IMP³rove is an initiative aiming at improving the Innovation Management capabilities and performance in Europe as a pre-requisite for the competitiveness.
This includes the IMP³rovement of the Innovation Management of enterprises, especially small and medium sized enterprises as well as the further development of professional support services in Innovation Management for these enterprises.
The IMP³rove Approach offers a holistic view on Innovation Management. It includes all dimensions of Innovation Management and addresses all kinds of innovation not just product innovation. The IMP³rove Approach is applicable for all industry sectors and all types of enterprises, although it has a strong focus on SMEs.
The IMP³rove Approach is structured in three phases:
• The benchmarking process
• The feedback process
• The follow-up process
Almost 1900 consultants have been trained in the IMP³rove Approach and are accredited as IMP³rove Guides. They have the certificate to support SMEs in completing the IMP³rove Assessments. Some of them have acquired sufficient practical experience with the IMP³rove Approach and proved their Innovation Management consulting skills.
Resources needed
At company level, every unassisted assessment costs €350. The assessment assisted by consultants from the Enterprise Europe Network under the InnoSup project is free of charge for SMEs.
Evidence of success
More than 6000 SMEs across Europe and beyond have benefited from the IMP³rove Approach. They have benchmarked their Innovation Management performance and gained valuable insights on the strengths and weaknesses that are presented in the detailed IMP³rove benchmarking reports. Here the SMEs see the gap between the Growth Champions that set the benchmark, the average and their own Innovation Management performance. These SMEs gained additional insights in current best practices when striving for i
Difficulties encountered
• The market for Innovation Management support services for SMEs in Europe is still rather fragmented.
• Many consulting companies – often small with only one or two employees – are rendering their services to SMEs. Each is using their own approach.
Potential for learning or transfer
Within the European Union, there exist a number of similar methodologies covering almost the same aspects of the companies’ innovation management practices. However, without the sound support on behalf of the European Commission, they have not become so popular: smE-MPOWER .
Tags: Innovation, Learning, SME, Crossborder region
