A study being carried out at the time of writing is looking into the trends which make innovation work.
Accelevate, an innovation advisory firm, and California College of Arts’ Design MBA programmes have partnered on the survey Understanding the iFactors – Trends in Bringing Innovation to Market. Respond here.
The hope of those carrying out the research is that it will allow them to gather informative data on how groups are pursuing innovation, filling a knowledge gap.
Patty Burke, co-founder of Accelevate, said: “There really is not much information out there on what factors make innovation work.”
It is likely the results of the survey will quickly be used in education of future innovators. Nathan Shedroff, chair of CCA’s Design MBA, said: “We are in the process of reconstituting our executive certificate programme. We are not running it this year, but this survey is set to become part of what the certificate turns into.”
Burke added: “We have various innovation factors (which we call iFactors), embedded in the survey. When people say they are successful, very successful or not successful, this may be down various factors. We have talked about something like your iScore, to compare company’s answers with the ideal innovation programme. It would be pretty interesting if we could do this.”
CCA has made teaching innovation a major focus of its MBA. Burke added: “CCA offers a much broader-based course on innovation than many schools. It is focused on MBAs for innovators, not just design and art. As a guest lecturer I was amazed how relevant these courses are to education for executives that is needed today. No one is teaching innovation in the depths they are.”
The researchers have some early hypotheses, which they are hoping the data will help them prove. Shedroff said: “My hunch is it will turn out that leadership focus on the integration of innovation objectives from the leadership on down is of key importance.”
Also, they believe written statements of intent in innovation are likely to be important. Burke added: “The other question we are very interested in is ‘do you have an innovation charter’? Not having an innovation charter could be a lot more common than thought by those in innovation.”