Posts Tagged ‘Innovation’

Over 4900 Key Performance Indicator (KPI) examples on www.smartKPIs.com

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

Registered members of the www.smartKPIs.com community can now select their Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) from over 4900 performance measures documented and published in the online repository. The team focused over the last few days on publishing examples from State/Federal Government and Local Government sectors.

The functional areas with the highest number of KPI examples are:

The industries with the highest number of documented performance measures are:

Example of a documented performance measure: $ Ratio of reinvestment into the community

Registered member experience on http://www.smartKPIs.com

  • Learn: To learn more about performance management and Key Performance Management visit the Resources section.
  • Explore: To explore the library of KPI examples by navigating the functional area and industry directory, visit the Browse KPIs section.
  • Customize: To build your customized KPI library by saving favorite examples for later use, visit the My KPIs section.
  • Contribute: To propose a new example of KPI, visit the Submit KPIs section.
  • Collaborate: To collaborate with other users and to discuss KPI examples, add comments on each KPI description page, ask questions on smartKPIs Answers, or contribute to the smartKPIs Forum.
registered members

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Posted in Customized KPI library, KPI, KPIs in practice, Library of KPI examples, Measure, Performance Management, Performance Measurement, smartKPIs.com | No Comments »

Measuring the performance of the R&D function

Friday, June 4th, 2010

Innovation is probably one of the most common words in the business “arena”. Even in these tough times, surprising and extraordinary innovation efforts take place in businesses across the globe. CEOs are recognizing the power and potential of innovative ideas: “We can innovate and differentiate only by investing in R&D.” (Infotech, 2010)

In short, Research and Development (R&D) is the key to innovation. In a previous post we presented the world’s most innovative companies. Below is an adaptation of that ranking, for the top 10 most innovative companies in 2010.

Source: Fast Company, 2010

In the current post we will concentrate broadly on R&D expenditures, metrics and the importance of R&D activity, as a key benchmark of economic competitiveness.

A recent report published by Business Innovation and Skills Department, UK (2009) investigated the performance of the top UK and global corporate investors in R&D. The analysis and case studies in the 2009 R&D Scoreboard report were written by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The table below shows the R&D expenditures and average R&D growth among the top ranked companies.

Source: Department for Business Innovation & Skills , UK, 2009

So, what makes the world’s most innovative company? Is not just exploiting a single idea. Doing things completely differently, making money and saving costs – requires more. It is well known that progress depends on the contribution made by systematic research. Broadly defined, the purpose of research is to answer questions and acquire new knowledge (Marczik et al., 2005). There is a call to benchmark and monitor performance in R&D area and for using the right metrics.  A recent report showed that the “top five” R&D metrics are:

1.  R&D spending as a percentage of sales (77%)

2.  Total patents filed/pending/awarded/rejected (61%)

3. Total R&D headcount (59%)

4. Current-year percentage sales due to new products released in the past six years (56%)

5. Number of new products released (53%) (Goldense Group Inc., 2010)

These days it is not enough to be good at innovating. To survive and prosper more and more organizations find that they need to innovate faster than their competitors.

References:

  • Marczyk and DeMatteo 2005, Essential of Research Design and Methodology, John Wiley& Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey, pp. 1.

Additional resources:

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Applying Design Thinking principles in Performance Management

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

The process of creation is very important in music. In order to create great symphonies you have to be results-orienteted, metrics driven and always think outside the box. The same applies to performance management.

Design Thinking Methodology

In organization and management theory, Design Thinking forms part of the Architecture/Design/Anthropology (A/D/A) paradigm, which characterizes innovative  human-centered enterprises (Asian Development Bank, 2010).

The design thinking process is based on seven stages which can occur simultaneously and can be repeated. The steps and the related activities within each step are presented below.

Like in music, design is always subject to personal taste. Thus, design thinkers share a common set of values that drive innovation: these values are mainly creativity, ambidextrous thinking, teamwork, end-user focus, curiosity.

Why is important for business and how can it be used with Performance Management?

Design thinking is changing the way creativity and business interact. Today, the world economy is coming to an era where there is only one winner. In other words, it is completely useless and meaningless, if it is not meant being the best.  An original product is the essence to the key of being the best, and in order to produce an ingenious creation one must attain a talent of being original and creative.

The only question remaining is “How would you use Design Thinking principles in Performance Management?”

References:

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Google Metrics – Facts and Figures as of March 2010

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

Infographic = key data + great visualization

Source: Pingdom, 2010

References

Pingdom (2010), Google facts and figures (massive infographic), available at http://royal.pingdom.com/2010/02/24/google-facts-and-figures-massive-infographic/ (accessed on 29 March 2010)

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Guerilla Marketing Metrics – Nokia – The World’s Biggest Signpost

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010

The Right Direction in the Simplest Way

  • A signpost the size of two double decker buses
  • A 50 meter tall motorized crane, weighting 60 tonnes
  • A location: Potters Field, London
  • A time period: 16 October – 6 November 2009

Results

  • The World’s Biggest Signpost
  • 862 000 views of the installation just by walking over Tower Bridge alone
  • Increase by 129% of unique visitors to Nokia’s online navigation service
  • 29%  visitor returns on the navigation service page

References

Nokia Blogs (2009), The Nokia Signpost has now gone live, available at http://blogs.nokia.com/nseries/2009/10/28/the-nokia-signpost-has-now-gone-live/ (accessed on 30 March 2010)

Farfar (2009), The World’s Biggest Signpost, available at http://farfarlabs.com/awards/general/nokia/theworldsbiggestsignpost/?page=nyfa-inter (accessed on 30 March 2010)

Adghost’s videos (2010), The World’s Biggest Signpost, available at http://www.vimeo.com/8758205 (accessed on 30 March 2010)

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The World’s Most Innovative Companies 2010

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

“The World’s Most Innovative Companies 2010” report was recently published by Fast Company. It reports analyzes over 250 companies, including more than 75 non-U.S. businesses, and emphasizes the Top 50 Most Innovative Companies. In addition to the Top 50, Fast Company cited 59 Innovation All-stars, culled from past Top 50 honorees, plus ranked the Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in 24 categories, including advertising and marketing, biotechnology, film and TV, media, music, and sports.

Below is a snapshot of the top presented by Fast Company.

Source: Fast Company (2010)

What lacks in this report is the means by which the selection and ranking was generated. There are no indicators or criteria of company’s selection, making the validity of the rankings questionable. However, this raises several important questions:

  • On what bases should a company be considered more innovative than another?
  • How important is the difference between the customer perception of a company as being innovative relative to the actual innovation that took place?
  • Should innovation be measured by volume or quality of innovation?

At organizational level, measuring performance in innovation is commonly done through a variety of metrics, many of them listed in the library of KPI examples available on www.smartKPIs.com:

Another example of report regarding innovation performance, this time at national level, is “The Innovation Capacity Index”, presented in a previous blog post. The report contains the 2009-2010 Innovation Capacity Index rankings of 131 countries, and the factors that were taken into consideration while creating the ranking.

References

smartKPIs.com (2010), “KPI examples for Knowledge and Innovation Functional Area, Innovation subcategory”, available at http://www.smartkpis.com/kpi/functional-areas/knowledge-and-innovation/innovation/ (accessed 21 March 2010).

smartKPIs.com (2010), “The Innovation Capacity Index” blog post, available at http://www.smartkpis.com/blog/2010/01/17/the-innovation-capacity-index/ (accessed 21 March 2010)

FastCompany.com (2010), “The World’s Most Innovative Companies 2010”, available at http://www.fastcompany.com/mic/2010 (accessed 21 March 2010)

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Innovation as value driver – Innovation at Procter & Gamble

Sunday, January 31st, 2010

Innovation has always been considered a powerful business value driver.  Organizations define innovation differently and have a broadly understanding of the term. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defines innovation based on the four types of innovation: product innovation; process innovation; marketing innovation and organizational innovation.

smartKPIs.com contains a library of Innovation KPIs, that supports building the strategy, model and culture for innovation development within the organization.  This variety of measures include:

A practical perspective for implementing the innovation strategy within the organization is presented in the following interview with A.G. Lafley, Chairman and CEO of Procter & Gamble, realized by Harvard Business Publishing.

Acknowledgment of  innovation’s importance as a business value driver represents the first step for an organization to update its innovation strategy for generating growth.

Additional resources:

Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

Harvard Business School, P&G’s New Innovation Model

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2010 Australian Open Grand Slam in Melbourne: Tennis Metrics and beyond

Monday, January 25th, 2010

In two previous posts we have presented how information technology solutions can shape the world of sport. By gathering and analyzing the most important bits of data, the Castrol Index and Ranking system presents both specialists and fans of football and cricket with a unique dataset and user experience. Hundreds of statistics and rankings about players and teams performance during games or even entire competitions are now available at a “touch of a button”.

Today’s post comes to add a new example of performance management and technology going hand in hand to build better performance in sport. Through its innovative technologies and solutions IBM is able to capture, analyze and distribute data on almost all the aspects of the Australian Open Grand Slam Tournament, enhancing and facilitating the experience of fans, media and officials in real time.

Performance and technology during the game

  • IBM technologies can capture players’ performance on the court through metrics such as winners, breakpoints, serve percentage, net approaches or unforced errors and then transmit them in real time to the IBM scoring system. To view more example of tennis metrics visit the list available on smartKPIs.com.
  • The Speed Serve System consisting of two electronic displays, a custom build radar and corresponding support software application can capture and transmit to the scoring system speeds of the first and second service, two important performance metrics in tennis.
  • Finally, Chair Umpire System, use Chump PDAs technology that allows umpires to record every bit of data during a match such as double faults, aces, forced errors, etc which is transmitted subsequently to the main scoring system.
  • All these information are available to fans, media and officials due to IBM innovative technologies and solutions in real time, thus increasing the game experience.

    • Performance and technology beyond the game

  • All information on Australian Open action such as players’ performance during the game, latest news, schedule of play can be followed on the official competition site.
  • Fans can customize and personalize their experience by being allowed to fallow their favorite players’ performance using an interactive draw.
  • New developed  iPhone application allows fans to watch players’ performance live and fallow all the information available on the Australian Open Grand Slam in real time.
  • To view more details about how IBM brings its contribution to enhance the tennis game experience at Australian Open but also at the other three Grand Slams that take place throughout a year: Roland Garros, US Open and Wimbledon please watch the highlights below.

    • Thus, if we are to summarize the effect of IBM technologies on the perceived tennis game experience in general and Australian Open Grand Slam Tournament in particular  the best quotation comes from the IBM experts themselves:

    “Two people hit the ball over a net. At this stage is not even a game. To call it a game you need at list one piece of information, a score. That piece of information gives the game meaning. Ad some more information and you’ve got a competition and even more and you have a tournament. Add serve speed, line calls and players statistics, incorporate weather forecast, crowd reports and transport timetables, distribute real time web feeds, match analysis and social media platforms, deliver scalability for pattern bytes of internet, traffic and create the infrastructure for a two week tournament, then pack it up and take it to the other grand slams. By adding more layers of information to the Australian Open we help shape the fan experience and turn a simple game in one of the greatest tournaments in the world.”

    For more details of the IBM technologies applied to enhance the tennis game experience please visit:

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    The Innovation Capacity Index

    Sunday, January 17th, 2010

    A useful resource for managing innovation performance at national level is the The Innovation  for Development Report. The report “provides a comprehensive look at the role of innovation in enhancing the development process” at national level. The first section of the report presents the Innovation Capacity Index, a methodological tool for measuring innovation at national level.

    The Innovation Capacity Index (ICI):

    Definition: A global standard to be used across the world with governments, in all countries.

    Purpose: To assess  and to reflect the country ability  to create an environment to support and encourage innovation.

    Importance: The ICI is proposed as a policy tool in order to promote dialogue between countries regarding policies and institutions that foster an environment for enabling innovation.

    Over 60 factors playing a major role for ICI:

    • Human Capital endowment
    • Regulatory and Legal framework
    • Institutional environment
    • Infrastructure for research and development
    • Adoption and use of information and communication technologies

    The relative importance of these factors varies, depending on the country development level and the political regime that policies are being implemented.

    The report also contains the 2009-2010 ICI rakings of 131 countries. The top 20 is:

    The complete list can be accessed on the report website: ICI rankings 2009-2010 (pdf)

    Practical perspective on ICI:

    ICI Rank 1:  Sweden,  the top performing country for 2009, serves as a benchmark for other countries through:

    • The country’s excellent policy framework that turned the private sector into the main engine of innovation
    • Open and transparent government
    • Universal social protections
    • High level of competitiveness and productivity

    For further reading:

    The Innovation for Development Report official website.
    The Innovation Capacity Index: Factors, Policies and Institutions Driving Country Innovation, Augusto López-Claros, Yasmina N. Mata

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    Innovation and firm performance in services – Nottingham University Business School

    Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

    The smartkpis.com team is dedicated to keeping visitors and community of registered users informed about the latest and most interesting developments and events in Performance Management from around the world.
    If you come across an interesting non-commercial event that you would like to recommend to other visitors, please send us an email with the link or details at: info@smartKPIs.com.

    Performance Management events 1/2010

    Title: “Innovation and firm performance in services: are we measuring them correctly”


    Date: 3rd of February 2010

    Location: Nottingham, United Kingdom

    Duration: half day (1-5pm)

    Format: Workshop

    Cost: Free

    Registration: No registration is necessary. However, it would be useful to confirm attendance for catering purposes.

    Organisers: Nottingham University Business School, The University of Nottingham, Great Britain and sponsored by the Advanced Institute of Management Research (AIM) in collaboration with the Advanced Institute of Management and the Business and Industrial Section of the Royal Statistic Society.

    Contact: giuliana.battisti@nottingham.ac.uk

    Notes:

    The event is benefiting from the participation of three top speakers:

    • Andy Neely (Deputy director of the Advanced Institute of Management, Cambridge University) – Title of discussion: “The Servitization of manufacturing: how do we track global developments”

    • Keith Smith (Director of Science and Innovation Analysis Group, Business Innovation and Skills Department) – Title of discussion –“TBC”

    • Jonathan Haskel (Imperial College) – Title of discussion: “Productivity and Innovation in UK Financial Services: An Intangible Assets Approach”

    Further details:

    For more details about the workshop agenda and venue visit the event page by clicking this link.

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