This week’s #innochat demonstrated the importance of involving patrons in the process of R&D management, this week’s chat was on the topic of patrons, and Chris Zakrajsek asked the following questions:
1. How important is a Patron to an innovation program?
2. Assuming you have the necessary resources, is your Patron necessary?
3. How do you rekindle your Patron’s excitement?
4. How do you help your Patron understand the innovation process and their role in it?
I was thinking a patron can be the CEO of a company, or the business unit manager for marketing or a brand. Patrons are responsible for sales and growth of the company, and are very interested in understanding where their company’s growth will be in 2,4, 6 and 10 years. Whether CEO or project sponsor, patrons have to be involved in the process of R&D management. And R&D leaders have to help explain what projects need to be chosen, by showing the importance of each project to the overall plan for the company.
Without patron’s you would not have innovation, they help create the overall business strategy that fuels how an R&D strategy is developed. You keep patron’s involved by letting them know how the process of choosing which projects to execute on works. You ask for their commitment to growth targets. While the patron might not be responsible for developing the innovation, they are involved in the process of deciding if a project is a good one to execute because it makes sense for the overall business strategy; both in getting their buy-in for goals, and getting resources for the research that needs to be conducted to determine the value of an individual project and its relevancy to business strategy.
Chris, Innochat’s moderator this week had used a polo analogy to frame the post; I’d like to give my own sports analogy. In sports the patron is the general manager, while R&D leaders are the scout/coach. For a company as well as a sports team, when it comes to picking players and projects, the overall team matters as much as the individual players. Each coach has to argue their case for a player and the overall team, and back up the potential with evidence. The scouts and coaches support their general manager by giving them a process for making decisions on individual players as they support the overall team strategy. In good companies just as in sports teams, patrons are supported by R&D leaders to pick the projects that work individually, but also support the overall roadmap for the R&D portfolio through a project portfolio management system.