Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SME Coach LT 2015 (KAM and innovation management improvement services for Lithuanian SMEs)
Reporting period: 2015-01-01 to 2016-12-31
The proposed concept differentiated between two types of support: the case level (or ""object"" as defined in “Oslo Manual” ) level of the innovation project led by the SME - beneficiary of the SME instrument of the Horizon 2020 and in intervention at the corporate level (or ""subject"") in the case of companies having high innovation and internationalisation. The nature of barriers and challenges related to each situation is different: on the case level they are mainly related to a search of a viable business model of the new offering or process to be developed in the course of the project or/ and in integration into company business routines; in the case of corporate dimension of the SME the challenges are in the organizational resources, practices and culture that may prevent emergence of future innovation projects or ability to benefit to full extent from their results.
The project had two main objectives:
a) To support beneficiaries of Horizon 2020 SME instrument covering phase 1 and 2 by providing the Key Account Management Services, in particular establishing their coaching needs and connecting to relevant coaches.
b) To provide service packages for innovating SMEs that include innovation management capacity assessment, gap analysis and targeted services addressing the identified gaps.
This project addressed the need of SMEs to improve their innovation management on corporate and case level."
Totally, 40 companies received EIMC service. The companies receiving service were selected on the basically using two sets of criteria, one related of their interest to commit resources for their process improvement, and the second related to their potential to develop, including internationalization, growth and engage into EEN activities. The help of regional EEN staff who know local business community, companies and their management was crucial for this selection. The cases come from different regions of Lithuania, and the companies served, all of them SMEs, are coming from different industrial sectors.
Totally 16 companies were offered the Key Account Management services. The services impacted the SME instrument beneficiaries in several ways. First it helped the SME instrument beneficiaries to identify and/or clarify relevant business needs in relation to their innovation project; secondly, the needs analysis led the companies to take internal actions to address the identified challenges; thirdly, it allowed to identify appropriate coach who could help to change their approach to challenges, make their project to progress faster, and improve their strategy. It is expected that later these measures will impact business and societal outcomes of their SME Instrument project.
EIMC service’s direct impact is on resources mainly on corporate level: it improves the ability to manage and exploit a company’s innovation project pipeline. The companies receiving the service improved their idea management, project selection, project portfolio management, as well as innovation strategy. To complement that, companies proceeded to opportunity analysis and generated marketing or innovation projects. It is expected that the business impact will follow. Forty Lithuanian companies had an opportunity to use this service.
The impact on the project has been enhanced by linking SME clients to other EEN or national services. Sixteen companies used other EEN services for follow up activities; five of them have inserted their offers and requests in the EEN technology and business partnership database.