ISS 2020 Vision Future of Service Management | Page 107

3. Innovation champions. Organizations require leaders who are confident that
the innovation will represent the company’s strategy, ultimately solving the
problem at hand. 

4. An optimal mix between internal and external knowledge sources.
Depending on the type of innovation a company wants to achieve it is important
to find external knowledge sources from which to draw inspiration. 

Structuring innovation requires taking all four points into consideration – the design should
create strong processes that leverage internal and external knowledge, empower champions
and foster a more creative, innovation-driven culture. 132 Innovation however, can come from
many different sources. In FM, this includes: 132
• Operational origins. This is practice-led innovation where those with operational
experience and knowledge find ways in which current (best) practice can be
modified or replaced. 

• Problem origins. This is where an improved understanding of a problem through
theory will lead to a better way of doing things. 

• Personal insights. Here innovation is based upon ideas and personal insights.
The individual creativity creates unique developments in products and processes.

• Contextual origins. Here the ideas are triggered from external rather than
internal sources. These may include global trends, politics, general business
trends, competitive developments and fashion 

The origin of the innovation initiative has much to do with the type of innovation process
it involves. While radical and transformative service innovation occurs at one end of the
spectrum, there are many other small, incremental categories of innovation as outlines in
figure 43.
132 Andersen, M., and Queck, P., Service Innovation in the Facility Management Industry, ISS White Paper, ISS World Services,
2011.
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