Innovation Project Management

3Innovation and Strategic Planning

• Learning Objectives for Project Managers and Innovation Personnel
• To understand the different types of business strategies and how they impact innovation decision making
• To understand the differences between project and product life-cycle phases
• To understand the differences between innovation and R&D
• To understand the importance of a close working relationship between project management, marketing, and consumers

INTRODUCTION

“Innovation basically involves making obsolete that which you did before.”

— Jay Abraham, The Sticking Point Solution: 9 Ways to Move Your Business from Stagnation to Stunning Growth in Tough Economic Times

For years, innovation project management has been regarded as some type of mystique. Companies even went so far as to develop enterprise project management methodologies that did not include innovation or R&D. One of the reasons for this was the belief that, if you can develop a schedule and budget for an innovation project, you do not have innovation.

ROLE OF THE INNOVATION PROJECT MANAGER IN STRATEGIC PLANNING

“As an innovator, you need to be aware of how traditions, habits and bias can act as barriers to accepting new ideas.”

— Max McKeown, The Innovation Book: How to Manage Ideas and Execution for Outstanding Results

In traditional project management, which focuses heavily on operational projects, we start out each project with a well-defined business case outlining the project's objectives. Project ...