Enhancing the Innovation Management Capacity of SMEs in Bavaria

Summary of the action context and objectives

Increasing globalisation and rapid progress of emerging economies, boosted by digitalisation and well-developed transport logistics, put an increasing pressure on the economy in Europe. An increasing need for sustainability and for a “greener economy” is intensifying this challenging situation. Defending their technology and market lead against new and ambitious competitors, requires adaptations of the business and innovation strategies and constant efforts of European enterprises in innovating their products, processes, and services. This situation became even more complicated after the introduction of the mobility restrictions due to COVID-19. Within Europe’s economy, SMEs play a major role for employment and economic growth. Strengthening and maintaining the SMEs’ international competitiveness and innovation capacity therefore is of vital interest for Europe’s society. Overall objective of this support action project is to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of investments (both private or public) in research, development, and innovation. Specifically, SMEs in the region of Bavaria shall be enabled to check and further develop their business and innovation strategy, and to perform innovation activities effective and efficient. Their ability to generate ideas, to select and translate the most promising ideas into projects, and to bring these projects to a long-term sustainable economic success shall be increased, as well as their ability to identify potential risks and to take suitable counter measures. This is achieved by the delivery of well-defined services packages to the SMEs: i) the enhancement of their innovation management capacity and the removal of potential innovation gaps and bottlenecks, ii) the support in successfully mastering their digital transformation, iii) raising awareness towards sustainability issues and to encourage them to implement sustainable business activities. Start Ups and scaling up companies are currently changing the game in our region. The solid regional innovation support ecosystem allows young entrepreneurs try new ideas and make them profitable. To overcome the critical growing phase after the first steps (seed phase) some of them managed to get the European funding “EIC Accelerator Pilot”, which allow them to achieve the commercialisation phase in a short time. All awarded companies accepted the Business Acceleration Services and the support of key account managers, as the perfect combination of financial and non-financial support for a sustainable growth.

Work performed during the reporting period and main results achieved so far

The project offered support service packages to SMEs in Bavaria in two different lines: “Key Account Management” (KAM) and “Enhancing innovation management capacity” (EIMC). Both lines of support are offered by qualified senior innovation experts and by applying proven specialised tools and methods. Key Account Management services was offered to SMEs receiving funding from H2020 European Innovation Council and the new pilot Programme from July 2019 onwards. Until now, only companies benefiting from the Accelerator Pilot instrument were supported – all of them accepted the services. From other EIC funding instruments were not beneficiaries in Bayern or at least not communicated. The KAM services helped them to detect and analyse their internal and external weaknesses that might hinder their exponential and sustainable growth and the commercialisation of the product resulting from the funded innovation projects. In order to find the way to cover these needs, external business coaches were identified in the dedicated official data base and connected to the company. As the Business Coaches are completely financed by the European Commission, the beneficiaries showed opener to work with them. It takes longer to assign a business coaches to the Accelerator beneficiaries because they are much more demanding and at the same time, the best coaches are always overbooking / not available. Enhancing Innovation Management Capacity service was offered to SMEs who wanted to check and further develop their business and innovation strategy and to increase their ability to manage and implement (digital) innovation processes and/or sustainable business activities successfully. It covered an individual assessment of the status of either innovation management, performance in digital innovation or sustainability aspects in their business and innovation strategy, a benchmarking against other SMEs, and the joint development of an individual action plan for improving it. The service was based on the internationally established tools IMP³ROVE, Innovation Health Check (IHC), Digital Innovation Quotient (DIQ) and Corporate Sustainability Navigator (CSN). Both KAM and EIMC Services were successfully delivered to SMEs in the region of Bavaria.

Expected results and their potential impact, including the socio-economic impact and wider societal implications of the action so far.

As of 31 December 2020 support services were delivered to 57 SMEs in Bavaria, 36 KAM clients and 21 EIMC clients. The services supported the SMEs to increase their strategic and operational capability to innovate in an international environment, by analysing the individual situation of the SMEs with an independent and critical view from outside, by comparing it against good practices of other SMEs, and by stimulating practical improvements for the company. Direct impact of KAM services for SME clients comprises e.g. the outline of the internationalisation strategy, the design and implementation of team building measures; workshops on multidisciplinary and multicultural communication and stablish first contact with key stakeholders. Intellectual Property Rights and protection of the potential patents was a very demanded topic as well as pathing the way for the transition from prototype to a final. There are evident differences between SME-I Phase 1 beneficiaries and companies in the “Accelerator” phase. The first ones are focused on the business plan and on the identification of market segments and the customers. The second ones are very focused on the conditions of the international markets, on the personal resources to reach this objective and the protection of the IPR assets. Direct impact of EIMC services on SME clients in 2020 comprised: The improvement and development of vision and (digital) innovation strategies/business models. The improvement of idea generation and idea management. Improved focus on new markets, partnerships and (digital) products or services. Improvement of interaction with external partners and (digital) ecosystems. Awareness raising and implementation of sustainable business activities. As a result of this improvements, the SME clients expect a better position on the markets and an increase in profitability and growth. Synergies were utilised intensively with EU COSME activities. The KAM and EIMC services were fully integrated in the Enterprise Europe Network’s service portfolio, namely the provision of advisory and partnering services. This included the combination of different services, e.g. identification of high potential SMEs and projects, signposting to the H2020 SME Instrument or alternative funding opportunities, mentoring during innovation projects, facilitating cooperation with third parties, and publication of partnering profiles. As an example, one company receiving a KAM service also participated in EEN Brokerage Events and was supported in the proposal submission to the cascade funding ELIIT. It got the funding together with an Italian company and the project is still active.

This project has received funding from the European Union`s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement Nr. 879864. The website reflects only the author`s view. The Agency and the Commission are not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.