Tibor Dőry

Innovation and excellence

Management methods for innovation transformation

Do we need innovation heroes or innovation processes?

The complexity and iterative nature of the Stage-Gate process highlights the importance of celebrating and rewarding employees who have made minor improvements in the life of an innovative organisation, but it cannot compensate for the lack of a repeatable innovation process. In this context, the following questions must also be answered honestly: what are the obstacles to the company implementing the necessary innovation quickly and efficiently? Why are we not improving the parts of the system that make it difficult to create something new?

If innovation in a given organisation is exceptional and occurs more out of heroism than planning and routine, it is not surprising that innovators become tired of their proposals rarely being implemented and leave the company. These organisations lose the very people they need to help them against aggressive opponents or competitors who have them in their sights.

Organisational design may be problematic if the following factors are present:

The company's processes are designed exclusively for standard work and the repetitive execution of specific tasks, and there are no processes for non-standard work.
There were no resources available for non-standard, innovative work, and there was no organisational unit or manager responsible for innovation.
The culture of the organisation discourages experimentation and punishes the inevitable failures of the learning and discovery process.

It is not surprising that companies where there is no permanent place in the organisation for unplanned innovation rarely initiate developments, and even then, only those of minor significance. In times of peace, when a company is a dominant superpower or market leader, it can afford to focus on processes, procedures and maintaining existing systems. Deviations from established practice and radically new development ideas are not welcomed or supported because management fears that launching them could cause chaos within the company. In fact, they are eliminated by setting aside their proposals. In times of crisis, war or organisational turmoil, it is precisely these unconventional thinkers and innovators who are needed, and their ideas must be implemented quickly.

Well-managed organisations recognise that they need both innovation and execution. In times of peace and competitive advantage, management focuses on execution, and managers of various corporate processes dominate. In times of crisis/war, innovation dominates. Instead of process managers, innovation leaders are needed who can channel ideas through company-specific innovation processes, such as the agile Stage-Gate model. Successful organisations recognise that innovation does not depend on a single isolated activity, such as a corporate incubator, accelerator, acceleration programme or hackathon events, but is a strategically organised, end-to-end process from idea to market launch.

Although innovation and execution require different processes, people and organisational cultures, they must respect each other and tolerate their interdependence. This is ambidexterity, a characteristic of dual-capability organisations, as described in detail earlier. It should be emphasised here that innovation processes require an innovation doctrine. This is a comprehensive strategy and scenario for the entire company, which includes processes to encourage innovation efforts and describes the role of innovation leaders in an ambidextrous organisation.

Tartalomjegyzék

Kiadó: Akadémiai Kiadó

Online megjelenés éve: 2026

ISBN: 978 963 664 182 5

Menedzsment

The aim of the book "Innovation and Excellence" is to inspire and encourage company leaders, managers, and experts to initiate and implement innovation transformations with the help of professional literature and corporate case studies. Another important goal is to help develop the innovation capabilities of small and medium-sized enterprises in particular by sharing simple, proven management methods that can be tested in practice.

The first part of the volume reviews the factors of corporate excellence and success, then highlights the possible sources of innovation, with a focus on the role of users and employees. The empirical section presents a detailed description of the supportive role of the workplace environment and creative working conditions based on corporate case studies (AUDI, BOSCH, MELECS). The volume concludes with a description of selected tested practical methods and management techniques that readers can try out in their own businesses.

Hivatkozás: https://mersz.hu/dory-innovation-and-excellence//

BibTeX EndNote Mendeley Zotero