Innovation among SMEs in the DACH region : assessment of the status quo and the development of an innovation framework

Abstract

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are very eager to innovate and can often be more agile when adopting new processes. The problem we see is that in many cases the implementation of new process that aim to drive innovation are not systematically structured. Innovation has become a very important and broad topic and there is a lot of information on the subject matter, which makes it difficult to choose the correct literature and methodology to make an efficient adoption of an innovative culture. SMEs have usually limited budgets for such activities and big consulting firms (Price Waterhouse Coopers or Deloitte) are often too robust and costly, not only because of the infrastructure they have, but also because their projects are complex and require many resources. Our proposal to solve this problem is to build a framework that will offer a stage- based methodology assisting the development of an open innovation driven culture within an enterprise. This framework, which we called 'Cadence of Innovation System' (CIS), recommends an assessment that identifies the current innovation efforts of the enterprise at an early integration stage (stage 0). The first stage is the implementation of an 'innovation system' (systematic and repeatable approach to control a company's allocation of time and resources) on a project basis. The second stage uses the innovation system adopted in the first stage on a strategic basis and with significant effort placed on communication. The third stage continues the systematic approach in line with the first and second stage by emphasising communication and allows for an enterprise to start acting with an innovation culture. This framework, on top of all these stages, encourages the enterprise to systematically and continuously revisit all the levels of the system, including the assessment stage. CIS aims to bring up the discussion of the needed leadership style to manage an organization that has the capability to exploit and explore ideas (ambidexterity), to promote an inclusive organization that empowers employees (contextual environment) and that has a customer-oriented Vision.