Summary and Conclusions

R&D purchasers, providers, and companies are all potentially important contributors to the innovation process in New Zealand and share common problems and concerns in managing the innovation process. A new management model called TIPS was conceptualized. TIPS could potentially integrate technological innovation project management into the operational fabric of these organizations. TIPS is intended to encourage a regular review of projects and programs, help prioritize projects within portfolios, and operate from a widely used platform (Microsoft Excel ). A survey of project and program managers (interviewees from earlier research) produced an 80 percent response rate. The respondents had generally positive relations to the novel simplification for managing a typically complex and uncertain process. Respondents intellectually supported TIPS and offered useful insights on how the process might be perceived and implemented.

Three of the nine responding participants in the TIPS pilot trial were very keen to see TIPS implemented in dedicated software. This would help improve the user interface. Two of these participants were software specialists and the third had seen company specific competitive advantage created by having better interfaces and increased robustness and security. It is therefore suggested that TIPS be further pursued and the feasibility of implementing TIPS in dedicated software should be investigated before full-scale implementation trials.

TIPS may provide a practical and more universal approach for monitoring and controlling small-scale innovation processes in wealth creating organizations.