Purpose – The purpose of this paper to address the challenges on “what should the management plan for organization development (OD) toward becoming an innovative organization?” Design/methodology/approach – This study applies the concept of innovation management, maturity model and roadmapping. The confirmatory factor analysis and the multi-criteria decision analysis are applied as the methodologies to evaluate the relative importance of each influencing factor and to assess the areas needed for improvement, respectively. A case example is also included to demonstrate how the proposed approach can be applied. Findings – Comparing the assessment result and the strategic target defined by the management, the gaps can be diagnosed and then a roadmap guiding OD can be proposed based on a firm’s strategy for improvement. Research limitations/implications – This study proposes the approach and assessment model. Different companies always have their unique focus, so the management team have to modify the assessment model by following the proposed approach. Future research should be conducted to assess the effectiveness of each activity in increasing the level of innovativeness. Practical implications – Ineffective development could result from setting a strategic direction and resource allocation based on the intuitive decisions of the management team. Therefore, it would be much better if the management team can systematically assess the current status and diagnose the areas needed for improvement to set an appropriate strategic direction. Originality/value – The analytical approach to develop a strategic roa