Today, more than ever before, Innovation is the primary differentiator that offers an organisation its sustained competitive advantage. Establishing your organisation's innovation capability, maturity and attractivness has to be a strategic imperative for any senior executive.
The Investor in Innovations® is a leading-edge and integrated Standard that offers a practical way for an organisation to assess, benchmark and validate its innovation capability. It is used by Companies (e.g. BAE Systems, Panasonic, Raytheon, Thales), Educational Institutions (e.g. Plymouth University, City of Glasgow, South West College), and Government Departments and Agencies (e.g. Ministry of Defence, Royal Airforce, DASA) to measure their innovation gaps and assess the health of their innovation portfolio.
Figure 1
Investor in Innovations Standard - Framework Categories
The Investor in Innovations® Framework offers a 360-degree diagnostic of an organisation’s innovation position through the eyes of its customers and stakeholders. It uses a well-defined six-category Framework: Strategy and Alignment; Organisational Readiness; Core Capabilities, Technologies and IP; Industry Foresight; Customer Awareness; and Impact and Value that generates a coherent and independently validated innovation profile for the organisation.
Key outcomes from this accreditation process is an Action Plan that identifies key milestones to close organisation's innovation gaps and a Recommendations Report which brings together advice and guidance from both the Validation Panel of Experts and representatives of the Innovation Council. Such advice and guidance provide a key input to the organisation’s overall strategic plan.
Organisations that achieve the Investor in Innovations® Standard and Award can invest more confidently, differentiate their capabilities and offerings and demonstrate positive value and impact.
The Investor in Innovations® standard was published in the prestigious Science in Parliament Journal. Click here to read the article.
Education and training providers that wishe to improve their innovation capability and maturity level, and become recognised investor in innovations organisations.
Applying Investor in Innovations can help you to:
Thus, making you a magnet that attracts more students, employers and economic engagements.
Investor In Innovations Aligns to ISO 56000 Innovation Management Guidance Series »
The framework in Figure 2 illustrates how the categories in Investor in Innovations have been mapped and align with the ISO 56000 Innovation Management Guidance Series.
Figure 2
Investor in Innovations Alignment to ISO 56000 Innovation Management Series
The Investor in Innovations Standard inculcating the current ISO 56000 series Guidance Standards will be awarded to the successfully validated organisation for a period of 3 years.
The 5-stage Investor in Innovations® Standard accreditation process is straightforward, structured and streamlined to be time-efficient for the organisation undertaking application for the Standard. All organisations are guided by IKE Institute Advisors, who are all experts in innovation, to ensure clarity of engagement and effective use of the applying organisation’s resources.
Upon successful achievement of the Investor in Innovations® Standard accredited status, the organisation will receive the Investor in Innovations® Certificate(s) together with the Plaque and crystal Award. The Investor in Innovations® Award lasts for 3 years with a programme of monitoring, Review and Reporting, conducted annually to ensure that the accredited organisation continually improves its innovation capability and level of innovation maturity.
Figure 3
The Investor in Innovations Validation Process Stages
[1] Remains in Development by the ISO TC 279
"Investor in Innovations made us look at ourselves and understand what we were doing. I3 raised our consciousness of what we do in innovation. Achieving the Investor in Innovation has helped to raise our focus on innovation. We are an engineering company and it is extremely important that we continue to innovate and it is also important that we don’t take it for granted! We have to continue to reinvent ourselves and how we do things. Investor in Innovations has also raised our profile within the organisation. The process of achieving the accreditation also showed up gaps and has given us some benchmarking. The benchmarking element is extremely valuable for us to continue to improve innovation."
Michael Christie, Strategy Director and Chief Technologist, Military Aircraft and Information, BAE Systems
"Beyond our technology push, we continue to invigorate our ecosystem by embracing strong collaborations with SMEs, research organisations and key stakeholders. We also continue to recognise our people who innovate and embrace innovation across all the business functions. The learning processes are critical antecedents of innovation. We will continue to learn and adapt to ensure we are agile and resilient in our approach. Undergoing the Investor in Innovations Standard has ensured that we at Raytheon UK, can pursue our journey, and intensify the pace of innovation interventions with confidence, to deliver growth and differentiated offerings to our markets."
Richard Daniel, CEO Raytheon UK
“Achieving the Investor in Innovations accreditation, which benchmarked our innovation capability and creativity against a global backdrop of leading edge organisations only confirms that City of Glasgow College is a global leader in technical and professional education. We continue to build upon our culture of excellence through innovation and near market research.”
Paul Little, Principal and Chief Executive
"Companies have to look hard at how to use their IP effectively, to protect or expand their existing markets, as well as create revenue streams from something that would otherwise be a passive asset. Using the Investor in Innovations framework together with the expert guidance of the Advisors from the Institute of Innovation and Knowledge Exchange, has enabled us to identify further actions that enhance our approach to achieving total IP management, thus maximising the benefit of IP exploitation to our customers. We are pleased to be the first organisation in Singapore to embrace the Investor in Innovations standard."
Jason Loh, Head of the IP Group, Panasonic
“We’ve been quite impressed, if not slightly startled about how thorough the whole process is and the quality of the peer review that come from other industry experts, so we found it a very valuable but challenging process and it’s helped us now build improvement plans to get even better at innovation."
Dr Alvin Wilby, Vice President Thales Group
“To stay competitive in a world dominated by change we have to continue to be innovative in proposing competitive military capability, designed and manufactured with modern methodology and technology. This is why we’ve decided to undergo the Investor in Innovations assessment to benchmark our innovation capability not just against our peer competitors but also against international best practice. We are delighted to have achieved the standard, which gives us a springboard to pursue our plans with agility and confidence. It is a double celebration for us as MBDA also recognises all the achievements of its innovators from across the nation countries.”
Gianni Bongianni, Chief Technology Officer, MBDA
"This Invester in Innovations award is official recognition for the culture of innovation that TyneMet College nurtures in its staff and it students. Its new IGNITE Centre for Engineering and Innovation is a prime example of this. Providing the specialist training to embed the skills employers need from their workforce in fabrication, electrical engineering and welding is vital in filling posts in regional businesses. It will also make a telling contribution to the LEP's Strategic Economic Plan of creating more and better jobs for the North East economy."
Hans Möller, North East LEP Innovation Director
“Universities have the potential to be innovation engines for the economy, using their knowledge and expertise to catalyse socioeconomic development – and Plymouth is very proud of its track record in this field. Undergoing the Investor in Innovations Standard has helped us to refine and refocus our innovation efforts and align these with the University’s overall Business Strategy.”
Professor Simon Payne, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Plymouth University
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