Leadership Plan Generator: Measuring Innovation


Content in this Article


  • Leadership Innovation
  • Leveraging Innovation
  • Business Scorecard
  • Business Scorecard Planning Tool
  • Innovation Metrics
  • Overview of the Leadership Innovation Plan Generator
  • Planning Components
  • Access Options

Practical Innovations

Leadership Innovation requires a vision that is adaptable to changes and opportunities in the environment. It must also be able to lead the industry in delivering products, services, and features that dazzle customers. Leading an industry requires competencies and skills to establish new industry standards. One must also be able to envision the next stage of products & services. Key performance indicators are necessary to assess the business’ ability to execute these competencies and assets. They help drive leadership innovation. They also confirm that outcomes are achieved.


The drive to pursue these advantages, as well as envision the future of your industry, is both dependent on the businesses existing competencies and assets as well as the business culture that leverages them.
Leadership Innovation
 

Continual scanning of the business’ external & internal environments for opportunities is one way to identify opportunities for innovation.

Tracking key performance indicators (KPI) is also crucial to evaluating the business’ health and sustainability.

The business scorecard represents a methodology. It can be used for individual projects. It is also applicable to the larger enterprise system in which your business functions.



Financial Metrics Plan


One of the advantages of using the business scorecard approach is that a system’s view of the organization (and its key performance areas) is emphasized which incorporates all key stakeholders into the planning and project execution stages. This approach also seeks to avoid any unintended consequences that often result when executing a complex (or cross systems) project without enough input or support.

 


ADDITIONAL INNOVATION MEASURES

The Balanced Scorecard Institute (2011) adds to this list with four categories to track your business’ ability to support and leverage opportunities for Innovation:
 
  • Number of New Ideas
  • Quality of Ideas
  • Effective Implementation of Quality Ideas
  • Achievement of Desired Outcomes

The key performance indicators, and business domains, tracked with your business scorecard is determined by the businesses’ planning documents. Identifying these key performance indicators (KPI’s) is often the responsibility of the executive team but should also take into consideration feedback from representatives of other stakeholder groups, and market trends that will influence your industry and market niche.

A Business Scorecard Approach often identifies and tracks financial, customer, internal processes, and learning & growth (Values Based Management, 2016). It can also be used to identify and track other key performance indicators. The business domain, and sub-metrics tracked, will depend on the business’ industry and market niche as well as its goals.

Whether your business seeks to achieve classical (incumbent, captured market) objectives, the business scorecard approach can assist with performance monitoring. It can also help if your business aims to be adaptive, visionary, or innovative (Ohr, April 25th, 2016).


OVERVIEW OF THE LEADERSHIP INNOVATION PLAN GENERATOR


The Leadership Innovation Plan Generator includes the following steps (and strategic planning components) listed below. Additional tools, resources, and options are available to members. Feel free to contact us with additional questions at [email protected] 

Defining Leadership

The concepts of leadership and management are explored. Model users have often acknowledged the challenges of applying academic models within the business environment.

The resulting insights have helped the industry recognize the influence that overtly rigid models have on expectations. They also impact the business environment’s design. Despite the often normative and lofty goals or values espoused by the models, the results are often unsatisfactory.

Leadership Development Framework

Tools to build out your leadership development framework are explored. System’s complexity results from the interdependence of its parts. Each part of the system can affect change across other areas. It also facilitates change within other areas of the system.

The impact of one action or choice on the system can become obscured. This happens as the inter-dependencies increase. This can make it difficult to resolve issues in systems performance. The cause and effect relationships across the system are non-linear.

Leadership Development Plan

Develop your leadership development plan. Innovation drives what goals are identified in the innovation plan. The goals are quantified and translated into quantitative & qualitative terms. Business reporting then seeks to evaluate the implementation and thus success of the strategy.

Strategy seeks to achieve the innovation goals. The process uses strategies and resources to realize these innovative products/services. This requires a firm operations foundation. It must align with the company’s competitive advantages. A lack of integration almost guarantees the company’s competitive advantages (and thus customers, revenue, etc.) will be lost.


Leadership Innovation Planning Components



The following accordion lists the components included in the leadership innovation plan. Click on each step to learn more.

Business Overview

The business overview section has a key purpose. It offers readers, coworkers, potential investors, or future business partners a glimpse into your company. It aims to provide coworkers and potential investors with a brief insight.

Future business partners also gain an understanding of your purposes. It also provides insight into its structure and mission. This information helps the reader of the strategic plan to better understand the context and industry of the following sections.

Sales & Marketing Plan

The sales and marketing plan establishes who your customers are. It outlines how they will be reached. It defines the value proposition of your product/service offerings. Without these channels, you have a limited understanding of the problem being solved by your company’s product/service. There is very little chance that your business will be able to thrive.

Human Resources Plan

Human resource assets drive value throughout the business model. Without effective human resource assets the performance in other areas would deteriorate and undermine the business. These areas include technical operations, financial, distribution & logistics, marketing & sales, services, and research & development.

Establishing a human resource plan supports the business’ recruitment efforts and training goals. It supports the strategic vision. It also provides opportunities for business model alignment, strengthening, and innovation.

Action Plan

The action plan incorporates the information from earlier sections. It establishes what goals are in place. It determines what strategies will be used to deliver these goals. It also supports performance evaluation. How goals are evaluated varies depending on the business and its priorities

Executive Summary

The executive summary section provides a high level overview of the business environment. It builds upon the business overview section (mission, values, and business structure). It also describes the product/service offerings and customer categories. Additionally, it provides a high level review of the business’ goals detailed in the previous section.

Your team may choose to leave the summary (here) at the end of the planning document. Alternatively, you may attach it to the business overview section at the beginning of the plan.

Financial Plan

The financial plan establishes how financial and physical assets are allocated and used. The story that these numbers help provide highlights the mission, values, and direction of the business over the coming term. Although the numbers can seem intimidating to many, driving value across the business environment is simple. It involves understanding the story they tell.


Access Options


Access to the leadership innovation plan generator is provided through the following products.

Click on the embedded book above to take a sneak peak at its contents. Click on the link to go to the Amazon store and purchase your own copy!

Click on the Store drop down menu at the top of this page. Select the mobile app tab to take you to the Google Store to purchase your own copy!

Travis Barker, MPA GCPM

Innovate Vancouver

[email protected]

Innovate Vancouver is a Technology and Business Innovation Consulting Service located in Vancouver, BC. Contact us to help with your next project!

Resources:

Balanced Scorecard. (2016). Retrieved April 27, 2016, from http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/methods_balancedscorecard.html

How Do I Measure Innovation? (2011). Retrieved April 27, 2016, from http://www.balancedscorecard.org/portals/0/pdf/howtomeasureinnovation.pdf

Jackson, T. (2015, March 05). 18 Key Performance Indicator Examples Defined. Retrieved April 27, 2016, from https://www.clearpointstrategy.com/18-key-performance-indicators/

Ohr, R. (2016, April 25). Key Innovation Issues for the Near Future – Part 1. Retrieved April 27, 2016, from http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2016/04/25/key-innovation-issues-for-the-near-future-–-part-1/