Innovation

The demand to be innovative is high. In our today‘s world we see market leaders tumble and whole industries collide, because the players failed to innovate and adjust to changes. So top managers study innovative companies in Silicon Valley to learn how to do it. But transferring best practices into the own companies quite often becomes a mission impossible.

Ignoring the own innovation capabilities

Coming back into the own organization to present new and exciting approaches to the people in the organization might be well-intended. But too often it is ignored that a lot of innovation already happens in the organization but is suppressed on higher management levels. The consequence is that the support from people is lost right from the beginning.

The organizational challenge of disruptive innovation

For established companies, disruptive innovations are particularly challenging. Interestingly, disruptive innovations are almost never falling out of the blue. Typically they can be recognized already years before they are becoming mature. So why is it that incumbents have a very bad track record to cope with disruption? The answer is: They require radical change on many dimensions in the company. So, many people on all levels in the organization show high resistance to even acknowledge the threat. Management teams who want to react to a disruptive attack need to start a massive change program. And change initiatives are often set-up with the wrong attitude, as we explain here.

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