The value of an integrated approach to innovation management

Innovation involves making decisions over time. Projects change, investments evolve, priorities shift, and so do the opportunities available to a company.

A technology development may require funding over several years and go through different stages before reaching the market. What today calls for R&D funding may tomorrow require support for an investment, a tax incentive, European funding, or an instrument that helps bring the solution to market.

The question is whether each of these needs should be addressed independently or whether it makes more sense to view them as part of the same journey.

At Zabala Innovation, we have spent 40 years working according to this second approach: an integrated management model built on stable, trusted relationships with our clients.

And perhaps one of the clearest indications of its value is longevity. Some of the company’s very first clients are still working with us today. When we first began supporting them, some were organisations with only a few dozen employees. Today, they have grown into major companies, some of them among the leading names on Spain’s IBEX 35 stock market index.

Throughout that journey, their needs, concerns and projects have changed. The challenge has been to evolve alongside them and continue delivering value at every new stage.

But what does an integrated management model really offer compared with working with different specialists as needs evolve?

To answer that question, it is worth looking back at one of the major business transformations of recent decades.

IBM’s strategy: the best product or the best solution for the client?

In 1993, IBM was going through one of the biggest crises in its history. At the same time, the technology industry was becoming increasingly fragmented, with companies specialising in chips, memory, software and other individual components.

Much of the market believed IBM should do the same: break up its businesses and allow each one to compete independently against the best specialists in its category.

Lou Gerstner, who had just taken over as the company’s CEO, chose the opposite path. Precisely because the market was becoming more fragmented, IBM’s ability to integrate different capabilities could become a competitive advantage.

IBM could understand the different pieces of the system, start with the client’s needs and combine the most appropriate solutions at any given time.

The idea can be summed up simply: if all you have is a hammer, you will tend to see nails everywhere. If you have a complete toolbox, you can start by understanding the problem and then choose the right tool.

Gerstner understood that IBM’s value lay not only in each of its individual capabilities, but also in its ability to integrate them around the client’s needs.

Applying the same logic to innovation management

Something similar happens in innovation management. The consulting sector has excellent specialists in specific areas: regional, national and European funding, public procurement of innovation, tax incentives, Energy Savings Certificates and other instruments. This specialisation is essential to provide an excellent response to specific needs.

But the needs of an innovative company rarely arise in isolation. The same development may require different instruments as it progresses, while the organisation itself also evolves, taking on new investments, projects and priorities.

That is why the value of an integrated approach does not simply lie in offering a wide range of services, but in integrating them around the client’s strategy and providing what the company genuinely needs at each stage.

What does an integrated approach offer?

We recently came across the case of an industrial company that was trying to finance its strategic plan by working with several different specialists. The finance department was optimising tax deductions with its trusted advisory firm. Manufacturing was working with a local consultancy. Operations was looking at ways to monetise its energy savings. R&D was seeking to participate in a European project, while the sales team was exploring a preliminary market consultation to develop a new project with a public-sector client.

Each initiative made sense on its own. And each specialist was perfectly capable of doing their job. But there is another possibility: understanding where the company wants to go and analysing how the different instruments can be combined to support that journey.

That is the starting point for integrated management: not simply having a broad portfolio of services, but bringing different capabilities together around the client’s strategy and directing efforts towards the funding instruments best suited to each project and each stage.

When there is a long-term relationship, the team develops a deeper understanding of the company, its technological capabilities, planned investments, priorities and projects. This accumulated knowledge reduces duplication, improves coordination and, above all, makes it possible to move from a reactive relationship to a more proactive one.

The question is no longer simply: “Which funding programme can we submit this project to?” Instead, it becomes: “What is the best strategy for financing this journey?” The distinction matters.

Every year, we identify more than 1,500 public funding opportunities. The real value does not lie in trying to pursue all of them, but in knowing which ones fit each organisation’s strategy, when to pursue them and how they can be combined.

This is complemented by the perspective gained from working across different ecosystems. Our national and European presence, with 14 offices in five countries, enables us to observe different public policies, programmes and funding bodies, and to connect opportunities that may be more difficult to identify when considered in isolation.

Ultimately, the value lies not in having more tools, but in knowing the client and its strategy well enough to understand which tool to use, when to use it and for what purpose.

An integrated approach to increasingly complex innovation

More than three decades ago, IBM understood that in an increasingly fragmented market filled with specialists, the ability to integrate different capabilities could create an advantage for its clients.

At Zabala Innovation, we share a similar view. Specialisation is essential, and will become even more so in the future. But so is having a perspective that can connect expertise, instruments and opportunities around a single strategy.

After 40 years of supporting innovative companies as they evolve, we have seen first-hand how their needs change, their projects mature and the opportunities available to them evolve along the way.

In a context in which innovation is becoming increasingly complex and risky, financing it effectively is a strategic activity that needs to be fully integrated and optimised within our organisations’ overall strategies.