Assessing the management of innovation with software tools: an application of innovation Enterprizer

摘要

This paper presents an NPD managerial decision-making software system: innovationEnterprizer. Furthermore, the paper reports on the application of the system at a major European parts supplier to the German automotive industry which was carried out during September 2004. Ten facilitated sessions were conducted with managers. The main results indicated that the project team (human and integration factors) were extremely weak when compared with the formal side of innovation, for which the company had formal processes and scored very strongly. Furthermore, the consistency between units was very high, indicating that general innovation policy, which was formulated at corporate board level, was not adapted to the unit-specific level. This was despite the board's recognition that each unit has a need for its own uniquely combined set of success factors.