Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the pillar of the European economy and, because of their size they often do not have their own department that keeps an eye on innovation. There is an indication that enterprises grow faster and bring new products and services to the market which have established a good innovation management, generating the necessary amount of fresh ideas and translating the promising ones quickly into marketable products. Market access and profitability of new products and services can also be accelerated when companies decide fast which new ideas they pursue and which they abandon. In day-to-day business, however, innovation management is often drowned out in small businesses. Lack of financing also is one of the biggest problems of SMEs.
The Enhanced Innovation Management Services as an additional service of the Enterprise Europe Network offer SMEs the opportunity to evaluate and improve their innovation management capacity. This will lead to improved competitiveness, faster growth and more and stable jobs for the European society.
INNOKAM is implemented by the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) consortium in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein (EEN-HHSH). EEN-HHSH is established as a well-known regional one-stop-shop for all EU-related enquiries for SMEs and regional stakeholders and formed by the four partners Investitionsbank Schleswig-Holstein (IB.SH) Tutech Innovation GmbH (Tutech), Wirtschaftsförderung und Technologietransfer Schleswig-Holstein (WTSH) and IFB Hamburg (IFB).
For the period 2017-2018 INNOKAM had as its core objective to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of innovation processes in small and medium sized enterprises with significant innovation activities in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein by offering the “Enhanced Innovation Management Consultancy” and the “Key Account Management - (KAM)” services. Aim was to tackle existing lack of innovation management capacity in small and medium sized companies (SME) and support their innovative activities in order to creating economic impact. The guiding principle was to tailor the needs of the identified regional innovators and innovation systems.
In this context the KAM service was targeted at beneficiaries of the SME instrument under Horizon 2020, the EIMC addressed other highly innovative SMEs. The EIMC helped companies to establish effective innovation management systems that enhance the realisation of growth opportunities. The KAMs focused on overcoming bottlenecks to enhance the success of the funded project. They assisted in finding specialised coaches and establishing a coach-client relationship. All successful SME Instrument applicants were able to find a coach from the database who addressed their needs, thanks to the good EEN support. Both approaches aim to raise the company´s competitiveness and profitability.
