How To Tell If You’re Getting An ROI On Your Innovation Program

In her latest post for B&T, innovation specialist and founder of Inventium, Dr Amantha Imber (pictured below), offers her tips on how to tell if your plans for innovation are actually doing any good at all…
I had a meeting with the head of innovation at a large insurance company last week. He had been in the role for a few months and was finalising his 2018 program of works and asking for my advice. I asked a question that I ask in every meeting like this one: “What are your specific goals, and what metrics will you use to measure your progress towards these goals?”
I was met with a slightly defensive look.
“My goal is to implement an organisation-wide innovation program and build innovation capability.”
“Yes, I understand that,” I replied. “But how will you know if you have achieved that, and how will you track progress along the way?”
“I’ll just know,” was the reply I was met with.
Clearly, this isn’t good enough. And this innovation head is far from alone in his approach to measuring innovation efforts. For most companies, tracking their innovation program’s performance is an after-thought. And unfortunately, it is a very costly one as it means they will have no clear way of demonstrating the ROI on their hard work.
Here are three strategies to consider when planning how to will measure the return on your innovation program.
- Set a baseline
When you are at the beginning of your innovation journey, you need to set a baseline. This is the only data-driven way to accurately assess and track the work you are doing.
Many organisations resist this strategy. They claim that they know they are bad, so why would they waste time and money on an assessment to confirm this?
The reason is simple: how on earth will you know the return on your innovation efforts if you don’t have a clear and objective baseline?
When Mirvac launched its innovation program several years ago, it conducted Inventium’s Innovation Maturity Index to benchmark its current performance. Eighteen months later, the company was able to run the same assessment again and directly compare results. This enabled Mirvac’s innovation head to collect data that showed an enormous ROI on the investment in its innovation program.
Specifically, the assessment demonstrated a 54 per cent uplift on the key drivers that create a culture of innovation and a 39 per cent uplift on organisation-wide employee capability to be effective innovators. In addition, the assessment showed a 118 per cent uplift on the effectiveness of the company’s innovation process.
The AFR’s Most Innovative Companies list (www.mostinnovative.com.au) provides an excellent opportunity for organisations to benchmark themselves and set a clear baseline. All entrants receive an Innovation Benchmarking report as part of entry.
- Measure inputs and outputs
When companies do start to measure innovation performance, the focus is almost always on outputs. These are often financial metrics, such as amount of revenue driven by new products and services.
However, the problem with only measuring outputs is that it is an incomplete measure of what is going on. To fully understand your innovation program’s ROI, you also need to track and measure inputs. Inputs might be in the form of number of people trained in innovation skills, number of ideas submitted, amount of money invested in running ideas through experiments, and so on. Only after measuring inputs will you start to analyse the impact they are having on outputs.
- Understand the impact of culture and process.
To have a holistic approach to measuring innovation, companies also need to track variables that mediate (that is, strengthen or weaken) the relationship between input and output variables. The two most impactful variables on this relationship are innovation culture and innovation process.
There are very specific variables that lead to a culture of innovation, such as having a positive attitude towards failure and risk-taking. When an organisation ranks high on innovation culture drivers, the relationship between inputs and outputs will strengthen.
In addition, it is important to track the effectiveness of your innovation process. For example, measuring how quickly ideas move through your innovation process will strengthen the relationship between your input and output variables.
AustralianUnity track the speed at which ideas move through their innovation process on a quarterly basis. Once every three months, the senior leadership team review how long each active idea spends in each stage of the process and makes adjustments to constantly look at speeding up the process.
So if you have invested resources in an innovation program, make sure you are tracking if those resources are delivering a positive ROI for your organisation.
Please login with linkedin to comment
Dr Amantha ImberLatest News

Thursday TV Wrap: The Chase & MasterChef Pull Solid Numbers & Seven Nabs The Night
10’s Masterchef brought in 513,000 eyeballs and – I very much enjoyed watching their creations while eating 2-minute noodles. Seven News peaked at 966,000 viewers, while Nine News earned 797,000 viewers. Nine’s A Current Affair scored 569,000 viewers – Honestly, we need more Grinshaw everywhere! Perhaps a series of greeting cards? Meanwhile, Hot Seat grabbed […]

After Hanging Up Her Yellow Skivvy Former Wiggle Emma Watkins Is Heading To The ABC
Emma Watkins formerly The Yellow Wiggle from The Wiggles has announced her next move, and she’s heading to Ita Butrose’s playground at the ABC. Watkin’s shocked everyone when she announced she hanging up her primary coloured skivvy and stepping away from the children’s music group The Wiggles. But, if you need your Watkins fix, you’ll […]

Agnes Media Appointed By Education Fintech Brand ZeeFi
Independent media agency Agnes Media has been appointed by ZeeFi, Australia’s only ‘buy now pay later’ finance solution designed specifically for the education sector.

Passerby Waves Hand Gun At TV Reporter Doing Live Cross On American Gun Violence!
As the world again reels from the devastating shooting this week in Robb Elementary School in Uvalde in Texas, America’s firearm problems were again on show after a passerby was filmed pointing a pistol at a journalist and her camera crew while doing a live report on, ironically, gun violence. Good Day Chicago journalist Natalie […]

McDonald’s New Coffee ‘Australiano’ Gets Roasted For Appropriating Indigenous Ingredients
A new coffee on McDonalds’ McCafe menu dubbed the “Australiano” – conceived and launched by DDB Sydney – has come under fire for attempting to ‘colonise’ foods that belong to First nations people. The Australiano is produced through a combination of chai, McCafe’s traditional coffee beans and the native Australian wattleseed and will be available […]

Under Armour Returns As Footwear And Apparel Partner For City2Surf
Under Armour is also B&T's cute name for the crotch protectors our team will be wearing in the fun run.

Ellen DeGeneres Closes Out Her Show By Revealing She Couldn’t Say The Word Gay
Ellen DeGeneres’s long-running talk show has wrapped and in the final episode, the comedian revealed when the show started she wasn’t allowed to say the word gay on air. DeGeneres revealed that “Twenty-five years ago, they cancelled my sitcom because they didn’t want a lesbian to be in prime time once a week. So I […]

Case Study: How MediaCom’s WHISKAS’ #CatsInBoxes Campaign Saw A 70% Uplift In Sales & Score A Number Of Awards
It’s a case study of MediaCom Australia’s #CatsInBoxes that saw the campaign win a number of major awards and saw a staggering 70 per cent uplift in sales… Client: MARS Australia Brand: WHISKAS® Media Agency: MediaCom Australia Media Partner: Amazon Australia Award wins: GOLD: The Creative Use of Media Award GOLD: Best Campaign for a […]

Netflix And Grill’d Team Up For National Burger Day With Stranger Things Inspired Burger
Much like the fourth season of Stranger Things, the burger comes off as a little tired and overdone.

Dan Astey To Join Triple M Breakfast In Brisbane
Electrical engineers hosting radio shows is the dad version of young white guys hosting podcasts together.

IDC And Data.ai Study Shows Mobile Vs. Console Gamer Gap Is Getting Even Bigger
data.ai (formerly App Annie), the first unified data ai company, today in partnership with IDC, released the Gaming Spotlight 2022 report. Powered by Game IQ, the report reveals that mobile gaming represents 61 percent of the overall gaming market which is set to hit $222 billion in 2022. The report reveals that mobile gaming is […]

Nielsen Teams Up With TikTok To Unleash Greater Potential On Worldwide Marketing Insights
Nielsen, a global leader in audience measurement, data and analytics, has been selected to participate in TikTok’s Media Mix Modelling Program. TikTok’s program brings together leaders in media mix model marketing measurement to drive reporting consistency and quality for advertisers globally, allowing advertisers to gain more insights into the impact of marketing on the short-form […]

Emplifi First Quarter Report Shows Investments On Ads Are Up But User Engagement Is Flatlining
Emplifi, the leading unified customer experience (CX) platform, today revealed the findings of its Q1 2022 analysis of social media spend across thousands of brands worldwide including those in Asia Pacific (APAC). While overall social media ad spend decreased in the first quarter following an impressive holiday showing, it remains significantly higher than a year […]

WPP’s Wavemaker Snares Audible’s $700 Million Media In Global Win
Audible, a leading creator and provider of premium audio storytelling, today announced that Wavemaker will be its new agency of record for paid media worldwide, effective May 25th, 2022. Audible reportedly spends about $US500 million annually on advertising and a reported $A50 million here in Australia. Audible, an Amazon company, is headquartered in Newark, New […]

Bohemia Australia Nabs Paul Hutchison From Wavemaker UK For CEO Role
Bohemia looks to the UK for its latest CEO. Yet, no plans to instal a picture of Her Majesty in office reception.

Ogilvy Unveils NSW Government’s Latest COVID PSA “Little Things”
Ogilvy’s latest campaign for the NSW Government, “Little Things”, dramatises the idea of the little things that everyone should be doing to make a big difference to COVID safe life this winter. The OLV, social, radio, digital and OOH campaign was brought to life by creating miniature worlds, where COVID safety objects became the hero […]

Reconciliation Australia Launches National Reconciliation Week Campaign Via Carbon Creative
Reconciliation Australia and Carbon Creative will launch National Reconciliation Week 2022 tomorrow, Friday, 27 May (running through to 3 June) with the theme ‘Be brave. Make change.’ The theme and campaign, developed by social change creative agency Carbon Creative in collaboration with emerging Torres Strait Visual Artist Tori-Jay Mordey, challenges all Australians—individuals, families, communities, organisations, […]

Pearman Media Appoints Tara Lamond As Group Business Director
Pearman Media has announced the appointment of Tara Lamond as group business director. “With experience on both the media and agency sides, including a stint in London, Tara brings a wealth of advertising and media expertise to this role, and we are thrilled to welcome her on board,” said Pearman Media founder and managing director, […]

Beyond the Rainbow: How Brands Can Better Connect with LGBTQIA+ Consumers All Year Round
In this guest post, Jonathan Munschi (pictured below), head of sales for Twitter Australia, says initiatives such as Mardi Gras and Pride month give brands the ideal platform to connect with the LGBTQIA+, but, Munschi asks, why ignore the rest of the year? It’s time for brands to rethink their approach to LGBTQIA+ inclusive marketing. […]

Wide World Of Sports Radio Will Air Nationally From November
Who needs the visual appeal of watching sports like NRL and AFL when you can listen to them on National radio?

Samsung Launches New Refrigerator Campaign In South Korea, And It’s Wild
Apparently selling fridges wasn't 'cool' enough for Samsung, so now they've got a meme-fueled campaign in South Korea.

Anne Hathaway & Zendaya’s Bulgari Ad Feels More Like A Movie Trailer In The Best Way
Lux brand Bulgari enlists two Hollywood A-listers for latest campaign. Like, who were you expecting? Sharon Strzelecki?

Templafy Lands David Nemes As APAC Regional Director
LinkedIn and Buzzfeed will certainly be lost without Nemes, who is making the leap into the world of online documents.

IAS Signal Will Now Include Total Visibility Dashboard In Latest Update
The news brought so much excitement to the B&T team that we all lifted our heads off our desks and cheered for a minute.

Today Is National Sorry Day
B&T would like to take time out from the usual programming to acknowledge National Sorry Day today.

Wednesday TV Wrap: Charlie Pickering’s The Weekly Delivers, As Nine Snags The Night
If there's one group sad about ScoMo's defeat it has to be ABC comics decrying the lack of material.

‘The Sims 4’ Now Lets You Use Your Own Pronouns For Your Characters
The latest entry in EA and Maxis’ life simulation series, The Sims 4, has released a new update which allows players to customise their character’s pronouns. This new feature is available only in the English version of the game for the time being, with the developers saying that they will soon release it for other […]

Former Havas Head Of CX Michaela Aguilar Joins Martech Firm Acoustic
Acoustic, a marketing cloud, digital experience and lifecycle pricing and promotion technology solution provider, announced today that Michaela Aguilar has joined the team as head of business partnership ecosystem. In her new role, Aguilar will be responsible for business development and expansion, working with partners and the Acoustic team to create new revenue opportunities in […]

Samatha Armytage Shares Her Drunk At Work Fiasco While Interviewing Karl Stefanovic
Samatha Armytage is regaling drunken work stories. A refreshing change from her regaling issues in her personal life.

Butterfly Foundation Enlists QMS To Highlight Eating Disorders That Kill More Aussies Than The Road Toll
B&T warns this article is a bit of a downer. But an important downer nonetheless.

NSW Government Launches New Sexual Consent Campaign Aimed At Under 25s
Is B&T feeling a little worthy and pious today? Confirm it with this important consent campaign.

Alexa Looks To Expand Her Knowledge Of Australia By Teaming Up With The Betoota Advocate
Alexa teams with The Betoota Advocate to expand her knowledge of Australia. Thankfully Bob Katter wasn't considered.

Twitter Executives Unclear About Future Of Company Under Musk
Twitter executives unclear about future under Elon. Not keen on the matching work tracksuit idea either.

Ipsos Survey Shows Aussies Aren’t As Excited By The Metaverse And VR/AR Environments As People From Other Countries
Study says Aussies less interested in Metaverse than other nations. Still have strange fascination for Karl Stefanovic.

Study: Over 90% Of Major US Brands Think Their Creative & Media Needs To Be Better Aligned
Study confirms a misalignment between media & creative. And not merely one's obsession with the beard & the trainer.

Bastion Asia Solidifies Its Strategic Partnership With Adventi, Shanghai
Asian marketing communications agency Bastion Asia has announced a strategic partnership with one of Shanghai’s leading PR agencies, Adventi, to drive greater digital and marketing innovation for Australian brands seeking to engage with Chinese audiences. Adventi, a marketing and communications agency specialising in luxury brands, is known for bringing some of Europe’s biggest luxury brands […]