Technology and innovation radar - Effective instruments for the development of a sustainable innovation strategy

This paper summarizes several years of experience in process design and methodology implementation for sustainable innovation development as carried out by the authors within several innovation projects in different industries (e.g. fixed and mobile telecommunication, high tech, logistic). The formularization of our experience has led to a research innovation approach that enables an effective innovation intelligence and technology scouting through the use of a technology and innovation radar methodology. These instruments allow the identification and evaluation of emerging business and technology trends, provide an overview of the relative maturity and assess their relevance for the company. A rating mechanism helps companies to decide when to adopt an innovation and to develop new products and services. Furthermore, the technology and innovation radars are good strategic tools for early stage identification and prioritization in order to give an approximate value judgment without detailed return on investment justifications. In later stages of the planning process, the radar tools can be used as a high-level summary of an underlying prioritization process.