Has the innovation strategy for your business been worthwhile?

In the final part of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Innovation Framework, you can look for reassurance that your innovation strategy, plans and activities have been worthwhile. Look for a range of indicators that demonstrate the impact of the organisation’s innovation activities. The set of measures could include financial performance, market performance, process performance and the impact on stakeholders.

It is important to remember that in each of the direction and execution criteria there is a focus on the organisation having appropriate metrics. Some examples of typical metrics are:

• Having innovation objectives and targets as part of the innovation strategy (sub-criterion 2.1)
• Number and conversion of innovation ideas (2.2)
• Measuring the frequency and outcomes of collaboration activity (3.2)
• Level of investment in time and training for innovation activity (5.2)

However, in the results criteria, the focus is on actual performance information. You should ask yourself: “What have we achieved?”

The results criteria cover different aspects of the organisation’s performance. Criterion 6 covers the impact on the business and the market; criterion 7 addresses the impact on stakeholders.

Let’s look at sub-criterion 6.1 Business Impact as an example. This sub-criterion has the usual 5 indicators. In this case, they are:

1. The organisation has a range of financial indicators in place to measure innovation performance.
2. The organisation has a range of non-financial indicators in place to measure innovation performance.
3. The organisation measures the financial investment and return of its new products, services and solutions.
4. The organisation measures the business value of any improvements to its current ways of operating.
5. The organisation measures how effectively and efficiently its marketing, sales and other business strategies and resources are mobilised to fully capitalise on the potential business revenues from innovation.

You can see that this sub-criterion is asking an organisation to consider what financial measures are in place to demonstrate the impact of its innovation activity. Examples of typical measures could include the return on investment, revenue growth, profitability or process efficiency savings.

You might want to think about non-financial measures too. These could include the number of new ideas, the value of new ideas, process efficiencies, number of new products or services or improvements to existing products and services.