Innovation Model for SME's: A Practical Approach on How to Implement Innovation and Overcome Barriers.

Companies needs to shape their internal processes in order to fully adapt to new customer´s requirements, to cope with other businesses forces on the economic environment, and to be more efficient in their operations. A methodology for innovation adapted to and focus on Small to Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) could help SMEs to improve their performance making them more competitive with a target on customer satisfaction. Therefore, a customized approach is recommended for SMEs in Latin American economies. This approach has been validated specifically in Nicaragua.

In this paper we present an Innovation Model. The model  developed is a step-by-step approach that consists of five different phases: Innovation culture settlement, Business economic assessment, Innovation identification and selection, Innovation implementation, and Innovation measurement and follow up. Then, we present the documented experience on applying the Innovation toolkit on one SME´s. Also, there are some references of the outcome of other SME´s that applied the toolkit. The innovation barriers found are analyzed presenting some suggestions to overcome them. The experience from the application of this Innovation Model can be used to support and improve further innovation implementation in local SMEs.