Management of Research, Development and Innovation Systems and the New NP 4457 Standard: an Implementation Case Study

To be efficient and to create value, research, development and innovation (RDI) activities should be supported by a management system that promotes and integrate them according to the organization strategy. Brisa, the main Portuguese highway operator, is implementing an innovation management system since 2002, based on the concept of creating value in a changing context. Linked with the initiative of creating a new Portuguese standard, the NP 4457:2007, which concerns the management of RDI systems, Brisa sought, through a pilot project with other major companies, to adapt its innovation management system according to the new standard, as a logical step and an excellent opportunity to rationalize the RDI management processes, introducing at the same time a set of concepts and frameworks that were somewhat incomplete on the initial system.
This paper describes Brisa’s innovation approach and the adjustment process made in order to accommodate all the requirements of the new standard, making simultaneously a number of remarks on the difficulties and capital gains observed along the process.