Managing early-stage innovation is challenging. Using the more traditional standard financial metrics to evaluate the potential of an idea does not provide a useful or meaningful measurement.

This article, ‘Tools for Managing Early-Stage Business Model Innovation’ published in Research Technology Management, by John D Evans and Ray O Johnson from Lockheed Martin Corporation, details how a new two-stage approach by their company has been used to solicit and evaluate thousands of ideas from both their employees and members of the public. The end result has been a significant improvement in the quality of the company’s innovation portfolio.

Lockheed Martin’s approach combines a modified risk-return framework with a new concept, Innovation Readiness Levels (IRLs). IRLs offer a measure of the amount of stress an idea is likely to inflict on the organisation – and this provides a surrogate metric for both the required investment and the risk associated with the investment.

The authors report that adopting the new approach has dramatically improved Lockheed Martin’s ability to focus its corporate attention and ensure the success of a limited set of ideas – the ones which have a realistic chance of materially affecting the business.

Read more on www.randonline.com  Tools for Managing Early-Stage Business Model Innovation

Source: paper recommended by Anita Friis Sommer, LEGO and post written by R&D Today admin