IKIGAI Institute is always looking for ways to adapt quickly to new challenges through the use of innovative processes managed by CEOE Aragón. That is why it has decided to join “Innovation Health Check“, a model focused on auditing the innovative capacity of companies at European level.

In this way, the tool makes it easier to identify strengths and weaknesses in order to improve and evolve. Specifically, it combines 6 factors and enables each company to know where it stands from the point of view of innovation and in comparison with other companies in the European Union. To collect the data, Carlos Franco and Zaira Villalba, from the IKIGAI Institute team, met representatives of the CEOE Aragón and representatives of the Enterprise Europe Network, Jorge Alonso and Néstor Andrés.

The “Innovation Health Check” determines the level of innovation of companies by studying innovative business activity and the company’s environment.  Subsequently, it compares the results with the average of European companies in the same sector, thus making it possible to identify the main areas for improvement and further development.

So, at the IKIGAI Institute, we participated in the assessment to obtain the Innovation Health Check certification, in line with companies in our sector in the European Union. We obtained positive results, and we can say that we are able to identify the strengths of our model, but also the areas for improvement that we need to focus on to achieve a solid innovation model.

Let’s talk about Innovation Health Check.

What is Innovation Health Check?

It is a tool that determines the level of innovation of companies. The tool tries to evaluate the company in question and compares it with other companies that have already passed the test. For this, there are different evaluations taking into account its international database and companies in the same sector.

The data in this database is catalogued in a way:

• BDD weak position
• BDD medium position
• BDD high position

At the end of the evaluation process, the tool gives you the final score with the corresponding comparison with the averages of your database. In this way you can see what you are doing well, and which parts of your company can be improved in terms of innovation.

What does Innovation Health Check assess?

The innovation elements assessed by the innovation tool are:

• Innovative business activity

– Culture of innovation, that the whole organisation itself is involved, knows and believes that innovation is key. There are aspects such as the ever-changing environment, which leads companies to innovate in order to maintain their competitive advantage, and also to understand the emerging challenges and opportunities to be faced (8 questions).

– Understanding the business. The company needs to have a clear understanding of all aspects of business activity and its impact on performance. All staff should be encouraged to be proactive in gathering data on customers, competitors, new products or technological changes (10 questions).

– The company must have a clear vision on how to grow and how to use its resources to maximise profits. The strategy should take into account the business environment in which the company operates, along with technological changes in the market and the needs and changes occurring in the market (8 questions).

• Environment

– Good structures are the basis for a good innovation system (7 questions).

– Capacity and resources. It is important that the company has sufficient financial resources to develop innovation. In addition to the capabilities to achieve its objectives, to identify and bridge gaps and to have the appropriate knowledge base. Key capabilities needed are innovation skills, discipline and project flexibility. (7 questions)

– This section of the report looks at how the company carries out the innovation process. This typically ranges from idea generation to market introduction. In between these two points is idea management, project development and exploitation (12 questions).