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The STRIVE Process

STRIVE Capability Assessment

The STRIVE Process

Robust Innovations recommends that one innovation process be practiced enterprise-wide. For enterprises composed of multiple business units, this has the following benefits:

• Innovation best practices, captured as standard work, are shared by the businesses.
• Continuous improvement of the innovation process itself yields 40-50% development cost and cycle-time reductions across the enterprise.
• A measurement system targets improvements for each business. Innovation training programs build proficiencies to achieve improvement targets.
• Multi-business development programs benefit from common nomenclature and practices.
• Transfers of people across the enterprise occur with minimal re-training.

Numerous innovation processes have been detailed in the literature. Most are composed of discrete steps or stages. To maximize compatibility with the integrated strategy process, Robust Innovations has its own STReamlined Innovation for Value Enhancement (STRIVE) process. The nine-stage STRIVE process is pictured below.

Note that the first four stages (starting with opportunity targeting) correspond closely with segments in the Structured CPS Process (See Integrated Strategies) immediately following the selection of strategic objectives. Thus, loading of the project portfolio into the appropriate stages of STRIVE is simplified. The remaining 5 steps can be thought of as segments in the 4^th quadrant of the CPS process.

While many projects are initiated during development of the integrated strategies, the strategy process is only done periodically. However, STRIVE accommodates the initiation as well as completion or termination of projects on a continuing basis. This is possible because the Management Team is responsible for both the integrated strategy process and STRIVE.

Robust Innovations assist Management Teams in the implementation and continuous improvement of STRIVE. Its services include:

• Explanation of the practices appropriate to the individual stages.
• Assessment of STRIVE Capability on a business-by-business basis (see below).
• Specification and implementation of tailored training program to improve innovation proficiency.

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STRIVE Capability Assessment

Management Teams in highly successful businesses continually improve their performance in executing the innovation process. Robust Innovations offers a means for a Management Team (1) to assess its performance and (2) specify areas for improvement. This is accomplished through an assessment matrix that measures STRIVE Capability Levels.

The following chart shows the capability level profile for an actual business. It was completed by a multi-functional team with deep understanding of the development practices within the business. The assessment and the resulting improvement plan were completed in two days.

In this example, the “blue” bars show the capability levels the team assigned for each of the STRIVE stages. The levels were determined by assessing whether the team used innovation practices appropriate to the different levels. “Yellow” indicates opportunities for improvement.

This team decided to focus on raising its capability levels for three stages:

• Project Idea Generation (Focus on developing an idea bank and using creative problem solving)
• Project Planning (Provide training in management, and Least Waste Way project planning)
• Assessment/Documentation (Implement lessons learned data base)

Robust Innovations provides the assessment tool and the assessment Process Leader. The Process Leader assures that the assessment is done efficiently, documents the results, and advises the team on improvement planning and training.

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