WEmile Wolff B.V.

Innovation

Innovation ensures tomorrow’s successes and profits. While in times of crisis or cash shortages, temporary suspension of innovation expenses can be unavoidable, a catch up effort is subsequently needed. 3% per annum efficiency increase is a more or less universal global standard, so after a two years innovation freeze, one is 6% behind vs the rest of the world.

Whether innovation is in products, processes or markets (or often a combination of the three), makes not much difference in the way it should be managed. Starting point must be to define the desired Future Business (FB), with often a mix of incremental and break out change. From this strategic plan, the required innovations can be derived and set in projects/programs.

Since the nature of innovation is defined by uncertainty of success, managing of the risks and of the chances for success is key. And planning backwards from the required completion date is often a better approach than using forward planning.

Road mapping has successfully been applied to define the different steps in the innovation process, so that intermediate goals can be set and resources planning applied.

Last but not least is proper communication within the innovation programs as well as to all the stakeholders. The internal communication helps to keep focus, to get cross fertilization and to use the whole team to remove road blocks. While the external communication keeps stakeholders informed and maintain a positive attitude towards the innovation.