INNOVATION MANAGEMENT
HANDLING
Uncertainty
Innovation management systems in various forms have always been essential for continued
success, although not widely understood. In this second of an eight-part series, Dr Benjamin
W Watson CEng CTPD CEnv MIED looks at how to handle uncertainty
International experts from more than
40 national committees have been
developing guidance for innovation
management, with standardised
terminology, tools and methods to manage
interactions between partners, how to
handle intellectual property, strategic
intelligence and, more recently, idea
management. This international guidance
identi es eight innovation management
principles, central to success.
Uncertainty is inevitable when
managing innovation. The challenge is
how organisations handle that uncertainty,
turning it into a competitive advantage,
both at the strategic and project levels.
The effective management of uncertainty
can help you to see what others don’t or
before the level of uncertainty becomes
a critical threat.
Handling uncertainty is often about
charting the unknown and then creating
the right operating environment to
respond to the unknown, shaping the
future.
CHARTING THE UNKNOWN
What comes next? Applying strategic
intelligence to chart current reality for
your market, and the most likely shifts,
over the next 8-10 years* will help you
to see change before it occurs. This is in
opposition to more reactive approaches,
responding to a threat once it’s already
upon you! These observed shifts should
not be limited to customer needs along
a known axis from where you are today.
Innovation
Management
Systems (IMS) 8 2/
Consider the interplay between the
regulatory landscape for your industry,
societal shifts, emerging technologies,
political and environmental changes, too.
RESPONDING TO THE UNKNOWN
IMS highlights the importance of
a portfolio approach. This builds
resilience into the organisation, handling
uncertainty through a combination of
incremental low-risk projects to sustain
core business, combined with more
adventurous initiatives for new solutions
into new markets, for example. These
different responses to innovation can
track through diverse processes, such
as those popularised through
skunkworks, through to more formal
processes focused on the management
of risk, for commercial success.
IMS describes this balance as
experimentation versus exploitation,
“learning from systematic
experimentation and iterative processes”,
not only in the broad portfolio, but also at
the individual project level as well.
SHAPING THE FUTURE
Shaping the future is in opposition to
a ‘wait and see’ approach or reactive
approach to external changes. Shaping
the future also doesn’t happen overnight,
which is why portfolio initiatives may vary,
in terms of their impact, but also their
time to fruition. Working backwards from
the future will help you build a set of
horizons to guide how, when and where
to innovate next.
Regardless of organisational size and
type, this approach can be adapted to
your organisation, to charter the unknown,
respond to what you’ve learned and shape
the future continuously over time.
*Timelines vary from organisation to
Dr Benjamin W Watson
International Expert Work Group for innovation
Management Systems. ISO/TC279. Innovation
Leader, 3M. Trustee and Councillor, Institution
of Engineering Designers.
organisation.
www.ied.org.uk 9
/www.ied.org.uk