A Blueprint for Systematic Innovation Management

Roman Šiser has a black belt in innovation. The qualification came through a Coca-Cola programme that trained colleagues to facilitate creative, human-centred work. But ask him what belongs in an innovation toolbox and his first answer is less intimidating: a chocolate bar. It is, he jokes, the most popular item.

That combination of practical structure and playfulness runs through his conversation with Dr. Christian Mühlroth on Innovation Rockstars. Drawing on his work in innovation management at Škoda Auto, Šiser explains how a large, process-oriented company can give people room to explore while helping their ideas reach implementation. His story includes volunteer networks, proof-of-concept funding and a dashboard intended to make potential value visible. It also contains a warning for anyone celebrating the end of a successful hackathon: finding an answer quickly and getting it into use are very different achievements.

Find the balance between freedom and follow-through

Šiser understands why some people hear a contradiction in the phrase innovation management. Too much control can damage creativity. Too little structure can leave good ideas without the support needed to become useful.

He describes the discipline as a craft involving skills, tools and behaviours. Someone has to help people identify problems, develop ideas and make decisions about what happens next. That includes a strategy for where to innovate, a view of acceptable risk and expectations about how long returns might take.

The role also requires patience and encouragement. Curiosity and courage matter when people are exploring something unfamiliar. For Šiser, the management task is to create conditions in which those behaviours can lead somewhere, while keeping the work connected to the company’s priorities.

Turn a management initiative into a community

At Škoda, the initiative began from the top. Šiser recalls a management workshop, innovation rooms, hackathons and idea challenges designed to explain why the company needed a different approach. Even casual Fridays became part of the story, with the CEO encouraging colleagues to leave their ties behind.

Visible sponsorship helped establish intent. But the team soon recognised that management support alone would not create participation across expert functions and departments.

“We started to work very closely with innovators, trained them, organized meetups for them, and they would bring their connections and networks along.”

The resulting community included volunteers known as “inno boosters”. They tested services, answered surveys, joined workshops and contributed specialist knowledge. The network connected a formal programme with people willing to help it work in practice.

Šiser’s marketing background influenced how the team approached these groups. Innovators, managers and the board had different needs. Communication, tools and support had to reflect those differences. A single message about the importance of innovation would not answer everyone’s questions.

Make the blueprint a management conversation

Šiser describes four parts of Škoda’s innovation blueprint: strategy, governance, processes and tools, and mindset and culture. Each addresses a different obstacle to progress.

Strategy establishes reasons and directions for exploration. Governance covers decisions, portfolios, budgets and risk. Processes and tools help ideas move towards evaluation and implementation. Culture shapes whether people feel able and motivated to participate.

An innovation index helps the team discuss maturity across these areas and identify where improvement is needed. The framework gives management a way to examine the whole system, rather than treating a workshop or an idea platform as a complete solution.

The value is in the questions it makes possible. A company may have enthusiastic contributors but little funding to test their ideas. It may have a clear strategic ambition but no practical way to choose opportunities. Those situations require different responses.

Give people more than a box of templates

The physical toolbox contains canvases, guides, notebooks and sticky notes, alongside that chocolate bar. Šiser explains that it sits within a programme adapted from Adobe’s Kickbox approach, beginning with training and continuing through customer validation and preparation for proof of concept.

Mentorship and coaching are part of the offer. So is access to resources. Asked which building blocks helped most, Šiser singles out the proof-of-concept programme and the ability to fund validation work.

That support connects participation with a practical next step. Experts from different departments can help an idea develop, while innovators gain a way to test whether it deserves further investment.

The team also developed a dashboard to track ideas, proof of concept, potential impact and implementation. Šiser describes anticipated value and financial gains, rather than claiming that every projected benefit had already materialised. That distinction matters when transformative work needs more time than colleagues initially expect.

Watch the gap after the hackathon

Šiser offers a striking example of the difference between discovery and delivery:

“We found the algorithms in two days, but it took us an additional two to three years to implement everything efficiently that we had cooked up.”

The account puts pressure on a familiar success measure. A fast workshop can produce a promising answer, while the organisation still needs considerable time to put it to work. Acceleration therefore requires attention to capacity, implementation and the development environment, not only faster idea generation.

Keeping inspiration flowing is another routine responsibility. Šiser describes team meetings where colleagues bring observations from magazines, conferences or online sources. They discuss what those developments could mean for Škoda and share relevant material through an innovation platform and newsletter.

He does not claim a single heroic moment for himself. Helping someone improve an idea, making a useful connection or facilitating a productive workshop is reward enough. The blueprint becomes credible through those small acts, backed by the decisions and resources that allow an idea to move beyond the meeting room.