Innovation Metrics - A Whole Brain Strategy

As much as I am opposed to the very notion of metrics in innovation, this article from Michael Brown of Brainzooming offers at least a starting point around the perplexing conundrum innovation measurement. Metrics strategy is a vital topic relative to innovation. Despite how important metrics strategy is, it's a challenging one for many businesses when it comes to innovation. Going back through my own experiences and secondary research on innovation metrics, here are a few starting thoughts on developing your metrics strategy: Begin developing your innovation metrics strategy by determining what factors drive ROI. Specifically identify which factors increase positive business returns and which reduce necessary investment. Starting with the end result in mind will better align the overall innovation effort toward delivering a positive return on investment.

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Allocating Marketing Resources

Deciding how to allocate marketing resources is particularly difficult because decisions need to be made at many different levels—across countries, products, marketing mix elements, and different vehicles within elements of the mix (e.g., television versus the Internet for advertising). With the increasing availability of data and sophistication in methods, it is now possible to more judiciously allocate marketing resources. In this paper, HBS professors Gupta and Steenburgh discuss a two-stage process where a model of demand is estimated in stage-one and its estimates are used as inputs in an optimization model in stage-two.

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