Question: What parameters does Zambia Development Agency have to measure Innovation?
1.0 Introduction
The purpose of this research is to basically estimate to what level innovation is in Zambia and if at all measures such as a framework are in place. Innovation generally refers to renewing, changing or creating more effective processes, products or ways of doing things. For businesses, this could mean implementing new ideas, creating dynamic products or improving your existing services. Innovation can be a catalyst for the …show more content…
The observation that kicked off research into Innovation Governance was a review of the committee structure of the Boards of Directors of major companies and public sector bodies. While almost all had major functions of governance covered by a formal committee, including audit, risk, human resources, corporate social responsibility, very few indeed had anything that looked like an innovation committee addressing the governance aspects of ensuring the organisation was tackling innovation in the most effective way. This was despite the role innovation played in the future success of these businesses, and the fact that many of their medium term risks were related to innovation related outcomes.
This leads to the question: "How do the Boards of these organisations satisfy themselves, their shareholders and other stakeholders that the processes, priorities and behaviours that drive successful innovation are sound?" Do market analysts have access to the information they need to assess how well a business is preparing its future competitive strengths? Clearly some of these aspects will be kept from the public domain - companies with a good architecture for innovating will not want that shared - but that is no different from other market-sensitive aspects that are made available in a controlled way.