The objective of our peer learning has been to look for renewed insights on how to better deliver Innovation Management services to SMEs. Each one of the partners involved has organised a study visit to its venue to share with the project partners the approaches it uses to deliver services to enhance the innovation management capacities of SMEs. The study visits have included visits to several company clients to gain first hand experience from the SME management team of their understanding of innovation management and the impact of our services on their business. A key selection criterion for the project partners was their use of different diagnostic tools for assessingSME innovation management capacities. We have been able to explore the following tools: IMP3rove Assessment Tool, Innov'scan tool, GROWTHmapper Tool and the GrowthWheel Tool.
The project deliverable is a document with two key parts. Part one focuses on the changing nature of innovation, why should we support innovation, how innovation support policies have evolved over time and highlights the importance of managing innovation to enable business growth.
Part two is a description of the customer client journey with insights from each of the partners that opffers guidance to other innovation agencies wishing to launch a similar service or enhance an existing service by learning from experienced practitioners. In the document annexes we have included a brief description of the four different assessment tools.
Our model of the service to enhance innovation management capacities is based upon pre-selecting SMEs, undertaking a diagnosis of their needs which lead to a tailor made action plan, defined by a senior innovation expert. The skills and expertise of the advisor are key to gaining confidence with the management team and getting them actively involved in the implementing the action plan. This could include elements such as defining an innovation strategy, enhancing leadership, building on business intelligence, promoting external collaborations, establishing governance and innovation processes and managing IPR. In addition, the innovation advisor needs to have a deep knowledge of the Innovation Ecosystem, including programs and support services offered to SMEs, to be able to open doors and provide useful connections for the SME, whatever the diagnosis tool used.
We recommend that the questions asked during the diagnosis of the business and the subsequent discussions are key to building an effective action plan for the SME. One of our main findings is that the diagnostic tool used for the assessment of the company client has to be flexible enough to be effectively applied to a wide range of companies (size, age, sector etc.) and to be applicable to both young innovative businesses as well as more established businesses that are looking to increase their levels of innovation.
Another finding is that Management innovation standards and services are not yet known from SMEs. Therefore, despite all the benefits found in this project, there are no spontaneous / explicit demands from SMEs. It means that the approach and the service process requires incentives to be accessible to SMEs as well as a significant commercial/marketing effort which needs to be considered and taken into account in the different support schemes proposed, while preserving the independence / neutrality vs. funding bodies.
