Creating an innovation portfolio

Concerns about its innovation pipeline led a world leading pet products company to undertake a portfolio design effort to determine the right mix of new opportunities and to achieve an improved opportunity portfolio that was a fit with the company’s priorities and culture. They had a robust portfolio of over 100 projects, but felt that it may not stretch the company enough.

Inovo led an effort to analyze the existing portfolio using advanced innovation metrics and to gather the multiple perspectives of a large internal ‘crowd’ to determine what the portfolio should look like (i.e. how it should be segmented). This efforts revealed key portfolio gaps that the company is undertaking initiatives to fill.

BY THE NUMBERS

Together, we produced the following outcomes

WHAT WE DID TOGETHER

The collaborative effort consisted of a working team of 2 Inovo specialists and 3 company individuals. Together they did the following:

• Analyzed over 100 current projects with respect to their innovation potential. Employed Inovo’s Strategic Innovation Assessment, Should-Could Canvas and Platform Potential metrics to rank and plot each project.
• Employed Inovo’s Mind of the Company™ tool to solicit a large number of diverse perspectives on what an innovation portfolio should look like.
• Developed a consensus view of what the innovation portfolio should look like and also identified alternative perspectives of company leadership and management.
• Compared optimal portfolios to current resource allocation to identify gaps and inconsistencies.

THE OUTCOME

In this three (3) month project, the following results were obtained:

• Uncovered innovation gaps in the portfolio.
• Built a new opportunity portfolio that better fit the company’s priorities.
• Initiated dialog among company leadership and management regarding innovation priorities.
• Achieved consensus portfolio design from company leadership.