How innovation-aware are European enterprises? Weaknesses of companies unveiled by anonymous internet test

How well is my company prepared for future developments, what are its future chances?

A new internet based test, the "IHK Inno-Scan", tries to give a first answer free of charge. This short scan, consisting of two separate modules, is based on many years of enterprise analysis and aims at identifying first threatening shortcomings in the areas of technology, staff management and marketing. It tries to sensitize the leaders of companies for more comprehensive analyses. The offer is oriented towards small and medium sized companies, being especially affected by technological changes and economic fluctuations.

The IHK Inno-Scan was developed in the public-private partnership, under the leadership of the Niederrheinische Industrie- und Handelskammer Duisburg-Wesel-Kleve, together with goethe GbR, Aachen.

Said managing director of the IHK Duisburg Dr.-Ing. Wolf-Eberhard Reiff, responsible for the fields education and technology: "The everyday chores and the full exploitation of companies' resources prevent early and regular monitoring of the present states of affairs and of future perspectives. In times of accelerated technological change and a global competition for innovation this can create a serious threat on the upcoming development and chances. Discontinuous monitoring of any relevant entrepreneurial factor can create unsolvable problems sooner than most people think, and can even endanger the company's existence. With this background in mind we created a small, free of charge, internet based assessment system helping companies to identify potential needs for action."

The Inno-Scan consists of two separate modules, oriented emphasizing different aspects of analysis:

• The IHK Basic-Scan calculates a relative company ranking based on 16 qualitative questions highlighting the areas company management, staff management, and market situation. A strengths and weaknesses analysis is also provided. The comparison can be requested either for the complete number of participants or for various participants' subsets defined by company size, area of activity, branch, or region.
• The IHK Innovation Numbers ask for quantitative classification numbers that have been identified as tell-tale for the innovation orientation of companies. They only may be considered as exemplary and intend to inspire the participants to devise their own ones and continuously monitor them. The existing classification numbers have been assorted in a cooperation with the chosen in a cooperation with the IQS NRW . IQS NRW has an early indicator tableau on call, consisting of 100+ relevant numbers.

Method of usage: Your answers are anonymous, and the calculated results may only be retrieved upon entry of an additional password at later times. The questions can be answered within just some minutes. Upon completion you obtain an evaluation consisting of a coarse situation appraisal with a respective action suggestion, and a comparative weaknesses/strengths analysis for the fields of general and staff management and market situation. As all answers are compared to those of other participants you obtain a direct relative benchmarking.

If only a clearly sub-average score is reached a respective hint is expressed: "Attention! You should definitely take care of your future perspective." In that case professional assistance is suggested.

The more companies participate in the IHK Inno-Scan the more terse the results become to any individual user. Dr. Reiff: "We expect this new free-of-charge service to be especially interesting to younger enterprises after their first years, interested in an assessment of their taken courses."