Heiner Kaufmann

Conclusions and Rules Drawn from Part II

We will now attempt to provide an overview of what we have learned in Part II of the book and to compile these into a set of general rules.

Innovation: An Abiding Enigma

The success of systematic attempts to innovate in real-world enterprises remains marginal. It is apparently still largely unclear what systematic approaches to innovation are supposed to look like. Innovation therefore tends to be regarded more as a matter of alchemy than of science. Indeed, innovation has largely remained an enigma despite all the attention it has received.

The Research Method (Annex)

The statistical method commonly used in economics fails whenever a typical business practice is not successful. In such cases, the best one can do with the statistical method is to demonstrate that the business practice doesn’t work. However, if we want to show what a workable solution might look like, we need to orient ourselves on a statistical outlier, an exceptional case. Here, we propose the new method of “anecdotal research,” a special case of action research.

Rules for Systematic Innovation: The Bern Innovation Model

The aim of the present book is to enable enterprises to take a systematic and holistic approach to innovation. Enterprises will thereby be able to maximize their chances of success. After deriving and presenting various new elements of innovation management in the first parts of the book, we now turn to the task of forming a unified view from the individual parts.

The Organizational Structure: The Innovative Enterprise

In the present chapter, we work out a way of resolving the innovation dilemma and introduce the innovative enterprise that results. While doing so, we illustrate the extent to which the problem centers on the need to integrate two opposing corporate cultures in a single innovative enterprise. We show how this can be achieved in a way that will enable enterprises to avoid divisiveness and continue to flourish. We also propose a number of specific solutions to problems that arise during the innovation process and within the enterprise’s organizational structure.

The Missing Link: The Innovation Gap

The analysis aimed at revealing the specific location in the innovation process where innovation typically fails shows that significant parts of reality were likely not considered by those who presented the conventional funnel model of the innovation process. We refer to the most important missing component as the innovation gap.

“Good Management” in Enterprises Today May Be Blocking Innovation

Management theory is oriented towards efficiency maximization. What qualifies today as good management is geared to avoiding detours and minimizing unproductive times. However, it is precisely these detours and “unproductive” times that create a basis for a capacity to innovate. Enterprises that avoid these run the risk of becoming increasingly incapable of innovation.

Exploration and Strategy

In the present chapter we take a closer look at the connection between innovation and enterprise strategy. In discussing this connection, we assume that enterprises are essentially strategy driven or that they are managed according to strategic principles and plans. This implies that all of the activities that are essential to the well-being of enterprises should be taken account of in the enterprise strategy.

Fazit und Regeln zu Teil III

Wir versuchen nun, die Ubersicht uber all die in Teil III des Buches neu gefundenen Erkenntnisse zu gewinnen, und wollen diese in Form von groben Regeln zusammenfassen.

Die Forschungsfrage Forschungsfrage Forschungsfrage – Wie kann man systematisch innovieren Innovation systematische Innovation systematische ?

Wenn man aufzeigen kann, weshalb systematische Innovationsanstrengungen scheitern, sollte man auch aufzeigen konnen, welche Voraussetzungen geschaffen werden mussen, um erfolgreich systematisch innovieren zu konnen.