The Innovation Management Support Nucleus (NAGI) of UFRGS (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul) is developing the project “The Innovation Route”, which proposes a methodology for the management of innovation in micro and small companies in the complex of electronics. Finep sponsored the NAGI through the 2010 Innovation Management Support Nucleus, in the amount of around R$ 2.5 million.
The project is a partnership of several departments at UFRGS. The initial idea was proposed by the Centro de Empreendimentos em Informática. Subsequently, the School of Administration endorsed its participation and made changes to the project. The Physics Institute also supports the initiative. The methodology will be developed in three stages: diagnosis, training and consulting.
At first, the company answers questions in an online software to diagnose its innovation capacity. This diagnosis was structured around six pillars: product and service development, organization of the production process, business management, market and marketing, inter-organizational relations and strategy. The objective of this step is to identify, among other things, how the selection of ideas occurs and how innovation is present in the company's planning. The system generates a report that defines the strengths and weaknesses of the business and offers suggestions to improve the weakest aspects. This software should be live by the end of April.
The training stage consists of guidelines for the entrepreneur. This process takes 32 hours. Finally, the client will be entitled to individual consultations with consultants in order to work specifically with the needs of each company. A final visit will evaluate the results of the program.
The value of services is not high, as it focuses on enterprises that often do not yet operate in the market. It is important to emphasize that the company does not necessarily need to adhere to the complete package of the program and can only carry out the diagnosis, if it is able to meet its demands.
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