Innovation management has to be considered as a key driver of sustainable growth both for SMEs and larger corporations. A systematic implementation of innovation management practices can support a business in remaining competitive on a global scale, but unfortunately the majority of SMEs does not put a strategic focus on innovation management.
To support businesses in implementing an effective innovation management strategy and identifying where the current gaps and shortcomings are, the IMP3rove Academy developed an online assessment tool which benchmarks the innovation performance of a business on 5 different key dimensions: innovation strategy; innovation organization and culture; innovation life-cycle management; innovation enabling factors and innovation results.
The assessment is then summarized in a customized benchmarking report pointing out the company’s current competitive position. The report might also be analyzed by an IMP3rove consultant which makes sure the company implements the right measures to improve its innovation performance.
IMP3rove also recognizes organizations that have demonstrated impressive sustainable growth based on systematic innovation management through the International IMP3rove Award. The launch of the IMP3rove Award 2015 (application is open until the 30th of September) has been the occasion to interview last year’s IMP3rove Award winner, Mr. Levent Alatli, General Manager at Koza Yönetim a powerful and innovative facility management company that provides high quality services ranging from security to cleaning services, and from technical services to social facility management. Koza Yönetim’s company policies are “continuous improvement of existing services” and “continuous development of new innovative services”. While developing the business model for innovative services, Koza Yönetim always takes advantage of the participative management approach. The company’s sustainable growth is based on the awareness that “happy employees lead to happy customers”.
Last year Koza Yönetim took up the gauntlet and assessed its innovation management performance through 50 questions in 5 innovation management dimensions and compared it to a selected set of growth champions according to its provided answers.
Mr. Alatli says “Our motto is ´fark yarat, farklı yap´ which means that we always strive to create a difference by doing things differently. We may have impressive innovation management capabilities and performances according to our overall innovation management performance, but this doesn’t mean that we are perfect. We know very well that nobody is perfect.”
Even though the company won last year’s IMP3rove Award which demonstrates its impressive innovation management skills, by comparing a previous assessment report with the new one, Mr. Alatli realized that improvements could still be made in terms of innovation management.
Koza Yönetim thus decided to take immediate actions on these innovation management issues. After preparing the forecast and company strategy for 2015-2025, the company organized workshops to define its innovation strategy and performed brainstorming sessions in order to create new ideas to reach its strategic targets, obtaining many ideas ranging from small to radical improvements. In particular the company is now working on the feasibility study of the ideas proposed to evaluate them, select the best ones and make them concrete. Additionally it also benefitted from a targeted coaching session organized by one of the IMP3rove Academy experts.
Mr. Levent Alatli stated that using new technologies and approaches such as the IMP³rove methodology can help companies to become more innovative in a systematic way. Joining the competition is an even better starting point because in taking part, there is nothing to lose but a lot to gain, even if one does not win the award. Mr. Alatli concluded the interview with a famous quote by Baron Pierre de Coubertin which he considers to be an important take away message for all those companies considering to take part in the competition “The important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.”
IMP³rove – European Innovation Management Academy, offers innovation management support services to enterprises, consultants and intermediaries. It also provides financial actors, policy makers and academia with consulting support and technical assistance related to innovation and innovation management.
The services include innovation management benchmarking for enterprises, training and certification in innovation management, research on innovation management issues and promotion of best practices in innovation management. With its global network, IMP³rove Academy has set the European standard for innovation management assessment.
