The Danger of Innovation by the Numbers, Continued

Last week, I wrote about the dangers of overly relying on quantitative market research when developing innovation opportunities. A tendency to seek “safety in numbers” causes a similar problem in another part of the innovation process: managing the creation of intellectual property.

Harvard Business Review Senior Editor Julia Kirby forwarded me a survey of intellectual property managers in firms. How do these managers measure their program’s effectiveness? They look at the numbers.

Close to 80 percent of respondents said they measure effectiveness by looking at the number of patent applications filed. Other measures include the number of patents granted and invention disclosures reviewed.

It’s no surprise that intellectual property managers chose these metrics. Patent activity is easy to track and facilitates industry benchmarking.

But as Albert Einstein said, “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”

Patents can be a source of competitive advantage. They can indicate that a technological community is on top of its game. But patents for patents’ sake can be a waste of time. Remember, there is a marked difference between invention and innovation. The output always matters.

Overly focusing on the numbers can push researchers to try to answer “can we” questions, rather than “should we” questions. It can signal that management believes “the job is done when the patent is won.” A scientist that files hundreds of patents that sit on a shelf never to be commercialized might win professional accolades, but they haven’t materially helped their company.

Many individual innovation metrics suffer similar limitations. That’s why our general guidance is to track a wide range of metrics, and make them as output-focused as possible.

So what guidance would we give to intellectual property managers? First, ensure that researchers are connected to the marketplace. Second, try to track the long-term impact of intellectual property development efforts. Remember the purpose of any effort is to have business impact. In reality, the job is just begun when the patent is won.