What we do

We are a lead­ing provider of strate­gic ser­vices for inno­v­a­tive tech­nol­o­gy-dri­ven busi­ness­es. Our exper­tise empow­ers clients to achieve sus­tain­able growth and impact.

Our Ser­vices:

• Busi­ness Mod­el Inno­va­tion. We help you devel­op robust busi­ness mod­els aligned with your unique val­ue propo­si­tion, ensur­ing a strong mar­ket fit.
• Mar­ket Readi­ness Assess­ment: We con­duct in-depth mar­ket research to assess your prod­uct or service’s readi­ness for com­mer­cial­iza­tion, pro­vid­ing action­able insights into mar­ket dynam­ics, val­ue chains, and com­pet­i­tive land­scapes.
• Strate­gic Plan­ning: We cre­ate com­pre­hen­sive busi­ness plans and tech­nol­o­gy roadmaps, lever­ag­ing our expe­ri­ence in col­lab­o­ra­tive inno­va­tion to guide your growth tra­jec­to­ry.
• Fund­ing and Invest­ment: We facil­i­tate access to fund­ing sources, includ­ing gov­ern­ment sub­si­dies and pri­vate invest­ments, to fuel your R&D ini­tia­tives and scale your busi­ness.
• Social Inno­va­tion: We help you devel­op inno­v­a­tive solu­tions that address soci­etal chal­lenges, lever­ag­ing col­lab­o­ra­tive approach­es and emerg­ing busi­ness mod­els to cre­ate pos­i­tive social and envi­ron­men­tal impact.

Our activ­i­ties in Inno­va­tion and Busi­ness Process Man­age­ment Inno­va­tion, often com­plex and col­lab­o­ra­tive, can be effec­tive­ly man­aged by apply­ing Busi­ness Process Man­age­ment (BPM) prin­ci­ples. While tra­di­tion­al Tay­lorism frag­ment­ed work, process ori­en­ta­tion empha­sizes inter­con­nect­ed activ­i­ties. BPM encom­pass­es design­ing, admin­is­ter­ing, and ana­lyz­ing busi­ness process­es for improve­ment. View­ing inno­va­tion as a spe­cif­ic busi­ness process allows orga­ni­za­tions to map its stages, estab­lish met­rics, opti­mize, fos­ter col­lab­o­ra­tion, and lever­age tech­nol­o­gy, ulti­mate­ly enhanc­ing inno­va­tion efforts. We will elab­o­rate on the activ­i­ties involved in each stage. From Tay­lorism to Process Ori­en­ta­tion: Tra­di­tion­al work orga­ni­za­tion (Tay­lorism) breaks down com­plex tasks into small­er units for effi­cien­cy. How­ev­er, this can lead to frag­men­ta­tion. Process ori­en­ta­tion empha­sizes the inter­con­nect­ed­ness of activ­i­ties for a larg­er goal. Tay­lorism Activ­i­ties: Ana­lyz­ing tasks, divid­ing labor, stan­dard­iz­ing pro­ce­dures, and close super­vi­sion. Process Ori­en­ta­tion Activ­i­ties: Iden­ti­fy­ing core process­es, map­ping process flows, defin­ing roles and respon­si­bil­i­ties, and estab­lish­ing per­for­mance met­rics. Defin­ing Busi­ness Process­es and BPM: A busi­ness process is a set of coor­di­nat­ed activ­i­ties with­in an orga­ni­za­tion­al and tech­ni­cal envi­ron­ment, work­ing towards a spe­cif­ic goal. BPM encom­pass­es the con­cepts, meth­ods, and tech­niques used to man­age these process­es. Busi­ness Process Activ­i­ties: Order ful­fill­ment, cus­tomer onboard­ing, prod­uct devel­op­ment, and com­plaint han­dling. BPM Activ­i­ties: Process iden­ti­fi­ca­tion, process mod­el­ing, process exe­cu­tion, process mon­i­tor­ing, and process improve­ment. Inno­va­tion as a Busi­ness Process: Inno­va­tion can be seen as a spe­cif­ic busi­ness process with­in an orga­ni­za­tion, involv­ing man­aged and opti­mized activ­i­ties. Inno­va­tion Activ­i­ties: Idea gen­er­a­tion, con­cept devel­op­ment, pro­to­typ­ing, test­ing, and com­mer­cial­iza­tion. The Com­plex­i­ty of Inno­va­tion: Inno­va­tion is rarely lin­ear; it’s a dynam­ic process with feed­back loops and inter­ac­tions between var­i­ous actors. Activ­i­ties in Com­plex Inno­va­tion: Mar­ket research, tech­nol­o­gy scout­ing, com­pet­i­tive analy­sis, col­lab­o­ra­tion with exter­nal part­ners, and inter­nal knowl­edge shar­ing. The Col­lab­o­ra­tive Nature of Inno­va­tion: Com­pa­nies pur­su­ing inno­va­tion often engage with exter­nal part­ners. Col­lab­o­ra­tion Activ­i­ties: Joint ven­tures, strate­gic alliances, open inno­va­tion plat­forms, and par­tic­i­pa­tion in research con­sor­tia. Inte­grat­ing Inno­va­tion with BPM: Apply­ing BPM prin­ci­ples to inno­va­tion involves sev­er­al key activ­i­ties: - Map­ping the Inno­va­tion Process: Activ­i­ties: Defin­ing stages (idea gen­er­a­tion, selec­tion, devel­op­ment, imple­men­ta­tion), iden­ti­fy­ing key activ­i­ties with­in each stage, and doc­u­ment­ing process flows. This could involve cre­at­ing process maps or val­ue stream maps. - Estab­lish­ing Met­rics and KPIs: Activ­i­ties: Defin­ing rel­e­vant met­rics (e.g., num­ber of ideas gen­er­at­ed, time to mar­ket, ROI of inno­va­tion projects), set­ting tar­gets, and track­ing per­for­mance against these met­rics. This often involves estab­lish­ing dash­boards and report­ing mech­a­nisms. - Opti­miz­ing the Process: Activ­i­ties: Iden­ti­fy­ing bot­tle­necks and inef­fi­cien­cies (e.g., long approval cycles, lack of resources), ana­lyz­ing root caus­es, and imple­ment­ing improve­ments (e.g., stream­lin­ing process­es, automat­ing tasks, real­lo­cat­ing resources). This might involve process sim­u­la­tion and analy­sis. - Fos­ter­ing Col­lab­o­ra­tion: Activ­i­ties: Cre­at­ing plat­forms for idea shar­ing, estab­lish­ing cross-func­tion­al teams, orga­niz­ing work­shops and brain­storm­ing ses­sions, and build­ing rela­tion­ships with exter­nal part­ners. This could involve imple­ment­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion soft­ware and estab­lish­ing clear com­mu­ni­ca­tion chan­nels. - Lever­ag­ing Tech­nol­o­gy: Activ­i­ties: Imple­ment­ing idea man­age­ment soft­ware, using project man­age­ment tools, uti­liz­ing data ana­lyt­ics plat­forms, and adopt­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion plat­forms. This requires eval­u­at­ing and select­ing appro­pri­ate tech­nolo­gies and inte­grat­ing them into the inno­va­tion process.

The poten­tial for fric­tion between those who see the cus­tomer as the source of all wis­dom, and those who see tech­no­log­i­cal inno­va­tion as the key dri­ver of eco­nom­ic growth is very evi­dent. - Mar­cel Weber

Busi­ness plans and busi­ness mod­els

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all mod­el for busi­ness plans or mod­els. While the Busi­ness Mod­el Can­vas is pop­u­lar, the EU’s Hori­zon 2020 (now Hori­zon Europe) has spe­cif­ic require­ments for research and inno­va­tion projects. We have exten­sive expe­ri­ence with these mod­els and use them as a foun­da­tion for our guid­ance. Here, we elab­o­rate on them.

Focus and Pur­pose:

• Busi­ness Mod­el Can­vas: Aims to pro­vide a holis­tic overview of a busi­ness, focus­ing on how it cre­ates, deliv­ers, and cap­tures val­ue. It’s a ver­sa­tile tool for star­tups, exist­ing busi­ness­es, and even non-prof­its to visu­al­ize and under­stand their core oper­a­tions.
• EU Hori­zon 2020 Busi­ness Mod­el: Specif­i­cal­ly designed for research and inno­va­tion projects seek­ing EU fund­ing. It empha­sizes the project’s impact, exploita­tion strat­e­gy, and long-term sus­tain­abil­i­ty. The focus is on demon­strat­ing how the project’s out­comes will be trans­lat­ed into tan­gi­ble ben­e­fits for soci­ety and the econ­o­my.

Struc­ture and Con­tent:

• Busi­ness Mod­el Can­vas: Uses a visu­al tem­plate with nine build­ing blocks: Cus­tomer Seg­ments, Val­ue Propo­si­tions, Chan­nels, Cus­tomer Rela­tion­ships, Rev­enue Streams, Key Activ­i­ties, Key Resources, Key Part­ner­ships, and Cost Struc­ture. It’s con­cise and easy to under­stand.
• EU Hori­zon 2020 Busi­ness Mod­el: Typ­i­cal­ly requires a more detailed and struc­tured approach. It often includes sec­tions on:
  • Mar­ket Analy­sis: Detailed assess­ment of the tar­get mar­ket, com­pe­ti­tion, and poten­tial for growth.
  • Val­ue Propo­si­tion: Clear artic­u­la­tion of the project’s unique val­ue and ben­e­fits.
  • Imple­men­ta­tion Plan: Descrip­tion of the activ­i­ties, time­lines, and resources required to achieve the project’s objec­tives.
  • Finan­cial Pro­jec­tions: Detailed finan­cial fore­casts, includ­ing costs, rev­enue streams, and prof­itabil­i­ty.
  • Impact Assess­ment: Eval­u­a­tion of the project’s poten­tial impact on soci­ety, the econ­o­my, and the envi­ron­ment.
  • Exploita­tion Strat­e­gy: Plan for how the project’s results will be dis­sem­i­nat­ed and exploit­ed after its com­ple­tion.
  • Sus­tain­abil­i­ty: Demon­stra­tion of the project’s long-term via­bil­i­ty beyond the fund­ing peri­od.

Lev­el of Detail:

• Busi­ness Mod­el Can­vas: Pro­vides a high-lev­el overview of the busi­ness mod­el. It’s a good start­ing point for brain­storm­ing and ini­tial plan­ning.
• EU Hori­zon 2020 Busi­ness Mod­el: Requires a much deep­er lev­el of detail, with com­pre­hen­sive analy­sis and jus­ti­fi­ca­tion for all aspects of the project.

Audi­ence:

• Busi­ness Mod­el Can­vas: Can be used for inter­nal dis­cus­sions, investor pitch­es, or strate­gic plan­ning.
• EU Hori­zon 2020 Busi­ness Mod­el: Specif­i­cal­ly tai­lored for EU eval­u­a­tors who assess the project’s fea­si­bil­i­ty, impact, and align­ment with the program’s objec­tives.

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