Jacob Brix, Assistant Professor at the Aarhus University, School of Business and Social Science – Speaking about Innovation Management

Written by Denisa Călin on July 14, 2014. Posted in Multimedia, Strategy

Through The KPI Institute’s presence at the 2014 PMA Conference, in Aarhus, Denmark, the PERFORMANCE Magazine team was able to access valuable insights, from some of the most highly skilled and experienced academics and practitioners, in the field of Performance Management.

Among a series of interviews, the Performance Magazine team got a chance to converse with Jacob Brix, Assistant Professor at the Aarhus University, School of Business and Social Science.

With expertise in applied business research, Assistant Professor Brix speaks about innovation, in the sense of a radical, large scale innovation plan, as opposed to small, sporadic adjustments.

Advocating change, he believes there is a need for taking a different perspective to innovation, especially when looking for breakthrough results, with subsequent benefits.

Further along, he outlined some challenges in working with innovation:

• The uncertainty of what needs to be measured, which prompts for a systematic approach;
• The need to explore, not exploit a company’s potential;
• Calibrating innovation management and measurement to accommodate the small improvements.

Sharing some advice on how innovation should be handled, for obtaining the best result, Assistant Professor Brix states the following:

• Before implementation, the key part is first operationalizing a radical approach to continuous innovation;
• The need for external expertise or consultancy, from professionals accustomed to working with this approach to innovation;
• Do not regard innovation in a dichotomous manner, in a right/wrong way but look to the quality, potential and viability of an innovation portfolio.

Asked whether there are some companies to be looked at, for a particular approach to performance management, Jacob Brix signals small and medium enterprises, due to their capacity to generate new products.

Keeping away from speculation on new trends in Performance Management for 2014, he highlights the need for people to take into account what and how needs to be measured.

Discussing performance measurement in personal life, Assistant Professor Jacob Brix explained how he perceives it as an incentive, a behavioristic take to a healthier lifestyle that can be drafted on both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation.

He also explains how companies can benefit from using this data in a meaningful manner.

Tags: PMA 2014 Conference, The KPI Institute