Espacios. Espacios. Vol. 30 (2) 2009. Pág. 18
Mauricio Uriona Maldonado, Norberto Dias y Gregorio Varvakis
Innovation Management measurement and benchmarking has proven to be an effective initiative for improving organizational performance. This paper presented a benchmarking methodology conceived by Brazilian governmental institutions seeking to diagnose the practices and performance of Brazilian SMEs regarding Innovation Management, and the lessons learned by one of the pioneer SMEs that participated in the pilot study: Cianet Inc.
The experiences gained by Cianet Inc. in the benchmarking process, as showed in this paper, facilitated the identification of the causes that were preventing the company to reach higher performance levels and the establishment of actions aiming to eliminate or at least reduce those causes.
These experiences also showed to be positive for the implementation of a continuous innovation management cycle inside the company, incorporating periodic meetings with the IEL/SC staff in order to measure the changes perceived by Cianet.
Another relevant fact that was learned from the Benchstar application in the case study company was that some of the weaknesses of the methodology were identified, especially regarding to contextual or situational variables, that impact directly on the indicators measurement and analysis, creating a feedback process for the IEL/SC Institute in order to improve the Benchstar methodogy.
In spite of having found some weaknesses on the Benchstar methodology, it proved to be for Cianet’s shareholders an important element for identification and comparison of several variables with the market’s leaders. It also proved that governmental initiatives in Brazil and in Latin-American context in general, are important for SMEs development and in also for the region.
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