Innovation ROI Best Practices

Breakout Session
Wednesday, June 8, 10:30am – 11:45am CT


This IRI PILOT Research project will be launching at this session. This project team will work to determine the best practices for measuring the ROI of innovation. Specifically including WHAT to measure, WHEN to measure and HOW to go about collecting the data in a way that is reliable and systematic. Innovation ROI is difficult to measure for organizations. It is a complex system with many inputs, outputs, stakeholders, and milestones. Without a clear understanding of the overall system’s performance toward a specific aim, it can be difficult to manage, predict and finance your innovation efforts.

Speakers

Lydia Carson is Vice President, Innovation Engineering Systems at Eureka! Ranch, where she helps companies create and launch breakthrough new products, services, and systems.   Prior to joining the Ranch, Lydia’s corporate experience included working for Ford Motor Company and Lexmark International.  She also served as Director of Arkansas Manufacturing Solutions, part of the National Institute of Standard of Technology (NIST) Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP).  She left MEP to become an entrepreneur, founding Balm Innovations, LLC, a University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Arkansas BioVentures firm, and served on the MEP National Advisory Board as Vice Chair, representing small businesses.  Lydia received a mechanical engineering degree from Vanderbilt University and an MBA through the University of Arkansas.  She has received numerous certifications, including Innovation Engineering Black Belt, Six Sigma Black Belt, and ISO 9000 Lead Auditor.

Greg Lemmon is a statistician and web developer with over a decade of successful experience inventing and developing innovations and doing cutting edge market research in the field of innovation. Greg specializes in research and development for systems that enable innovation. In addition to leading research efforts for the Eureka! Ranch and the Innovation Engineering Institute, Greg assists innovation leaders at other companies with design of experiments, data analysis and their innovation systems. Greg has successfully shipped new innovations for improving creativity, marketing, sales forecasting, market research, project management and even blending bourbon. By leveraging data-grounded research, Greg has also successfully stopped thousands of innovation projects that were risky or of low potential value to the organization. 

Maggie Nichols is President and CEO of the Eureka! Ranch and the Innovation Engineering Institute.  She’s a graduate of Miami University’s Farmer School of Business and has spent her 25 year career in the field of strategy and innovation – holding titles of VP of R&D and COO at Eureka! after doing strategy work for Chase Bank.  She’s worked with 100+ teams from American Express, P&G, Ford, Schlumberger, Johnson & Johnson, Frito-Lay and many more.  While she currently leads the organization, she remains actively engaged in both direct work with executive teams, original R&D, strategy, and thought leadership in the category.