Innovation Processes

For the past fifty years, new methods promoting innovative design have flourished: CK theory, Project management by issues, Design Thinking, Lean Startup, Business Model Canvas, Lean Canvas, Outcome Driven Innovation among others…

The methodological diversity of concepts promoting innovation offers the possibility, depending on the problem to be dealt with and its environment, to favor a particular method or to draw from their complementarities.

Obviously other factors such as the organisation’s culture or the saturation of the relevant market come into consideration in making the most judicious methodological choice. The choice to be made from this range of solutions also applies to managers. Depending on the strengths and weaknesses of their department, they can choose the method (s) that will make their team more efficient and its results more relevant for the entire organisation.

Louis Bouwer from the Innovation Management Research Institute (IMRI) published in 2017 the “Innovation Management Theory Evolution Map” to help innovation managers take note of existing fundamental innovation management theories, how they evolved through the past few decades and which theories are best suited to solve specific corporate innovation management challenges.