{"id":120,"date":"2015-11-27T00:23:00","date_gmt":"2015-11-27T00:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/i3works.bluetree.uk\/news\/?p=120"},"modified":"2019-12-08T21:46:45","modified_gmt":"2019-12-08T21:46:45","slug":"process-lite-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/2015\/11\/process-lite-innovation\/","title":{"rendered":"Process Lite Innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>There is an ever growing trend \nfor SMEs (Small Medium Enterprise) to demonstrate their innovation \ncredentials. The agility by which an SME is able to drive forward \ninnovative proposals is often envied by multinationals, but the \nprocesses which can stifle multinationals are a product of a huge amount\n of experience and lessons learned. How can the SME integrate this \nexperience without stifling their creativity and agility?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Author: Martin Paver Director at i3Works<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Choice: <\/strong>The first challenge is in selecting the \nright idea. If SMEs have a strong innovation agenda they are likely to \nhave no shortage of ideas to invest in. The key is to select the ideas \nthat complement the business strategy and provide a route for growth. \nMultinationals tend to have a range of criteria and weightings that rank\n ideas on merit, with criteria ranging from exploitation (route to \nmarket, ease of implementation), originality (is the idea unique) \nthrough to level of investment required. There is much that an SME can \nlearn from this, without getting overwhelmed by technical assessment \npanels and undue governance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Rationale: <\/strong>SMEs may have a multitude of reasons for \ninvesting in an innovation proposal and it is important to ensure that \nthese reasons are clearly articulated, challenged and regularly \nrevisited. Examples include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Product\/service innovation: <\/strong>Development of the \nSME\u2019s range of products and services, using innovation as a \ndifferentiator. This is typically driven by market analysis which taps \ninto the emerging requirements of the client, but don\u2019t rule out \ntransformational change which can help drive efficiency, productivity \nand solve problems that couldn&#8217;t previously be solved.<\/li><li><strong>Process innovation: <\/strong>The primary focus is on \nprocesses internal to the SME and finding new ways of doing the same \nthing but more efficiently. The SME may also have an opportunity to \ndrive process innovation on behalf of the client, driving efficiency \ninto the value chain. Significant opportunities can present themselves \nin the implementation of new tools and systems, but don\u2019t underestimate \nthe challenges with integration, training, support and security. \nIrrespective of the perceived benefits of a new solution, these issues \ncan often be a significant barrier to change unless they are considered \nfrom the outset.<\/li><li><strong>Access to new sectors: <\/strong>This can be an important \ndriver for SMEs who have a strong focus on growth and want to branch out\n into new market segments. Innovation can help to differentiate and \nrealign products and services to the specific demands of a new sector.<\/li><li><strong>Access to new clients:<\/strong> An innovation strategy can \nbe an important business development tool by demonstrating to new \nclients that the SME can help to challenge the status quo and bring new \nideas in a structured and systematic way. The benefit to the client may \nvary between contracting an SME as an agent for change through to \nexploiting the SME\u2019s pipeline of products and services.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Gates:<\/strong> Innovation investment gates are critical to \nensuring that the SME retains agility and focus, particularly in rapidly\n evolving markets. The danger for the SME to avoid is being emotionally \ninvested in innovation, which can have a detrimental bias on their \ninnovation portfolio. It can help to plan the investment review gates \nand define success metrics which trigger future investment; over-ride \nthese with caution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Successful innovation has the potential to transform an SME, open up \nnew markets and provide a sustainable foundation for growth. But if not \nmanaged well, it can become a distraction and a drain on corporate \nresources. It\u2019s a fine balance that requires careful thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Watch out for more blogs from i3Works\u2026..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There is an ever growing trend for SMEs (Small Medium Enterprise) to demonstrate their innovation credentials. The agility by which an SME is able to drive forward innovative proposals is often envied by multinationals, but the processes which can stifle multinationals are a product of a huge amount of experience and lessons learned. How can [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":167,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211,"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions\/211"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}