let’s create an innovation index!
The idea of launching an “Innovation Index” has been discussed many times within PDMA—including discussions at a formal
workshop held by the Board of Directors several years ago. PDMA has led a number of benchmarking efforts, such as the
Comparative Performance Assessment Study. Now, with innovation continuing to grow in importance both in the U.S. and
abroad, PDMA’s VP of Marketing, Mark Adkins, has come up with a variation of this idea that addresses both product and service
innovation. Here are the details.
There are numerous studies and indices that touch on the Research and Development (R&D) or product and service innovation areas. But they do not provide the kind of reli-
able, actionable information individuals and companies need
to guide their product and service development activities. In
particular, do they give us that real-time snapshot of the health
of U.S. innovation?
The reality is we have a proven model sitting right in front
of us. It is the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI). This index
is an indicator of the economic health of the manufacturing
sector. The PMI has been issued since 1948 by the Institute
for Supply Management. The data for the index is collected
through a survey of 400 purchasing managers on five different
fields: production level, new orders from customers, speed
of supplier deliveries, inventories, and employment level.
Respondents can report better, same, or worse conditions than
previous months. The PMI report is an extremely important
indicator for the financial markets in that it is considered the
best indicator of factory production.
Let me propose that PDMA spearhead the design and launch of
the Product & Service Index (PSI IndexTM) along the same lines
as the PMI. In it we would survey a number of companies on a
monthly basis, but rather than asking questions on production
levels or new orders, we would probe the following five areas:
Number of new projects initiated•
Number of active projects•
Number of projects terminated or halted•
Number of people employed on NPD teams•
Number of new product or services launched•
How to Become Involved in PDMA’s
PSI IndexTM Pilot Program…
There are several ways you can participate. Sign up to be
part of the pDMa product & Service innovation index pilot
program. Visit the link below:
http://www.pdma.org/public_survey.cfm?pk_survey=75
in addition or separately, if you want to become part of the
conversation about the index, visit the pDMa blog to let us
know what you think:
http://blog.pdma.org/2010/06/innovation-index/
Annual Innovation Surveys and Reports
Annual Surveys
Battelle and •;R&D Magazine’s Global R&D Funding Forecast
Booz allen Hamilton Global 1000 •
BcG Survey National association of Manufacturing (NaM) •
From the Boston consulting Group
Other Reports
Business Week •;Top 50 innovators
Well, what do you think? Does our nation need a real in-novation index that will keep our profession’s work in front
of our government and business leaders? See the box to the
right for some examples of indexes or annual surveys already
in existence—plus the box above it for how to sign up and be
part of the PDMA pilot program.
Mark adkins
Vp Marketing, pDMa, and
president, Smart Hammer innovation
( vpmarketing@pdma.org)
In this new quarterly column, Visions will feature new services, trends, and ideas from PDMA. Please join the discussion about
these subjects by contacting the author of the column or Visions editor — April Klimley ( VisionsED@pdma.org)
