Measurement - beginning to quantify innovation.

Organizations of any size can benefit from an innovation appraisal. Innovation has risen in importance to senior management because the world is changing so rapidly that organizations literally have to innovate or die. There currently is or at some time has been, some level of innovation in every business or it would not exist.

Measurement - relative or absolute?

When faced with the requirement to significantly increase the innovation within an organization it is useful to have a baseline measurement. It is well known that relative measurements are much easier to perform and have much more meaning than absolute measurements. This is why standards exist, to provide a basis of comparison. Innovation is particularly difficult if not impossible to measure absolutely. Innovation can be both causal and correlated to profit, but is much more difficult to measure than strictly fiscal quantities. Repeatable measurements usually require the application of some degree of rigor.

Measuring Innovation

The most straight forward way to measure a qualitative quantity is through a process of normalization. As quality is by definition relative, comparing innovation internally is a lowest risk approach. Within any organization there are individuals who strongly believe in the importance of innovation and are willing to put forth effort in this direction. These Innovation Advocates have a sense of the level of innovation, and a sphere of influence within their organizations. One clear measurement is to poll these individuals and those within their sphere at various points in time and to get a sense of the trend. Innovation is not a scalar quantity but at least a vector or perhaps a function. To express innovation as single number is a zeroth order measurement necessarily a great simplification of a complex quantity that can be of great dimension.

Low order measurements can still be of great value. Especially in qualitative fields. Measurements are performed in a continuum from the harder sciences like physics to softer sciences like economics. Repeatability is not as required in the arts because the arts are not repeatable, or they cease to be art. Innovation is a qualitative art much more so, than a quantitative science, yet this does not excuse it from a rigorous treatment.

An Approach

SVII can work with your organization to develop measurements that are appropriate to your unique situation by adapting accepted measurement techniques and if need be, by innovating new ones.