Corporate Innovation Online
Building and Sustaining Corporate Innovation
Best Management Practices
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Linking academic research to commercial success.
Glasgow’s University of Strathclyde seems to have gotten the right formula in this energy/wind turbine initiative. Download – The Linkage Between University Research and Commercial Success.
Posted on Thursday, March 31st, 2011 at 3:29 pm in Best Management Practices, Economic development, Leadership, The role and place of R&D in innovation..
Tags: Economic development, innovation, research and development
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Massey-Ferguson Ltd., lack of innovation contributed to its demise.
Our latest White Paper provides insight into the demise of Massey-Ferguson Ltd. (MF), once Canada’s largest industrial enterprise employing 68,000 people world-wide. Passing out of business in the 1990s, MF’ lacked innovativeness. Three ex-employees offer their insights into innovation during the critical period, 1960 to 1980, and conclude that the lack of innovativeness was a major contributor to MF’s demise. The then current management practices simply did not encourage innovation. Download the Massey Ferguson White Paper.
Posted on Monday, January 31st, 2011 at 7:46 pm in Best Management Practices, Leadership, News, The role and place of R&D in innovation..
Tags: failure, innovation, Sick companies. Canada
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Huawei Technologies – one of 8 recipients of The Economist’s Annual Innovation Awards
Huawei Technologies, China, is the recipient of this award for its ‘corporate use of innovation’. While noting that R&D is the most significant contributor to Huawei’s overwhelming success, it is difficult to believe company statements that over 50% of its staff are engaged in R&D as stated by the company and by a recent report by the Battelle Institute. Perhaps the definition of R&D is different in China than elsewhere. This interpretation might also be the reason why China’s investment in R&D has risen so rapidly in the last few years. While not much information is available on this dynamic company, we identify at least some of the management practices which have made it successful. Huawei Report Economist Award. Click on the link for our free, brief (4-page) report.
Posted on Thursday, December 16th, 2010 at 9:23 pm in Best Management Practices, Economic development, The role and place of R&D in innovation..
Tags: China, research and development
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Toyota, hobbled, but retains its culture for innovation – post recall.
We don’t think the mechanical problem itself is other than a very serious blemish on Toyota’s reputation but the manner in which Toyota has handled the issue is much more serious and needs to be addressed by Toyota. It is a management issue. It is Toyota’s first major glitch in its 20-year roll to become #1 in the automotive world. Over expansion is a part of the problem but not the root cause.
It’s fashionable to criticize Toyota. The evidence of design, manufacturing, quality, and operational flaws is awesome and disturbing to management, regulators and, most significantly, for Toyota, to the consumer. Serious for sure, but is it the beginning of a downslide for Toyota; a company which has built a stellar reputation over its 53-year history? Not likely!
For the full White Paper, visit http://www.corporateinnovationonline.com.
Posted on Wednesday, May 26th, 2010 at 4:30 pm in Best Management Practices, News.
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Nucor Corporation
A new Profile explores the culture for innovation which, once set in motion by Ken Iverson in the 1960s, contributed to Nucor becoming the largest steel company in the United States and all this without an R&D department per se. The Founder’s legacy carries on!
Posted on Friday, October 16th, 2009 at 6:46 am in Best Management Practices, Cultural Aspects of Innovation.
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A Profile of GE’s Culture for Innovation is now available.
Following the lead of many CEO’s these days Jeff Immelt has, in his latest book – The New GE Way, let us in on a lot of previously closely held information about GE. By carefully examining this book, as well as other recent and older publications about GE, we have been able to construct a picture of the culture within GE from its beginnings (Reference Innovate Like Edison) to the culture under Welch and Immelt. The styles are different and are intended to achieve different results in certain aspects of GE’s business.
See what you think and provide a comment.
It is becoming increasingly clear to me, as I examine the ‘culture for innovation’ in many of the most innovative companies, that the culture of the founder(s), even from 100 years plus back, has a profound effect on the company.
Posted on Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 at 1:47 pm in Best Management Practices, Cultural Aspects of Innovation.
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Culture profile for P&G now available as a download.
Viewers may be interested in this most recent profile as it provides insight into many new management practices at P&G which have been implemented to improve corporate performance through focussing on innovation.
P&G might once have been characterized as being rather closed mouthed about how it has managed to be so successful. No more, thanks to recently published articles, a book [The Game Changer] authored by A.G. Lafley and Ram Charan, and interviews with senior executives. The changes introduced over the last 8 years represent a step-function in how to improve innovation.
Companies and consultants can learn a lot from taking the time to understand more about the changes which have been made. Visit the web site; www.corporateinnovationonline.com, go to the QuickIndex and download the profile.
Comments on the profile are most welcome.
Posted on Monday, November 3rd, 2008 at 6:28 pm in Best Management Practices, Cultural Aspects of Innovation, Reviews.
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3M culture profile is now available as a download.
If you want to get more insight into why both 3M is amongst the most innovative company in the world, go to http://www.corporateinnovationonline.com and download an in-depth profile. Learn more about 3M’s management practices and how they sustain a culture for innovation.
Posted on Wednesday, May 28th, 2008 at 6:46 pm in Best Management Practices, Reviews.
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Survey respondents identify 8 most important Factors.
Based on survey results to date, participants in the ‘Check-Up’ have identified 8 out of the 25 Factors surveyed as being most important to a corporate culture which supports innovativeness.
Factor #2: Extent to which management explicitly looks for innovation. This Factor rates very highly and there is an indication that management is not sufficiently emphasizing the need for innovation; i.e. the gap between ‘ideal’ and ‘reality’ is large is above the norm. This is somewhat surprising since it is difficult to understand how any company would not make it clear to all personnel that innovation is important and should be a part of the culture. Perhaps the results indicate that there is complacency about innovation; that such a concept is taken for granted in many companies and is therefore not made explicit to all personnel. On the other hand, management can be challenged to do better. This should be a relatively easy Factor to fix providing there is sincerity and believability in how the message is relayed by management.
Factor #3: Tolerance of mavericks. The score for this Factor was very high, indicating its importance and at the same time, the differences between ‘Reality’ and ‘Ideal’ suggests that management is, in general, responding well in this subject; i.e. there is a tolerance for mavericks, at least in those companies which have responded so far.
Factor #4: Degree to which planning emphasizes rationing resources versus identifying opportunities. At any given time, and somewhat dependent on business cycles and the achievement of profit goals, companies experience a need to either ration capital or invest to grow. Few businesses have the luxury of always being able to take year-after-year advantage of opportunities. But it behooves the leadership not to fall into the trap of continually making use of the planning system to cut costs or reduce capital spending; i.e. to make it a cost-cutting exercise. Continuous use of this cost cutting mantra will inevitably stunt innovativeness.
Factor #6: Emphasis on management of people and their interactions. Management needs to place heavy emphasis on how people are organized and how they communicate. Setting up new divisions, restructuring, moving people around, and exposing one division or group to others, putting an intranet in place, are all worthwhile steps which can be taken.
Factor #10: Degree of formal communication in the organization. Having lots of informal communication within the corporation is viewed as much better than having limited communication. This Factor scored as highly important and, as well, the large difference between ‘Reality’ and ‘Ideal’ suggests that much more could be done.
Factor #11: Use of independent work groups. This is a definite characteristic of innovative companies and, based on the respondents input, commonly used. The score indicates that while important, as a characteristic of innovative companies, there is every indication that management generally embraces this idea and makes good use of independent work groups for special projects or initiatives. The difference between ‘Ideal’ and ‘Reality’ was not large.
Factor #14: Availability of reward mechanisms for innovation. The availability of reward mechanisms for innovators is rated, not surprisingly, as very important. Having a special category of rewards for innovators can however lead to perceived inequities in the overall corporate reward system. Some companies try to get around this by making awards but not publicizing the event; probably not a good idea as sooner of later the information as to who received special payments, rewards, or privileges, surfaces. A transparent open system of rewards is the best route and should be recognized for what it is; an award for special performance; an essential ingredient in moving corporations forward.
Factor #19: Availability of resources (budget, time, etc.), for new ventures. This is an important incentive to motivating innovative thinking in any organization. Where there is a general feeling that some monies, time, etc., can be made available for initiatives, there is likely to be a greater sense of being able to move forward and a sense of being open to innovation in whatever form this may take. The rather large difference between ‘Ideal’ and ‘Reality’ suggests that this is a problem, at least for those who have responded to date.
Summary
Interestingly, most of the Factors noted above are able to be influenced significantly by the actions of management and in most cases do not require major capital investment. Management’s attention and commitment are, however, required.
To arrive at conclusions regarding the most important Factors, we examined all responses and noted the level recorded for the ‘ideal’ company, from 0 to 5 or 0 to -5, depending on the Factor, as set out in the ‘Check-Up’. The higher the number, the more the respondent indicated that there was a need for this Factor to be present to support corporate innovation.
We also examined the difference between the ‘Ideal’ situation and ‘Reality’, to come to a judgment as to the current performance of the company for each Factor. The larger the difference, the more likely it is that the company is not performing at the ‘Ideal’ level – for each Factor. Individual company results will, of course, vary from what is stated above.
For more ideas on how to improve on your company’s performance, by Factor, please refer to Thought Starters on this web site.
*Based on results to date. The results could change as further use is made of the data base. Interpretation could therefore be modified as more results are posted.
Posted on Saturday, February 23rd, 2008 at 5:45 pm in Best Management Practices.
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