OPSI presented report on innovation portfolios with examples from Lund
OPTIONS is part of the OECD, and for several years they have been developing methods and materials for how the public sector can work strategically to solve challenges through systematic work on innovations. The background is that public institutions may need to meet today's vast and complex challenges by thinking and implementing things in new ways. This means that you need to be able to work on innovations in combination with strategies that are constantly updated. OPSI has created a model in which organizations can work with a portfolio of different types of innovation activities — summarized in the Innovation Facets Model. By introducing the concept of a portfolio strategy for innovation, managers can gain a management instrument to help make strategic choices in which types of innovation to invest in or where to help build support structures and processes in line with the problem at hand.
In the report, OPSI shows how the facet model and portfolio approach can be possible innovative approaches and instruments that governments can use to respond to emerging challenges. The facet model categorizes innovation work, among other things, to create an overview of the type of projects that the organization runs and which may be missing. The report describes each of the innovation aspects Improvement-oriented innovation (enhancement-oriented), reactive innovation (adaptive innovation), mission-oriented innovation (mission-oriented innovation) and Expectation-oriented innovation (anticipatory innovation). The portfolio strategy is a way of visualising and analysing how to invest in, promote and utilise an appropriately diverse range of innovation activities to offset the risks that some innovative measures will not work.
Three examples of organizations using the strategic model were given during the meeting. One of these was presented by Future by Lund's associate researcher Emily Wise who told how Future by Lund has worked with the facet model and innovation portfolio but also merged these models with Future by Lund's zone model to create a completely new method for monitoring and learning outcomes and “ripple effects” within an innovation ecosystem. The other two examples reported were from South Korea and Austria.
Emily Wise presented how Future by Lund has used both the facet model and portfolio thinking to track activities in innovation ecosystems. Since Future by Lund is an innovation platform that not only operates within the municipality but also works with external actors such as the industry, other innovation actors and Lund University in the area of sustainable innovations, it has been important to find a way to map out which joint activities exist and what effects they have had.
One way of describing the work has been Future by Lund's zone model, in which activities in the innovation process are categorised so that they fall into either yellow, green or blue zones. Yellow zone represents an idea and experiment phase with unclear mandates where several actors need to work together to solve the challenge. In the green zone, actors work together with a shared mandate and clear results while the blue zone represents the stage where an individual organization decides for itself and can invest and scale innovation. This model has been combined with the facet model, portfolio analysis and other models, such as Lund University's data collection tool to give a clearer picture. Together they image “The Lund model for Innovation Ecosystem Portfolio Tracking” (LIEPT).
- The Future by Lund partnership works on complex innovations with many players involved with different types of portfolios, explained Emily Wise. Future by Lund has wanted to find ways to demonstrate the value of working in this way. How do you make different portfolios fit together, how do you get an overview of different activities and how can you follow work and investments over time? By combining the zone model with OPSI's facet model and portfolio thinking, as well as a few more models, Future by Lund has found ways to provide a holistic view for all stakeholders in how they play a role in system change. It also provides a way to detect where activities are lacking and in which areas there are opportunities.
Here you will find the report “Tackling Policy Challenges Through Public Sector Innovation: A Strategic Portfolio Approach.”
Link to recording webinar.