The Management Roundtable -- Demystifying the Link between Innovation and Business Value: A Process Framework

I will be delivering a talk on innovation for The Management Roundtable. This talk will draw on our ongoing work in the area of innovation. The talk will focus on the development of the innovation process, measuring the process, and linking the process to business value metrics.

For details, please see - http://www.roundtable.com/Event_Center/Audiocons/Desouza/Desouza0707.html

Two universal truths underpin most business operations: (1) unless businesses can demonstrate value to their stakeholders on a consistent basis they will lose customers and markets, get overrun by the competition, and eventually become extinct, and (2) to generate business value, an organization must constantly innovate, and do so in an effective and efficient manner.
Innovation is a crucial component of business strategy, but the process of innovation can be difficult to manage. To plan organizational initiatives or bolster innovation requires a firm grasp of the innovation process. Few organizations have transparently defined such a process.
In this presentation, Kevin will offer a process framework and propose mechanisms to measure the value of innovation. The innovation process will be broken down into the discrete stages of idea generation and mobilization, screening and advocacy, experimentation, commercialization, diffusion and implementation. For each stage, he will provide context, outputs and critical ingredients as well as mechanisms to measure performance. Kevin will finish by linking these measures to business value measures.

Specifically you will learn:

• the stages of innovation -- from creating ideas to commercialization -- and diffusing and implementing products and services
• how successful organizations conduct activities in each of the stages
• how to measure process performance and improve its maturity
• how to link the innovation process to business value measures

Dr. Kevin C. Desouza is on the faculty of the Information School at the University of Washington. He is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor in Electrical Engineering at the College of Engineering. He serves as the Director of the Institute for National Security Education and Research, an inter-disciplinary, university-wide initiative. He is also Director and founding faculty member of the Institute for Innovation in Information Management (I3M) and is an affiliate faculty member of the Center for American Politics and Public Policy, both housed at the University of Washington. His immediate past position was as the Director of the Institute for Engaged Business Research, a think-tank of the Engaged Enterprise, a strategy consulting firm with expertise in the areas of knowledge management, crisis management, strategic deployment of information systems, and government and competitive intelligence assignments.

Dr. Desouza has authored Managing Knowledge with Artificial Intelligence (Quorum Books, 2002), co-authored The Outsourcing Handbook (Kogan Page, 2006), Managing Information in Complex Organizations (M.E. Sharpe, 2005) and Engaged Knowledge Management (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), and edited New Frontiers of Knowledge Management (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005) and Agile Information Systems (Butterworth Heinemann, 2006). His most recent book is Managing Knowledge Security (Kogan Page, 2007). In addition, he has published over 130 articles in prestigious practitioner and academic journals.

Dr. Desouza has advised, briefed, and/or consulted for major international corporations (e.g., Boeing, Microsoft, Accenture, the American Productivity Quality Center, etc.) and government organizations (e.g., the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Department of State, the Department of Veterans Affairs, etc.) on strategic management issues ranging from management of information systems, to knowledge management, competitive intelligence, government intelligence operations, and crisis management.