Innovation Project Funding: A Framework for Rapid Evaluation of Innovation Projects for Implementation Using a System Approach

Abstract

Success rates of corporate innovation are notoriously low. Improving corporate innovation success rates increases investment efficiency and enables progress toward an improved future. A literature review was completed to develop an understanding of innovation strengths and weaknesses often present in corporations. System engineering and quantitative analysis tools were explored to address the common weaknesses present in corporate innovation investment. The investment step was targeted as a critical decision point for progressing proposals forward for further implementation. The framework mitigates common pitfalls of corporate innovation while enabling the corporation to architect the innovation process to fit its needs. The framework is a five-step process: risk rank to define the predictors of innovation project success, establish a success function to calculate innovation success likelihood, solicit project proposals from the entire employee base, plot a tradespace to visualize the tradeoffs between all possible innovation projects, and finally select the portfolio of projects for investment.