Overview

Certified Innovative Growth Venture is a unique accreditation reserved exclusively for rapid-growth-oriented small and medium-sized business ventures. Through a process of independent third-party assessment, the CInGV accreditation establishes that your firm has demonstrated what is required to attain rapid, high-impact growth through innovation, and is in fact on a path toward attaining that. This distinguishes it from all the other SME business ventures out there – as being one that is truly innovative and therefore capable of attaining rapid, high-impact growth, and consequently a valuable investment opportunity for Investors.

CInGV accreditation is awarded at three distinct levels, corresponding to the venture’s level of innovation-driven-growth readiness and performance. These three levels, from the lowest to the highest level, are:

1. Emerging.
2. Accomplished.
3. World-Class.

What Organizations Should Apply?

Any small or medium-sized business venture that has committed itself to leveraging innovation to deliver world-class novel value to its customers and markets, and who by so doing aspires to grow significantly and quickly so that it can ultimately maximize its positive impact on the world, will benefit from this accreditation and should therefore apply for it.

1. Traditional Product Businesses – High Tech, Durable Hard Goods, Fast Moving Consumer Goods, etc.
2. Digital Product Businesses – Business Platforms, Wholesale & Retail Platforms, Consumer Apps, etc.
3. X-As-A-Service Businesses – Business Operations, Ecosystem Coordination, Personal Life Optimization, etc.
4. Niche Businesses – Industry Enablement, Market Access, Resource Aggregators, etc.

Benefits

Become Recognized For Your Unique Business Model, Value Proposition, & Growth Prospects

Your organization will become recognized for its unique business model, value proposition, and consequent growth prospects. By demonstrating that it constantly strives to attain market awareness and customer empathy so that it can deliver world-leading, next-level value through these mechanisms, it shows that it is in tune with where these markets and customers are heading in the future, and is poised, therefore, to deliver increasing value in a way that will scale the business.

Grow Your Organization’s Ability to Drive Growth Through Innovation

Your organization will become increasingly aware and knowledgeable of what is required to drive significant growth in an SME business venture through innovation. In doing this, it will over time develop growing capabilities for being able to actually deliver innovation-driven growth, And as it exercises those capabilities, it will in fact succeed at attaining the level of growth and positive impact it aspires to.

Ensure Your Business Is On The Right Path To Achieving Sustained, Long-Term Growth & Impact

Your organization will develop the mindsets and practices it needs to ensure it stays on the right path to attaining sustained, long-term growth and impact in its markets – as well as in the new markets it helps to birth. This will give everyone involved the assurance that the venture has what it takes to ‘stay hungry’ and lead from a customer-first point of view, constantly experimenting with novel value and validating new options against real-world market needs.

Show The World Your Commitment to Delivering Innovation, Growth, and A Positive Impact

Your organization will wear its accreditation proudly as a symbol of its commitment to delivering novel innovation and growth and – most importantly – to having a profound positive impact on not only its markets, but on the world as a whole. It can leverage this to demonstrate to everyone involved – whether they be customers, partners, or investors – that it is in fact committed to driving positive long-term impact and a return on the investments being made.

Obtaining

Working Through a GInI Authorized Provider

To obtain CInGV accreditation, your organization must retain and work through either a GInI Authorized Training & Assessment Provider (ATAP) or a GInI Authorized University Provider (AUP). This Provider will in turn secure one or more GInI Authorized Assessors (either an Authorized Growth Venture Assessor, AGVA or an Authorized Innovation Assessor, AInA) who will execute the CInGV on-site assessment and review process with your organization, and thereafter submit their final Assessment Report to GInI.

Following this, GInI will make the final determination of your organization’s passing of the assessment, and if passing, the level of accreditation it is to be awarded. After that, GInI will notify your organization and its Authorized Provider of this determination, and will provide your organization with a copy of the Assessor’s final report (the CInGVAR).

The CInGV Innovation-Driven-Growth Readiness & Performance Assessment

The CInGV innovation-driven-growth readiness & performance assessment is conducted using GInI’s Certified Innovative Growth Venture Assessment Tool, or CInGVAT, which GInI developed exclusively for this purpose. This tool assesses your business’ level of both innovation-driven-growth readiness (its current knowledge and capabilities) and innovation-driven-growth performance (its actual outcomes and results to date – and their respective impacts).

This assessment addresses fourteen (14) key areas that are each evaluated in detail. These fourteen areas, and their respective weightings in the assessment scoring process – are as follows:

1. Purpose 8%
2. Founder & Leader Engagement 6%
3. Industry & Market Awareness 5%
4. Leadership & Ecosystem Development 6%
5. Market Leadership Orientation 10%
6. Front-Line Customer Obsession 10%
7. Active Growth Orientation 10%
8. Future Orientation 5%
9. Strategy Development & Execution 8%
10. Innovation Process & Capabilities 8%
11. Solutions, Offerings, & Marketing 6%
12. Financials 6%
13. Facilities, Infrastructure, & Resources 4%
14. Outcomes, Results, & Impacts 8%

In assessing these fourteen areas, the assessment seeks to explore both their presence and their impact – the latter meaning they are actually being used to attain their intended and expected results and outcomes.

To answer these questions, the Assessor employs each of the following activities:

1. A focused review of the business’ performance to date – revealing its purpose, its structure, its strategies, its resources, and so on – and in each case how those are all being used together to attain its stated growth objectives in each period – especially that arising from innovation.
2. A set of in-depth interviews with the business’ respective leaders, middle managers, and frontline staff – to obtain differing perspectives on the business from different levels.
3. Tours of the business’ facilities – to understand how those are being used and managed to help the staff achieve both their day-to-day responsibilities and contribute to the ongoing growth required to scale the business.

One of the key outputs of the CInGV innovation-driven-growth readiness & performance assessment is a set of Assessment Outcomes Radar Plots. These portray graphically the relative strengths and weaknesses of the business – based on the previously-explained fourteen areas.

Scoring

The CInGV innovation-driven-growth readiness & performance assessment scores and ranks each of the fourteen areas of the CInGV Assessment Tool (CInGVAT) on a scale of 0 – 10, and weights those according to GInI’s specific guidelines. The overall final score is therefore a weighted average of these fourteen areas and consequently will also range between 0 and 10.

This allows SME business ventures to be recognized as a Certified Innovative Growth Venture® at one of the three possible levels – as explained in the following chart.

Maintaining

To maintain its CInGV accreditation, your organization must pass a full reassessment with a GInI ATAP or AUP every two years (biennially).

Investment

The Administrative Processing Fee for CInGV accreditation is 1,000 USD. This is to be paid both initially and biennially on the anniversary of the organization's original accreditation date.

This excludes any fees your organization pays to the ATAP or AUP it retains for its initial assessment or biennial reassessments.

Other Certifications

Certified Innovative Organization

Certified Government Innovative Organization

Accredited Innovation Lab

Accredited Business Incubator

Accredited Accelerator Program

Accredited Innovation Training Program

Accredited Innovation Education Program

Innovation Endorsement

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