SMALL BUSINESS OWNER
RIIS: Innovation specialists
Demonstrating innovation value
One of the largest challenges experienced - and one of the most frequent questions asked in terms of managing innovation is how does the innovation manager/organisation demonstrate the value of innovation?
This workshop will discuss methods and approaches that can be employed to assist with the measurement of innovation activities and ultimately demonstrate innovation impact. This useful insight can also aid innovation planning and focus future innovation strategies.
Henra Mayer is director and co-founder of The Research Institute for Innovation and Sustainability (RIIS). Marketing and Sales Management, but in particular Innovation Management is her primary fields of expertise. She often acts as judge at Innovation competitions like the TT100 and FASA Awards and is passionate about innovation enablement. She has completed a MBL degree focusing on innovation measurement and is currently busy with a PhD at the University of Pretoria.
Henra publishes regular articles in innovation- and management related magazines and believes that SA has great potential to become a leader in the field of innovation, regionally as well as globally.
RIIS specialises in innovation enablement with a focus on the following:
- Strategic innovation strategies
- Innovation culture interventions and awareness creation programmes
- The NOVIXO idea management system – taking ideas through to implementation
- Innovation training and innovation related workshops
- Innovation baseline creation and measurement strategies
- Open innovation : RIIS is the SADEC agent for NineSigma in South Africa
Henra has two daughters, Kristen and Jemma. They add spice, colour laughter and love to life and are angels that represents the twinkle in their mother’s eye.
“In a previous life” prior to discovering the innovation world Henra was involved in radio journalism, sales and travelling. The thrill of parachuting, scuba diving and bungi jumping are enjoyable past times and “must-do at least once” adventures.
Thoughts on innovation and creativity
Innovation is an essential part of business and strategic planning. It is not for the faint hearted and requires hard work, dedication and visionary leadership. To negate the value of innovation equals the negation of the power that lies within each individual and the difference the knowledge worker can make to the organisational landscape. Innovation is about thinking differently. It is about people, the application of new technologies, measurement of progress and innovation impact but most of all it is about implementation and undeniable value in the environment it is applied to .
Innovation is urgent
I believe that just like parachuting or adventure sports innovation certainly holds a certain degree of risk but the result is exhilarating and the total experience often beyond all expectations. Remember the time when parachuting was dangerous and traditional business practise safe?!
