to move organizations towards recognizing and expanding their innovation capital or stock.
The hard part for many organizations is that many of the key elements of innovation capital consist of many intangibles as well as tangibles and this needs deeper understanding and appreciation. These intangibles are in most cases non-technological and embodied in the organizational routines and thinking of the employees.
It is focusing on building the stock of this innovation capital as well as making the flow more dynamic, ever evolving, adapting and changing to the different conditions being presented to the company.
Some of the critical elements that need to be considered can be described as follows:
• Innovation strategy that relates to strategic choices a firm makes regarding its innovation
• The selection of the type of innovation that fits best the firm’s objectives and the allocation of resources to different types of innovations.
• Innovation culture that is the mixture of the innovation-related attitudes, experiences, beliefs and values of the employees
• The integrating function of environment, culture and climates that stimulates innovation activities.
• Innovation structure that are formed to make up the innovation process, its governance and supporting intent
• The approach within the organization and the way the employees engaged in the innovation and how they are grouped and measured
• Knowledge (technological and non-technological) possessed by the employees engaged in the innovation process as much of the knowledge is tacit to varying degrees.
• The stock of knowledge can be increased by internal and external learning of an organization
It is the abilities of our internal learning as ongoing provides the creation for new knowledge within the enterprise.
Stocks and flows need equal attention to build innovation capital
The ‘stock’ of innovation capital can render different productive value outcomes, is a bundle of the firm’s resources/assets and holds the renewal capabilities and they possesses attributes that make it a “strategic asset”
Innovation capital are made up of assets that are often context specific and interconnected and this makes it hard to build without a broad holistic approach
We have a pressing need to clarify a new ‘valuing model’ for building innovation capital and each organization has a unique bundle of the firms resources and assets. It is the ability to integrate, reconfigure, renew and recreate these resources and turn these into new, more dynamic capabilities.
This is one of my most important focus points to assist and aid organizations in their understanding “what makes up their unique innovation capital” and what needs to be added to deepen and strengthen this capital stock.
I provide different framing techniques for helping to grow this necessary innovation capital and the capacity to enable and increase the dynamic flow of innovation activities.
