Table Of ContentManagement for Professionals
Daniel Huber
Heiner Kaufmann
Martin Steinmann
Bridging the
Innovation Gap
Blueprint for the Innovative Enterprise
Management for Professionals
Moreinformationaboutthisseriesathttp://www.springer.com/series/10101
Daniel Huber (cid:129) Heiner Kaufmann
Martin Steinmann
Bridging the Innovation
Gap
Blueprint for the Innovative Enterprise
DanielHuber HeinerKaufmann
Mühlethurnen,Switzerland Münsingen,Switzerland
MartinSteinmann
Bern,Switzerland
OriginallypublishedinGermanwiththetitle‘BridgingtheInnovationGap–Bauplaneines
innovativenUnternehmens’ bySpringer Gabler in2014.
ISSN2192-8096 ISSN2192-810X (electronic)
ManagementforProfessionals
ISBN978-3-319-55497-6 ISBN978-3-319-55498-3 (eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-55498-3
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2017939563
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Dedicated to our mentor, friend, and project
benefactor, Christoph Gloor, who departed
far too early from this world.
Foreword
Although many books have been written about innovation, there aren’t many that
offeranysignificantnewinsightsintothesubject.Thisbookisoneofthefewthat
does.Itisbasedonthemanyyearstheauthorshavespentexaminingthesubjectof
innovationasitisapproachedintheliteratureandinreal-worldenterprisesettings.
The“innovationgap”thattheauthorsidentifyandverycompellinglydescribein
the book is the reason why so many innovation projects are destined to fail. The
bookshowsthatthemanagementmodelsandapproachestoinnovationthatarestill
appliedinsomanyenterprisestodayareincompleteandtosomeextentmisguided.
However, not content to merely point out the existing shortcomings of other
approaches,theauthorsgoontopresentwhat,bymylights,isthefirstpracticable,
holisticmodelofinnovation—ablueprint,asitwere,thatanyenterprisecanapply
todevelopagreatercapacityforsystematicinnovation.
Myownpracticalexperience,gatheredinthecontextofsupportinghundredsof
clients engaged in innovation projects on behalf of our innovation factory
(CreaholicSA),confirmstherelevanceoftheconclusionstheauthorsreachinthe
book—particularly their suggestion that the laws of innovation are fundamentally
different from those that are reflected in most conventional management
approachestoinnovation.
CreaholicSA ElmarMock
Biel,Switzerland
vii
Acknowledgements
Wewouldliketoexpressourgratitudetothevariousorganizationsandindividuals
whomadethisbookpossible.
First and foremost, we would like to thank the Otto Wirz Foundation, the
foundation’s President, G€otz Stein, and the foundation’s Board of Directors. The
OttoWirzFoundationfinancedourbookprojectandtherebyestablishedanimpor-
tantbasisforthebook.SpecialthanksgototwomembersoftheBoardofDirectors,
Heinrich Mühlemann and Cuno Wüthrich. They encouraged us to write the book
andintroducedthebookprojecttotheBoardofTrustees.
AsecondorganizationthathelpedtomakethisbookpossibleistheManagement
Center of the Department of Engineering and Information Technology at Bern
UniversityofAppliedScienceswherethetwocoauthorsDanielHuberandHeiner
Kaufmannareemployed.Muchofwhatisinthisbookisbasedonresultsthatwere
worked out at the Management Center. Our special thanks in this context go to
ChristophGloorandArnoSchmidhauser.
ChristophGloor,thedeceasedformerDirectoroftheManagementCenter,wasa
major supporter of our project and, without a doubt, our most important mentor
whenitcametothesubjectofinnovation.Hewastheonewhoencouragedusata
very early stage to undertake the project. He personally convinced many of those
who were involved of the project’s importance. He was also especially generous
withhistimeandenergy,takingonalotofadditionalworktogiveusanopportu-
nitytoconcentrateontheproject.
We also owe a debt of gratitude to Arno Schmidhauser. As Christoph Gloor’s
supervisor,hegavehissupporttotheprojectanddidhisparttomakesurewehad
thetimewewouldneedtomakeprogress.
ThanksarealsoduetotheemployeesoftheadministrativeteamattheManage-
ment Center who were often forced to do without their boss and who nonetheless
didanexcellentjobkeepingtheuniversitydepartmentupandrunning.
We also wish to thank Firmament AG, Martin Steinmann’s company,1 for its
valuablecontribution tothequalityofthe book.Itisindeedagreatsacrificefora
1FirmamentAG,Monbijoustrasse27,CH-3011Berne,Switzerland.
ix
x Acknowledgements
smallenterprisetodowithoutsuchacrucialemployeetotheextentthatitdid.We
areextraordinarilygratefulforthissettingofpriorities.
Our thanks also go to the employees of InoBooster,2 an enterprise operated
jointly by Martin Steinmann and Daniel Huber. The extensive discussions on
innovation that we carried out in this context helped us to focus our inquiry and
providedameansofcontinuouslyverifyingourresultswithreferencetoreal-world
cases.
We also wish to thank Giuliano Guscelli at innoBE AG3 for his valuable
contribution to the development of the “Innovative Enterprise” training program
for enterprises.4 Many of the ideas we discussed in this connection appear in the
thirdpartofthebook.
TheSpringerInternationalPublishingAGnaturallyalsoplayedacrucialrolein
the English edition of this book. Our special thanks in this regard go out to our
Editor Dr. Prashanth Mahagaonkar and his Senior Editorial Assistant Ruth
Milewski who accompanied our project in an excellent and highly professional
manner. Working together with them was an extraordinarily constructive and
pleasantexperience.
WeareindebtedtoElmarMock,thedesigneroftheSwatchwatchandfounder
of the company known as Creaholic SA,5 for many fruitful discussions on
innovation in recent years and particularly for agreeing to write the foreword to
thebook.
Last but notleast, ourthanksgo to ourwives, companions, and families. They
tookourdecisiontodevotesomanyhoursofourfreetimetowritingthebookwith
composure,kindness,andsupport.
2http://www.inobooster.com
3https://be-advanced.ch
4https://www.ti.bfh.ch/de/weiterbildung/dienstleistungen/angebote_fuer_unternehmen/innovative_
enterprise.html
5http://www.creaholic.com
Contents
1 TheOrigins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
PartI TheProblem
2 Innovation:AnAbidingEnigma. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3 TheMissingLink:TheInnovationGap. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4 “GoodManagement”inEnterprisesTodayMayBeBlocking
Innovation. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . 43
PartII TheSolution
5 TheOrganizationalStructure:TheInnovativeEnterprise. . . . . . . 53
6 Exploration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
7 ManagingInnovators. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
8 ExplorationandStrategy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
9 ConclusionsandRulesDrawnfromPartII. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
PartIII TheImplementation
10 RulesforSystematicInnovation:TheBernInnovationModel. . . . 145
11 FinalRemarks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
12 TheResearchMethod(Annex). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
SupportingOrganizations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Glossary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
xi
