Innovation Management

Focus on the ecosystem that surrounds the innovation

2018-10-09

– To achieve real impact and market success we need to focus on the ecosystem that surrounds the technology. This is what we call the process of innovation management, says Marie-Christine Napier, Partner, IMCG UK.

IMCG is involved in several different EU projects. The common denominator for all of them is that they evolve around advanced solutions that will contribute to a more sustainable society.  In the Inspirewater project advanced wastewater treatment technologies are being demonstrated and tested at Sandvik, Clariant, Dow Water Solutions and ArcelorMittal. In addition to making sure that the results from the trials of the technologies demonstrated in the process industries participating in the project, we need to focus on strategic communication, business planning, commercialisation, IPR strategy, market assessment and customer assessment. IMCG’s role is to make all project partners aware that this is needed in order for the technologies to reach the market.

Innovation capacity and capacity

– We’re looking at the innovation management processes of the larger companies of the Inspirewater project and benchmark this with other EU-projects we’re engaged in, says Ulrika Wahlström, Innovation Project Manager, IMCG.

By benchmarking with other EU-projects that we at IMCG are engaged in, like United-Grid and IRIS, we are able to secure a knowledge transfer beyond the project and across different types of industries. It might very well be that a large energy  company in the United-Grid project, proves to be capable to handle innovation management with an excellence that other industries, such as the process industries represented in the Inspirewater project, could learn from. And vice versa.

By benchmarking results with other EU-projects that IMCG is involved in, we are able to secure a knowledge transfer regarding innovation management beyond a specific project and across different types of industries.

IMCG looks at the larger companies’ innovation strategies, the degree of having an innovative organisation culture and other factors enabling innovation and analyses the result. Our work contributes to that a technology that has been validated and showed positive results after having been demonstrated, will not end as a mere test result. We aim for it to be implemented on the market. It could be at the test site where it’s been demonstrated (site level), at that test site’s sister companies (going through a corporate level), at other project partners’s industries or outside of the project consortium.

– The overall objective for us is to get the solutions all the way to the market. Not only in the EU, but beyond, says Ulrika Wahlström.