What is Innovation Management?

Innovation is a top priority for the majority of business leaders. However, deciding which approach will deliver the best ROI is not always easy. Innovation management takes the guesswork out of this process. The practice allows you to leverage the “wisdom of the crowds” in order to identify, develop, and implement the most valuable ideas for your organization.

Defining Innovation Management

Innovation management is the systematic process of organizing innovative practices throughout your enterprise. When leveraged effectively, innovation management can give rise to a creative culture where breakthrough ideas are generated on a continuing basis. It can also ensure complex, large-scale innovation objectives are broken down into manageable goals that various participant groups can focus on.

The History of Innovation Management

If you don’t know where you’ve come from, you don’t know where you’re going. This interactive timeline can help you map the future of your innovation efforts by helping you understand the past…

and so, the journey begins...

1883

Joseph Schumpeter

1883

Joseph Schumpeter

An acclaimed Austrian political economist who came to prominence in the 1930s, Joseph Schumpeter coined the term ‘creative destruction’ and developed an array of other key concepts that would later inform the idea of ‘disruptive innovation’.

1889

Arthur H Cole

1889

Arthur H Cole

An American economic historian who built upon the theories of ‘creative disruption’ identified by Schumpeter to inform his study of entrepreneurial change. Cole is credited for helping to further the study and codification of corporate innovation processes.

1942

Creative Destruction

1942

Creative Destruction

Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter develops ‘creative destruction’ theory, studying dynamics in businesses that are constantly reshaped by innovation and competition.

1950

Innovation Labs

1950

Innovation Labs

Historian Benoit Godin identifies this as the beginning of the period when companies regarded innovation as a packaged and predictable research product that could be studied in a lab.

Read More
See How You Can
Foster Employee Innovation

1952

Clayton Christensen

1952

Clayton Christensen

Celebrated American academic and business consultant Clayton Christensen is credited with developing the concept of 'disruptive innovation'. The term was first used in his seminal book The Innovator's Dilemma - released in 1997. 

1968

Soren Kaplan

1968

Soren Kaplan

An acclaimed business consultant, speaker, and author, whose works have had a major impact on the development of corporate innovation culture. Kaplan is perhaps best known for his 2017 book The Invisible Advantage: How to Create a Culture
of
Innovation.

1968

Conway’s Law

1968

Conway’s Law

Computer programmer Melvin Conway identifies how design systems mirror the communication structures of the companies that produced them – reinforcing the importance of gaining diverse input for innovation.

1978

Eric Ries

1978

Eric Ries

Eric Ries is a popular entrepreneur, blogger, and author, renowned for his work on corporate innovation. His works - notably The Startup Way, released in 2017 - explore how lean startup companies can focus on continuous innovation to drive success.

“If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.”

Albert Einstein

1988

Stage Gate Innovation

1988

Stage Gate Innovation

Corporations begin to increasingly implement stage-gate innovation – codified by Robert G Cooper in 1988. This refers to dividing innovation into distinct phases, where evaluators can decide whether to develop or terminate the progression of new ideas.

Read More
Capture & Manage Great
Ideas with Q-ideate

1990

4 Categories of Innovation

1990

4 Categories of Innovation

A groundbreaking paper by Rebecca Henderson and Kim Clark identify four categories of product innovation (incremental, modular, architectural, and radical). These categories would go on to have a massive impact on the ways that corporations structure innovation management.

1993

The Rise of the Internet

1993

The Rise of the Internet

With the arrival of the internet, firms can now reach much wider audiences for open innovation campaigns. Startup companies specializing in niche areas begin to disrupt larger, more well-established companies.

1997

The Innovator’s Dilemma

1997

The Innovator’s Dilemma

Clayton Christensen writes his seminal work, The Innovator’s Dilemma. The book explores how companies must strike a balance between meeting customer needs and addressing anticipated future trends with innovation.

2019

Growth of the Innovation Management Software Market

2019

Growth of the Innovation Management Software Market

A study by Market Future Research predicts that by 2023, the innovation management software market will be worth approximately 1,700 Million USD globally.

Read More
Discover Qmarkets
Innovation Management
Software

Modern Innovation
Management

Now you’re ready to carve out your own place in the history of innovation management!

What are you waiting for?

The Innovation Ecosystem

Discover how innovation management software can drive value at your enterprise! 

Front End Discovery
Innovate & Craft
Commercialize
Q-trend
Gather, track, and share relevant industry trends, in order to inspire your users to submit enriched ideas to your innovation program.
Q-scout
Trace, evaluate and manage scouting opportunities for technology usage, joint-ventures, mergers, partnerships & acquisitions with this advanced tech scouting tool.
Q-ideate
The leading idea management solution for capturing the collective intelligence of employees to generate ground-breaking results.
Q-optimize
Maximize the results of continuous improvement and performance excellence initiatives by leveraging the collective intelligence of your employees.
Q-impact

By developing an innovation management ecosystem, you can target key objectives, streamline the evolution of new ideas, and ensure they are implemented effectively. This graphic provides a visual overview of how an innovation funnel can help you harness, develop, and unleash new ideas for maximum impact.

See Our Collective
Intelligence Solutions

Methodologies & Approaches

Companies can manage and upscale innovation on a company-wide basis in a variety of ways. In general, however, the most popular innovation management approaches fall into two broad categories – incremental and disruptive.

 

 

Incremental Innovation

This approach involves making consistent improvements to an existing product or service over time. It can include reducing costs, adding new features, as well as implementing ways to make the product or service more accessible to customers. Incremental innovation can be most readily seen in software updates, where new versions offer features that build upon the old as a result of consumer demands.

Disruptive Innovation

Disruptive innovations are those that involve making bolder changes that carry more risk but also the possibility of more lucrative returns. Due to the greater risks involved, larger enterprises often neglect disruptive innovation – leaving themselves vulnerable to smaller startups who are able to specialize in disruptive features. Despite the higher level of uncertainty associated with disruptive innovation, it is sometimes necessary in order to secure the long-term viability of a company. A great example of self-disrupting innovation in action can be seen in Philip Morris International – one of the world’s largest cigarette producers that is investing heavily in innovation to create a smoke-free future.

The importance of one of these categories will likely supersede the other, depending on the nature of your industry. However, it’s important to give due consideration to each to optimize innovation management efforts at all levels of your company.

The primary innovation approaches include:

Integrative Approach
Focuses on how innovation can be best accommodated within an organization’s existing structure.

Emergent Approach
Entails researching burgeoning trends and new technologies to pinpoint innovation opportunities.

Customer-Centric Approach
Involves seeking out the input of customers and other external stakeholders to inform innovation.

The Active Approach
Emphasizes safeguarding existing technologies and markets with incremental innovation, whilst simultaneously creating the capacity to innovate rapidly to accommodate new low-risk opportunities.

The Self-Disrupting Approach
Involves focusing innovation efforts upon changing the fundamental components of a business model in anticipation of large-scale market disruption.

Achieve Your Strategic Business Goals
with Innovation Management Software

Gain a Competitive Edge with Disruptive Innovation

Use innovation management software to brainstorm and collaborate to discover new markets, technologies, products, or services which can facilitate change management at your company. 

Discover: Q-ideate

Leverage the Power of an Open Innovation Ecosystem

Invite customers, business partners, academics, and other external stakeholders to contribute to your open innovation ecosystem and allow them to take part in co-creation projects. 

 
Discover: Q-scout

Seize Business Opportunities with Innovation Scouting

Track, manage, and execute corporate scouting initiatives on our software to meet your joint venture or M&A requirements, and secure new technologies that will enhance your innovation efforts.

Maximize ROI with Incremental Innovation

Embed a digital innovation ecosystem that fits your company culture, supports continuous improvement, and promotes performance excellence.

INNOVATE

Leading Global Enterprises Innovate with Qmarkets!

  • innovation management examples - mcdonalds

Qmarkets' Innovation Management Ecosystem

Meet Qmarkets’ vision of the corporate innovation ecosystem. This diagram aims to encapsulate the full spectrum of strategic innovation activity; from the many potential sources of inspiration and insight, through the varied systems and processes of idea development, to the bottom-line outcomes and deliverables that are ultimately generated.

Front End Discovery
Innovate & Craft
Commercialize
Q-trend
Research, track, and manage relevant trends to create a collaborative knowledgebase that can help fuel innovation across your company.
Q-scout
Trace, evaluate and manage your technology scouting activities, to optimize your ability to bring more successful partnerships and new technology adoption into your company.
Q-ideate
The leading idea management solution for capturing the collective intelligence of any audience to generate ground-breaking results.
Q-optimize
Maximize the results of continuous improvement and performance excellence initiatives by leveraging the collective intelligence of your employees.
Q-impact
Easily manage the progress & impact of all you innovation projects using one central, intuitive & collaborative space.

Resounding Accolades

Discover why Qmarkets is consistently recognized by leading analysts as a multi-award winning solution.

Read G2's 2020 Spring Grid Report for Idea Management Software

Read Gartner’s 2016 Market Guide for Innovation Management Solutions

Read MWD Advisors' report on Qmarkets’ packaged approach to innovation, 2018

We use cookies to provide you with the best possible experience when visiting our website. By continuing to browse this site you agree to this use. To control your preferences, take a look at our privacy policy.