Get In The Mindset To Innovate Using Our Knowledge Hub

Abstract:

In an era defined by rapid technological advancement and fierce global competition, innovation is a necessity. Organizations that prioritize innovation not only achieve greater financial success but also contribute to the overall progress of their nations. An Innovation Management Assessment (IMA) can help organizations identify gaps in their innovation capabilities and create an action plan for improvement. An IMA such as ISO 56004 is a good starting point for organizations looking to assess their innovation strengths and weaknesses. IMA is also the starting point for any organization seeking growth and sustainment. Drawing on data-driven insights and real-world examples, we demonstrate how IMAs empower organizations to cultivate a culture of innovation, optimize resource allocation, and ultimately, emerge as industry leaders.

The Innovation Management Assessment Defined
An Innovation Management Assessment evaluates an organization’s capacity to generate, develop, and implement new ideas effectively. It measures the strengths and weaknesses of an organization’s innovation processes, culture, and strategy to identify areas for improvement.

How does it fit into an Innovation Management Framework

The Innovation Management Framework
An innovation management framework is a foundational set of practices and tools that helps organizations generate ideas, evaluate those ideas, and turn the best ideas into a value-added management system for business. It arranges the general steps of the innovation process into clear stages that help leaders decide whether to pivot course, pause, or continue funding the work.

At its core, an Innovation Management Framework provides 3 basic things: a set of principles, methodologies, and tools that enable business organizations to navigate the complexities of the Innovation landscape. Now, one of the underlying key components of an Innovation management Framework typically includes a set of basic processes for idea generation, evaluation, and implementation, as well as mechanisms for continuous improvement. The framework acts as a unifying structure that aligns organizational goals with creative endeavours, encouraging a culture of experimentation and adaptation.

Innovation Management Frameworks come in various forms, ranging from models that emphasize collaboration with external partners (such as open Innovation Frameworks) to methodologies like Design Thinking in business and lean startup principles, each tailored to address specific aspects of the Innovation lifecycle.

Ultimately, an Innovation Framework equips organizations with the means to stay agile in the face of rapid change, gain a competitive edge, and nurture a culture that values and embraces creative problem-solving. As businesses increasingly recognize the pivotal role of Innovation in sustaining growth, adopting robust Innovation Management Frameworks become paramount in navigating the complexities of the modern business landscape.

General Benefits of an Innovation Management Assessment
According to ISO, Innovation management assessment benefits include the following:
(a) Cost Savings & Operational Efficiency
(b) Market Share and Competitive advantage: Staying ahead of the competition
(c) Growth and expansion: Innovation drives growth and expansion
(d) Adaptation to change: Embracing innovation helps adapt to changes
(e) Improved efficiency and productivity: Innovation leads to increased efficiency
(f) Employee engagement and retention: Innovation enhances employee satisfaction

The Innovation Imperative – Why IMA

About Revenue Growth and Time to Market
Companies that prioritize innovation experience a staggering 20% increase in revenue compared to their less innovative counterparts (McKinsey & Company, 2020). Organizations with robust innovation cultures witness revenue growth rates that are 10-20% higher than their competitors (Boston Consulting Group, 2018). Innovation Management Assessments (IMAs) contribute to a remarkable 25% reduction in the time it takes to bring new products to the market (Gartner, 2020). These statistics underscore the undeniable link between innovation and financial success. But the benefits extend far beyond the bottom line.

About Cost Savings and Operational Efficiency
In today’s dynamic business landscape, efficiency is paramount. IMAs provide a structured framework for identifying and eliminating operational waste, resulting in substantial cost savings. Structured innovation assessments lead to an 18-25% reduction in operational waste (Gartner, 2021). Companies that leverage IMAs are 30% more likely to pinpoint areas for cost reduction (Gartner, 2020). Regular innovation assessments can yield a remarkable 30% savings in R&D expenditure (Gartner, 2020).

About Market Share and Competitive Advantage
In the relentless pursuit of market dominance, innovation is the ultimate differentiator. Companies that conduct periodic innovation assessments are 40% more likely to achieve sustained competitive advantage (Gartner, 2021). By conducting customer-centric assessments, businesses can identify pain points and develop tailored solutions that resonate with their target audience. Gartner’s Customer Experience and Innovation report shows that companies that incorporate customer feedback into their innovation processes are 35% more likely to capture new market share than those that don’t (Gartner, 2021). According to Gartner, companies that leverage innovation assessments to enter new markets see a 20-30% faster market share gain compared to competitors who do not systematically assess their innovation strategies (Gartner, 2020).

About Strategic Decision-Making and Digital Transformation
In an age of unprecedented change, agility and adaptability are crucial. IMAs provide organizations with the insights they need to make informed strategic decisions and navigate the complexities of digital transformation. Organizations with formalized innovation strategies experience a 30-40% surge in revenue growth (Gartner, 2020). Companies that assess their innovation maturity are 1.5 times more likely to expand their digital product offerings (Gartner, 2021).

The Global Impact of IMAs
The benefits of IMAs extend beyond individual organizations, contributing to the overall progress and competitiveness of nations. By enhancing innovation practices and R&D efficiency, IMAs boost private sector innovation rankings. Regular assessments drive education and talent development, leading to improvements in human capital scores. IDIA’s work implicitly emphasizes Innovation Management Assessment by highlighting the need for structured approaches to ensure development innovations are contextually relevant and achieve scalable impact. Effective assessments, in their view, would focus on evaluating an organization’s ability to learn, adapt, and collaborate, ensuring innovations truly address pressing global challenges. A 2022 McKinsey report highlights that companies investing in workforce innovation programs experience greater long-term growth and productivity, which ultimately contributes to national innovation rankings. Moreover, IMAs optimize innovation ecosystems, contributing to higher infrastructure development rankings.

Key Takeaways & A Call to Action

• Unlock Your Innovation Potential: Champion Regular Innovation Assessments! Let’s empower our companies to lead the world by embracing innovation assessments as a cornerstone of their strategy. By aligning with global best practices and their own ambitious goals, we’ll unlock unprecedented growth and seize the vast opportunities that lie ahead.

• Forge Unbreakable Alliances: Fuel Innovation Through Collaborative Power! We must bridge the gap between businesses, universities, and government, creating a dynamic ecosystem where knowledge flows freely. This powerful synergy will not only elevate our Knowledge and Technology Outputs but also propel our nation’s standing on the global stage and benefit all of society.

• Shape the Future: Invest Boldly in Tomorrow’s Technologies! The future belongs to those who dare to invest in emerging technologies. By prioritizing these investments, we can not only maintain our competitiveness but also, we’ll unleash a wave of transformative innovation that will redefine possibilities.

In a nutshell, IMA is a valuable tool that can help organizations to improve their innovation capabilities and achieve their business goals. In light of the overwhelming evidence, it is clear that Innovation Management Assessments are not merely a tool for organizational improvement, but a catalyst for national progress. By embracing IMAs, organizations can unlock their full potential, drive economic growth, and shape a brighter future for their nations.

Approach to how to adapt Artificial Intelligence in an organization.

The application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in an organization is a challenge that must be addressed in a coordinated and strategic way. ILUNION Hotels has proposed the adoption and strategic planning of Artificial Intelligence through the Brill-IA-NT project, which is a strategic initiative that seeks to transform the company through the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the creation of a data-based organizational culture. The project establishes a roadmap for the implementation of this technology in the organization. 

The project focuses on generating economic and social value for the identified stakeholders: solving problems and needs of the different business areas with information management and content creation, raising awareness and training among the organization’s employees and improving the experience of hotel customers.

Methodology used

The methodology of the Brill-IA-NT project is based on five key phases: competitive intelligence, data exploration, awareness, strategic planning and results analysis. Each of these phases has been designed to ensure the effective adoption of AI tools and the generation of positive impact on the company and its stakeholders.

Project Phases

1. Competitive Intelligence: Understanding the environment is the first step to innovate. ILUNION Hotels identifies key trends and solutions through its Competitive Intelligence system in order to manage them. In this phase, AI is identified as a current need, to which the company must adapt and solutions are sought. Additionally, in the identification of trends and solutions, artificial intelligence is used to analyze the competitive environment and identify opportunities for improvement. 

2. Data Exploration: Data exploration is crucial to becoming an AI-powered company. The quality of organizational data, analytical capacity, and the habit of data consumption at all levels of the organization have been key factors in this phase. ILUNION Hotels began to create a Data Driven culture in 2019, which has made the adoption of AI easier in recent years, as much of the data available is structured. The pillars have been: 

• The quality of organizational data

• The analytical capacity and the habit of data consumption at all levels of the organization

• Robust and prepared technological infrastructure

• Previously established culture of change in the organization

3. Awareness-raising, training and complementary actions: Awareness-raising and training workshops on the use of AI tools have been carried out. These workshops have promoted the adoption of departmental applications such as Copilot, Chat GPT, Perplexity, and Adobe Photoshop (with its AI module).

In addition, AI Champions (people with an interest and predisposition to lead the implementation of AI projects in each area) have been identified, and they have institutionalized the holding of AI committees with different areas to align expectations and AI projects.

Alliances have been created with relevant technology providers (Google, Microsoft, Telefónica, Salesforce) to study the possible impact of their AI solutions and carry out pilots that cover the identified needs.

The contact with allies in the hotel sector, with AI solutions already implemented, has facilitated the identification and assessment of solutions already tested by them.

4. Strategic Planning: In this phase, needs have been detected in all business areas and classified according to their impact, maturity of the technology. Planning and programming solutions based on these needs has been essential for the validation and prioritization of use cases.

Use cases were identified for the areas of Human Resources, Business, Marketing, Finance, Innovation, Sustainability and Accessibility, regrouping them into 19 needs and 7 different use cases: chatbot, predictive analytics, waste management, content creation, CV management, suppliers with specific solutions and technological solutions not available (in three cases).

5. Analysis of Results: Finally, indicators have been identified to be able to measure the impact of AI through the projects. In addition, a results analysis has been carried out to evaluate the impact of AI projects on ILUNION Hotels. This analysis has made it possible to identify the economic and operational benefits generated by the automation and optimization of processes.

Identified Use Cases

The Brill-IA-NT project has identified numerous use cases in various business areas, including people, business, marketing, legal-finance, innovation, sustainability, and accessibility. Some of the most relevant use cases are:

• People: Automatic evaluation of CVs, emotional and motivational support for employees, retention and attraction of talent.

• Business: Text generation, simultaneous interpretation system, chatbot, demand forecasting and dynamic pricing.

• Marketing: Automatic generation of descriptions, evaluation of customer reviews, creation of promotional texts.

• Legal-Finance: Analysis of accounting and financial reports, assistance in investment decisions.

• Innovation: User support, change management, project planning and monitoring.

• Sustainability: Sustainability reports, waste optimization.

• Accessibility: Visual impairment and spectrum of disabilities.

Emblematic Projects

Among the flagship projects implemented in the Brill-IA-NT project are:

• Internal Chatbot: A chatbot that transforms hotel operations and support provided from central services.

• Content Creation: Automatic generation of content for various platforms.

• Waste Management: Optimization of waste management in hotels.

• Digital Receptionist: Implementation of a digital receptionist to improve the customer experience.

• CV Management: Automatic evaluation of CVs for talent attraction and retention.

• Simultaneous Translation: Simultaneous interpretation system to improve communication in hotels.

• Analytic Predictions: Use of AI to make analytical predictions and improve decision-making.

Project Results

The Brill-IA-NT project has generated a significant economic impact on ILUNION Hotels, with an estimated increase in revenue and operating savings of €320,000 in 2024 and €1,540,000 expected in 2025. In addition, process automation and optimization has improved the customer and employee experience, and training and awareness actions have impacted 1,800 employees.

Main lessons learned from the implemented model and strategy

The main learnings from the Brill-IA-NT project are:

• The importance of an organizational culture based on data management to facilitate the adoption of AI projects.

• Identifying and strategically planning use cases across various business areas is critical to defining a needs-based roadmap.

• Creating an AI culture by promoting the adoption of AI tools through awareness and training workshops, and identifying AI Ambassadors as internal transformation advocates, is critical.

• The assessment of the economic and operational impact of AI projects should demonstrate the value of applying AI solutions.

In summary, ILUNION HOTELS’ Brill-IA-NT project has been a transformative initiative that is generating a positive impact on the company and its stakeholders, through the adoption of artificial intelligence, the creation of a data-based organizational culture and the achievement of results.

For years, innovation has been treated as a numbers game: take more swings, fail fast, and iterate quickly. This baseball-inspired mindset made sense—especially in environments where the cost of failure is low and feedback is immediate, like UX or consumer software. Try something small, learn, and adjust. Speed matters. 

This approach was reinforced by the conventional wisdom that “customers can’t tell us what they want.” And at first glance, that seemed true. Customers often struggle to articulate features or solutions—but that’s not their expertise or responsibility. 

“For suppliers to ask customers what features they want is like doctors asking patients what treatment they want. They don’t know.” 

While customers may not be able to tell us what features they want, they can tell us what they’re trying to accomplish, how they define success, and where they struggle given their current solutions. That’s a breakthrough. 

Why the Old Innovation Playbook Made Sense—Until It Didn’t 

Agile, Design Thinking, Stage Gate, and Lean Startup were all developed at a time when this distinction wasn’t fully appreciated. So, they focused on rapid prototyping and iterating to discover both the problem and the solution at once. That was the best thinking available—and at least it kept companies engaged with customers, even if the signals were hard to interpret. 

Today, we have a better understanding. With methods like Lean JTBD OS™, we can reveal unmet customer needs before designing or building solutions—by focusing on the job the customer is trying to get done, not the product they think they need. This doesn’t replace other innovation processes—it enhances them. It identifies and defines the target customers’ unmet needs so you can experiment only on the efficacy of your solution—not guessing about the customers’ problem as well. 

The Shift: From Guessing Twice to Aiming First 

Maybe innovation shouldn’t always be executed like baseball. Maybe—especially when the stakes are high—it should be executed like archery. 

In baseball, if you miss, you just swing again. That works when testing low-risk elements like button colors or pricing tweaks. But when launching industrial equipment, entering a new market, or defining a growth strategy, you can’t afford to miss. You don’t get unlimited swings. That’s when innovation must look more like archery—when the risk of missing the mark is too high to justify guessing. 

In archery, you aim first. You define the target clearly before you shoot. 

When you run experiments without first identifying what job the customer is trying to get done and where their unmet needs lie, you’re guessing twice—first about whether the need is real, and second about whether your solution addresses it. That’s avoidable risk, not agility. 

Why It Matters: Risk, Creativity, and Confidence 

By contrast, when you start with clarity about your customers’ important unsatisfied needs, your creativity improves. Not surprisingly, a well-defined customer need is one of the most powerful creativity triggers in innovation. Accurately defining the problem often sparks surprising, high-potential solution ideas. And your experiments become more efficient and effective because you’re testing how well your solution addresses a clearly defined need—not whether an unmet need even exists. 

What Edison and Jobs Got Right 

Thomas Edison and Steve Jobs understood this. Edison famously said he didn’t fail—he just found 10,000 things that didn’t work. But that’s misleading without context. What’s often left out is how he chose what problems to solve based on market demand. After a significant failure early in his career, he swore he’d never waste time on inventing without first confirming there was a real need. 

Additionally, Steve Jobs insisted on starting with the customer experience and working backward to the technology—not the other way around. Edison and Jobs sequenced their innovation process to first identify and validate the unmet needs in their target market and then generate ideas, prototype, iterate, and develop accordingly. 

A Simpler, More Precise Way Forward 

So, what’s changed? We now have frameworks—like Lean JTBD OS™—that let us: 

1. Understand what customers are trying to accomplish (the job)

2. Identify how they measure success

3. Discover where they still struggle

This allows us to uncover and prioritize unmet needs with greater clarity—even without large-scale surveys—before we ideate, prototype, or test. It helps reduce costly misfires, improve alignment, and gives teams a clearer path toward achieving product/market fit earlier in the process. Inspired by the foundational principles of Tony Ulwick’s Outcome-Driven Innovation®, Lean JTBD OS™ offers a simpler, more accessible way to reveal unmet customer needs before committing resources to ideas, prototypes, or product development. 

If your next move involves defining a new market, reimagining value creation, or making a major product or portfolio bet—you may not need more swings. You need better aim. When innovation stops being a numbers game and starts being about aiming first, your aim improves—and so does your impact. 

Want to go deeper? 

On July 2nd, I’ll be presenting Lean JTBD OS™ to the GIMI innovation community. This session will introduce a simpler, more accessible way to uncover and prioritize unmet customer needs—before development. Whether you’re leading innovation in a startup or scaling inside a large organization, you’ll walk away with practical tools and insights that reduce risk and increase your impact.