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IKC to convene managers in their early stages of innovation

Date: January 14, 2014

Experts from the IKC are working with the International Society of Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM) to bring together and share best practice on the early stages of innovation management.

The first meeting will take place at the ISPIM Conference in Dublin in June. A call for papers has been announced, with the aim to showcase both academic and practitioner insights on successful approaches.

At the early stages of innovation projects, managers are attempting to develop ideas for commercial investment under conditions of technology and market uncertainties. In such conditions, the crafting of business cases for the first major project investment can seem a complex exercise in risk management.

The early stages of the innovation process makes for a series of stubborn management problems, often referred to as “valley of death funding” and “the fuzzy front end of innovation”.

“We’ve noticed that our industry contacts regularly comment that their firms aren’t short of ideas, but ‘finding the goods ones’ is what poses a challenge.  We’ve got some good practice to share but think we can learn from others in a range of backgrounds too” said Paul Ellwood of University of Liverpool Management School, who has been working with the IKC for the past two years.

ISPIM is a network of researchers, industrialists, consultants and public bodies who share an interest in innovation management. It is the oldest, largest and most active innovation association in Europe, and their conferences draw in a delegation of around 500 innovation experts from 50 countries.
More information on the ISPIM Conference and the special interest group can be found on the ISPIM website: http://conference.ispim.org/

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