Co-Innovation program evaluation

Summary

Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) launched the Collaborative Innovation Strategies Partnership Program (now called the Co-Innovation Program) in 2007 to support companies develop comprehensive innovation strategies and build capability.

This report reviews the programs effectiveness and makes recommendations to meet future challenges. Sixteen current or recent partners were interviewed.

The study reveals that partners value the Co-Innovation Program as an enabler of change. The program assists partner companies build capability as well as addressing their strategic concerns. The Co-Innovation program accelerates the adoption of research and innovation. A specific dollar value benefit of the program was hard to isolate and quantify.

This study has captured both tangible and intangible benefits and demonstrates that the MLA Co-Innovation Program is a proven and valued model for enabling transformative change by building capacity for innovation, collaboration and adoption.

Objectives

The project objectives were to:

• capture the impact and outcomes of the Co-Innovation Program in participating enterprises based on both quantitative and qualitative data
• report on the intangible benefits of the program investment in terms of organisational culture, leadership, employee experience, customer experience and collaboration
• recommend enhancements to grow the value of the program for both the whole industry and individual enterprises.

Key findings

The Co-Innovation program has accelerated adoption and built industry capability in the following areas;

• improved productivity
• improved sustainability and environmental impacts
• increased quality Improved customer experience
• improved safety
• new markets
• new products and services
• improved external and internal collaboration.

Benefits to industry

This study reports substantial value for the individual companies and the industry attributable to the Co-Innovation Program, including:

• increased innovation within partner organisations through long-term program engagement
• increased performance, culture, innovation and collaboration due to capability development
• accelerated adoption of technologies, which has led to growth and productivity improvement.

MLA action

The review highlights four key areas of improvement for the Co-Innovation program that MLA will implement:

• a closer alignment to MLA focus areas
• clearer baseline and triple bottom line measures
• dedicated communication plans for each agreement
• the provision of capability development tools to assist Co-Innovation managers succeed in their roles.

MLA will identify the best way to develop standard baseline and triple bottom line measurement methodology for the program.