Innovation management standards and methodology from Europe

We discuss innovation management and its importance to companies. IMP³rove stands for “IMProving Innovation Management Performance with sustainable IMPact”. The IMP³rove Assessment provides guidance for companies’ competitiveness and sustainable growth. By the end of 2014, almost 4,000 enterprises of different sizes and from different industries and countries relied on the IMP³rove Assessment, which uses the European Standard, compliant with the norms of  (CEN/TS) 16555-1. A comprehensive IMP³rove Assessment report compares the given companies with the Growth Champions and the average from earlier surveys. The real value of the IMP³rove Assessment report can be maximized through several days of analysis executed internally or by an external consultant as well as through planning and implementing the necessary changes.

The methodology of the IMP³rove innovation management – initiated by the European Commission – was created as a result of a research and development project launched which started in 2006 and continued for 3 years. The IMP³rove is a registered, official, trademark by the European Commission in all Member States of the European Union (EU). The IMP³rove was created by AT Kearney which is based upon the “House of Innovation” measurement and service. AT Kearney is a German consulting company that introduced the project financed by the EU. The methodology involves all aspects of innovation management: innovation strategy, innovation organization and culture, innovation management processes, implementation conditions for innovation management and the financial indicators of innovation management performance measures.

We present the importance of innovation management performance measures through actual case study. The analyzed company is a leading Hungarian SME involved in aeronautics and air transport related research projects. The company, as a member of different consortiums, accumulated strong project participation experience working with numerous outstanding research institutes, universities, airports, airlines and innovative companies, including AENA, Airbus, DFS, DLR, INECO, NATS, NLR, SELEX, THALES, and UCL.

IMP³rove significantly helps companies recognize hidden reserves for competitiveness and sustainable growth in performance, efficiency, and profitability. We introduce the relationship between size and sector/operation. The companies in the competitive environment can generate significant advantages by using IMP³rove to identify breakthrough points in development, management, innovation and knowledge capital.