Strategic thinking and strategic intelligence

This document provides guidelines for supporting strategic intelligence within innovation management. It aims at addressing the following areas concerning strategic intelligence at strategic and operational levels:

• creating a strategic intelligence management strategy to support innovation in an organization;

• establishing strategic intelligence management in support of the innovation activities and initiatives within the innovation management system and the related innovation processes;

• applying strategic intelligence tools and methods in support of the innovation activities and initiatives within the innovation management system and the related innovation processes.

Strategic intelligence is transversal and cross-sectorial by nature. It is not limited to innovation activities and can apply to all areas where knowledge is required for strategic decision-making and consequent actions.

This document is not applicable to:

• certification;

• data protection.

Innovation partnership (open innovation)

This document provides a guidance for innovation partnerships. It describes the innovation partnership framework (see Clause 4 to Clause 8) and the sample corresponding tools (see Annex A to Annex E) to

• decide whether to enter an innovation partnership,

• identify, evaluate and select partners,

• align the perceptions of value and challenges of the partnership,

• manage the partner interactions.

The guidance provided by this document is relevant for any type of partnerships and collaborations and it is intended to be applicable to any organizations, regardless of its type, size, product/service provided, such as:

a) start-ups collaborating with larger organizations;

b) SMEs or larger organizations;

c) private sector entities with public or academic entities;

d) public, academic or not-for-profit organizations.

Innovation partnerships start with a gap analysis, followed by the identification, and engagement, of potential innovation partners and the governance of their interaction.

NOTE The essence of an innovation partnership is for all parties to mutually benefit from working together in the context of an opportunity for innovation.

This document is not applicable to organizations seeking innovation by merger or acquisition.

Open innovation is a concept and approach to innovation that emphasizes collaboration and the sharing of ideas, knowledge, and resources between organizations and individuals. It challenges the traditional closed innovation model, where companies develop and commercialize new ideas internally, and instead encourages the integration of external sources of innovation.

Innovation management assessment

This document will help the user understand why it is beneficial to carry out an Innovation Management Assessment (IMA), what to assess, how to carry out the IMA, and thus maximize the resulting benefits, which are universally applicable to:

• organizations seeking sustained success in their innovation activities;

• organizations performing IMAs;

• users and other interested parties (e.g. customers, suppliers, partners, funding organizations, universities and public authorities) seeking confidence in an organization's ability to manage innovation effectively;

• interested parties seeking to improve communication through a common understanding of Innovation Management (IM), via an assessment;

• providers of training, assessment, or advice in IM;

• developers of related standards;

• academics interested in research related to IMA.

Further, this document is intended to be applicable to:

• all types of organizations, regardless of sector, age, size, or country;

• all approaches to IM regardless of their level of sophistication, and complexity;

• all modalities of managing innovation whether centralized or decentralized;

• all ways to innovate, e.g. internal, collaborative, open, user-, market- or technology-driven innovation;

• all types of innovation such as product, service, process, business model, organizational innovation from incremental to radical.