EIRMA Insight
EIRMA Insight is based on the discussions of senior industrial research and innovation practitioners at EIRMA meetings. Follow up our Action Points, things that you can do right now to make R&D and Innovation more efficient. Learn from practical guides on your subject of interest.
- Accessing the Power of People in Innovation
- Organising for more Effective R&D
- Fairness in Intellectual Property Negotiations
- Evolving Role of Middle Managers in Innovation
- Governing Social Networking in R&D
- A Practical Guide to Service Innovation
Accessing the Power of People in Innovation
Insights from Special Interest Group "Human (F)Actors in Innovation"
This EIRMA Insight discusses how companies can improve their capacity to innovate by developing a better understanding of human motivations and behaviour.
- Understand the way that the changing demands of industrial innovation are challenging individuals and companies
- Discover a structured process for getting the most from your people
- Access practical tools for understanding current mindsets, readying your organisation for transformation, and mastering creativity
- Learn about new behaviours and roles that can unlock the innovation potential of your workforce
- Find out about the Human Factors Diamond
Follow up our Action Points, things that you can do right now to organise for more effective R&D. Here are the first three: there are more in the full document, linked below.
Action Points
- Harness the reality of human emotions such as power, passion and pride
- Assess the human element in your organisation: have values become dogma; have commitments become shackles; and have current processes become immoveable routines? Are the ‘frames’ through which you see the world limiting your vision
- Consider formally creating new roles such as innovation project managers, creativity facilitators and champions: individuals in your organisation are probably migrating into these roles anyway.
This EIRMA Insight is based on the discussions of senior industrial research and innovation practitioners who are members of EIRMA's Special Interest Group V on Human (F)actors in Innovation, chaired by Phil Gamlen, Senior Fellow in Executive Education at Manchester Business School.
Links and Downloads
Organising for more Effective R&D
Representatives' Round Table: St Paul de Vence, France, January 2012
Can you organise your way to a more productive R&D function, or should you be considering other measures to improve R&D?
This EIRMA Insight discusses how companies can change the structure of their organisations and their underlying strategies to make R&D more effective.
- Discover better ways to make R&D more effective than organisational change
- Find out how the R&D function can thrive by taking on work outside its traditional scope
- Read what one practitioner believes should be the new role for R&D line managers
- Understand the best ways to evolve the R&D function as companies globalise
- Learn about the role of corporate venturing in enabling more effective R&D
Follow up our Action Points, things that you can do right now to organise for more effective R&D. Here are the first three: there are more in the full document, linked below.
Action Points
- Teach research managers to focus on enabling a problem-solving culture
- Look beyond the organisation chart for sources of greater research productivity
- Use transparency in the environment to improve knowledge sharing and the quality of decision making
This EIRMA Insight is based on the discussions of senior industrial research and innovation practitioners at the Representatives' Round Table held in St Paul de Vence, France, in January 2012, and chaired by Léopold Demiddeleer, EIRMA President.
Links and Downloads
Members can download this EIRMA Insight by clicking here- Members can download individual speaker presentations and other background material by clicking here
Fairness in Intellectual Property Negotiations
Special Interest Group on Intellectual Property: Rome, 18 November 2011
Greater cooperation in R&D means that research managers will have to spend more time negotiating collaboration agreements. One way to make this easier is to ensure that everyone involved feels they are getting a fair share of the rewards of any IP being licensed. Fairness is difficult, though, as is revealed in a discussion about offering equivalent rewards to inventors throughout a global organisation.
This practical guide discusses ways of ensuring that all parties feel fairly treated in licensing deals and some of the tools and techniques available to start the kind of open conversations that lead to mutual satisfaction and a faster pace of innovation.
This EIRMA insight also includes an update on progress towards a European patent.
Action Points
- Brush up your negotiating skills if you want to license a lot more IP in or out
- Recognise and accept that people's understanding of 'fairness' depends upon their motivations
- If you are concerned about the evolution of the European patent system, now is the time to make your voice heard through your national organisations or by direct lobbying
Links and Downloads
The Evolving Role of Middle Managers in Innovation
Special Interest Group on Human F(A)ctors: Paris, 20 October 2011
Current management practices emphasise control, discipline and efficiency, yet to thrive in the 21st century, organisations must be adaptable, innovative, inspiring and socially accountable. This practical guide looks at the ways middle management can adapt to, and even lead, the change to more responsive organisations. It discusses new approaches to innovation, and outlines the skills, insights and behaviours that middle managers will need in these new organisational structures.
Action Points
- Companies need to be clear of the role they want for Innovation in their organisations
- If you want to create a distributed innovation culture, consider using middle managers to lead that change and set their objectives accordingly
- Consider separating efficiency management, innovation management and creativity management
Links and Downloads
Governing Social Networking in R&D
Special Interest Group on Knowledge Management: Berlin, 6 & 7 October 2011
How should R&D managers react to social-networking tools, which offer a great new way to connect people within and beyond their organisations, but also enable information to flow outside the usual channels and hierarchy? This practical guide looks at the benefits and challenges of social networking, offers advice about making effective use of social networking in the corporate environment, and discusses the cultural changes that may follow its uptake.
Action Points
- Get people talking - worry about what they are saying later on
- Keep a sense of perspective about the need for control - your staff are already communicating in uncontrolled ways on the phone or over coffee
- Work out how to enable 'ephemeral meritocracies' and 'agile tribes'
Links and Downloads
A Practical Guide to Service Innovation
Learning Group: Paris, 8 & 9 September 2011
Innovation is increasingly about offering new services, rather than selling new products or processes. How should the R&D function adapt to this change?
This practical guide lays out a series of steps that companies should follow as they make the transition to a more service-led business, and discusses how the R&D function can adapt to the changing requirements that the transition brings.
- Discover the three key factors that enable a successful transition to a service-led organisation
- Learn about four ways the R&D function can adapt to a shift to services
- Understand the five phases of a successful service launch
- Hear how fellow practitioners, at organisations as diverse as ARM Holdings, Philips Lighting, Vaisala and VTT, are facing the challenge of service innovation
Links and Downloads
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