At the start of 2017 we reviewed how we were managing innovation within the company. With such fast pace of change in the technology sector coupled with an ongoing influx of ideas from our staff to explore, we decided to see how we could better manage the process of bringing these ideas to fruition. After some discussion on what exactly we were looking for, it was suggested that Project Portfolio Management was the answer. (For those short on time, it was the answer!) I should have guessed at the time given who made the suggestion in the first place. None other than our very own, award winning Terence O’Donnell. Terence was recently awarded the Distinguished Individual Contribution to Project Management Award from the Project Management Institute, so if he makes a suggestion it’s best if you listen. With one exception being any suggestions he makes in relation to football, feel free to ignore those.
I mentioned that we had discussed what we were looking to do, this is key, to understand what exactly you want to achieve. For us we needed a way of managing the wide variety of innovation projects going on throughout the company. One thing we do well in Auxilion is looking ahead – at new technologies, new services, new ways to help our customers. This is great, but no company has the resources to explore every new idea put forward. Firstly, we needed a way of pulling together the current projects we were already engaged in and then prioritising those alongside any new ones. The discussions highlighted the need for us to also review our existing Stage-Gate process and how we get our staff involved in looking ahead. At the end of the day we are all Futurists, ideas can come from anyone.
