Business Cases

59 company. Neither can NBI, and yet again, the conclusion of the different innovation profiles appearing in an absolute form seems to be unobtainable.

Besides the four different innovation profiles, findings from the study are being defined as “successful innovation processes are facilitated by both excellent knowledge of employees and financial back-up” (Wolf, Kaudela-Baum & Meissner, 2012, p. 266). In the conducted interviews, knowledge of employees is mentioned in several of them. Especially in Trustworks, the respondent identifies the knowledge of the employees as very important. It is explicitly stated that knowledge fills in the culture (Interview 6: 07:11).

Financial back-up does not by the respondents seem to be the most essential in their innovation processes. In Trustworks, the acquisition of the original company is mentioned, but only to illustrate that the new management created processes and structures that affected the culture in a negative way (Interview 6: 05:54). The respondent mentions how the now present CIO funded the company with the money from the sale of his former company until Festina Finance had their first customer (Interview 2: 04:05).

60 Apple

Leadership in Apple is practised by creating a culture of fear and intimidation. Examples of such leadership and culture are nowhere to be found in the conducted interviews, rather the opposite seems to be the case as exemplified by the interview with the respondent from Move Innovation, who identifies a familiar tone as something they strive for (Interview 4: 03:04).

Organizational culture in Apple is defined as strict top-down management. In general, as seen from the quantitative analysis and the Comparative Case Study Matrix (Appendix 4) on the conclusion of Q6 and Q7, the employees perceive them as the ones who are responsible for developing and implementing innovative ideas, by an employee score of 2.71 for the management and an employee score of 3.97 in favour of the employees. To compare the quantitative and qualitative data, the respondents in the interviews perceive it to be more of a managerial responsibility.

Nevertheless, in none of the SMEs, strict top-down organizational structure can be identified. Rather, in the interviews, a flat hierarchical structure is mentioned multiple times. In the interview with the respondent from Festina Finance, it is mentioned that openness and transparency are important as they have a flat organization (Interview 2: 35:31).

The same is the case in Move Innovation, where the respondent identifies the structure as flat, and this means everything for them (Interview 4: 24:58).

In Trustworks, the respondent tells that the company wants to keep a flat structure due to the importance of their employees (Interview 6: 30:37).

In Shape, both a flat and a top-down structure can be identified from the interview. When asked about the responsibility for developing innovative products or services, the respondent immediately mentions the four partners (Interview 5, Part II: 3:13). However, the respondent says that there is space for talking about ideas with the partners, and here he identifies the hierarchy as flat (Interview 5, Part II: 5:18).

In Abtion, this mixed perception of organizational structure can be identified as well as the respondent identifies the hierarchy as flat, but adds that this form of hierarchy is not always good because the employees should know that there are a direction and a common goal. If everybody should agree on everything, things can easily turn into a roundtable talk (Interview 1: 37:50).

61 Secrecy is identified as extremely important for Apple. However, secrecy is not mentioned once in the conducted interviews, and the respondents freely talked about their business activities, organization and strategy without mentioning any form of secrecy. In some of the interviews, when starting out, the respondents mentioned confidentiality of the interview, but quickly hereafter, when the purpose of the interview was explained, confidentiality did not seem to be of great importance.

When further dissecting the organizational culture at Apple, focus is mentioned as an important area. In the Apple case, focus relates to the design of the products. Focus is not mentioned a lot of times in the interviews as important. For Abtion it can be argued that focus is on the preferred method of programming (Interview 1: 30:20) and in Invokers, there is a big focus on using Design Thinking as a method to approach challenges (Interview 3: 08:13). But a narrow focus, as explained in the Apple case does however, not seem to be the case in any of the SMEs.

Apple has created a structured product development called the ANPP (Apple New Product Process). A structured product development cannot be identified in any of the SMEs, as the process generally is an unstructured one, as seen in the conclusion of Q19 in the Comparative Case Study Matrix (Appendix 4).

When dealing with management in Apple, a management tool called DRI (Directly Responsible Individual) is used to know who is responsible for the different work tasks in the organization. Different opinions regarding this method can be identified from the conducted interviews. In Festina Finance, when asked about the DRI method, the respondent says that they try to avoid this form of management (Interview 2: 30:41) whereas in Abtion, the respondent compared their use of the method RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed) with DRI (Interview 1: 20:14).

Google

The first principle for successful continuous innovation presented in the Google case is dynamic capabilities. This principle relates to the company’s ability to seize opportunities and identify threats. When analysing both the

62 qualitative and quantitative data, the next principle a continuously changing organization can be included in this analysis as it covers the same area in this research. In the interviews, the respondents were asked how the company adapt to changes in the market. In Abtion, the approach depends on the object. When dealing with new technologies, they attract people who like to program in their spare time (Interview 1: 33:18), and their employees are hereby naturally updated on new technologies. When dealing with threats from competitors, they try to sell themselves to new clients by the process of how they work, which is different from their competitors (Interview 1: 33:58).

In Festina Finance, threats from competitors are identified by the use of benchmarking when this is possible, and then they benchmark on efficiency (Interview 2: 25:08).

In Move Innovation, the customers are the main driver in terms of potential opportunities (Interview 4: 15:26) and the same is the case in Trustworks, as they here focus on what the customer’s wants and demands (Interview 6:

25:03).

The principle a people-centric approach focuses on trust and openness in the organization, and most importantly on the importance of the employees in the organization. Here all of the SMEs emphasize the importance of the employees. In Abtion, 50 per cent of their strategy relates to their employees (Interview 1: 36:36), which illustrates how important they are.

In Invokers, the respondent states that the employees are the company (Interview 3: 49:02).

In Move Innovation the respondent agrees with the perception as he describes the employees as the foundation for what they do (Interview 4:

24:32) and in Trustworks, they are by the respondent described as the DNA of the company (Interview 6: 29:33).

The principle of an ambidextrous organization is how the organization is able to improve its daily operations while engaging in continuous innovation. As seen in the Comparative Case Study Matrix (Appendix 4), on the conclusion of Q17, there is in general no strict balance between these two in the SMEs.

The principle, an open organization that networks with its surroundings, is somewhat the case in all of the SMEs. However, it depends on who is asked

63 in the organization. In the conducted interviews, the respondents were asked if innovation happens internally or externally in the organization. Here dissimilarity can be seen, as some of the respondents believe it happens internally whereas others believe it happens externally as also seen in the conclusion on Q18 in Appendix 4. When including the quantitative data, a pattern emerges as the average employee score on Q18 (Appendix 3) illustrates that the employees believe that the innovation mainly happens internally with an average employee score of 3.93 compared to 2.43 of those who believe it happens externally. With this, based on both the conducted interviews and the answers from the surveys, it can be argued that innovation in the SMEs is created together with the SMEs’ clients, but that it is the SMEs who are responsible for making innovation happen.

In the last principle, called a systems approach, focus is on the distinction between a productivity company and an innovation company. When this distinction is used, almost all of the SMEs can be identified as innovation companies, as the culture is almost embedded in everything in the studied SMEs. When looking at the vision, as a distinction for the two types of companies, the situation seems to be different though. From the Google case, innovation companies have a long-term vision for the company, whereas the board and management in the production company are focused on the current business and about meeting the financial goals of the company. Neither of these is exactly the case in the studied SMEs. None of the SMEs seems to pay much attention to meeting the financial goals of the company. But long-term vision neither seems to be the case for the SMEs. It is therefore difficult to identify the SMEs as either productive companies or innovative companies when analysed on the definition of this distinction.

LEGO

The seven truths about innovation in the LEGO case will be listed as bullets, and hereafter a short analysis will follow for each of them.

1. Hire diverse and creative people

In the conducted interviews, the respondents are asked whether it is a priority to have innovative employees and here, as seen in the conclusion on

64 Q15 in the Comparative Case Study Matrix (Appendix 4), there is a general agreement of how important innovative employees are for the SMEs.

2. Set the course towards “blue ocean” markets

A general consensus among the respondents about targeting “blue ocean”

markets can be identified. In Abtion, targeting “blue ocean” markets is even a part of their strategy (Interview 1: 26:16). In Festina Finance, a “blue ocean”

market is also defined as something they want to be in (Interview 2: 26:36) and in Invokers; a “blue ocean” is used as a mindset (Interview 3: 46:29).

However, several of the respondents also mention “red ocean” markets as important.

3. Be customer-driven

When the respondents were asked about whether innovation happens internally or externally, the majority of the respondents expressed that innovation typically happens together with the client, just as the third truth about innovation describes. The employees however hold another perspective, as, from the Comparative Case Study Matrix in Q18 (Appendix 4), the average employee score for the innovation to happen internally is 3.93 compared to 2.43 of externally.

4. Practise breakthrough innovation

None of the respondents in the conducted interviews define the innovation happening in their company as breakthrough innovation. Rather the opposite seems to be the case, exemplified by the respondent from Trustworks who does not think they are practising radical innovation (Interview 6: 18:15).

5. Create a foundation for open innovation - listen to the majority’s opinion Truth number five can be compared with number three, as this relates to whether the innovation happens internally or externally.

6. Make sure to use the whole innovation spectrum

The whole innovation spectrum relates to how innovation not only adds value to new products but also to the company’s business model, internal processes and culture. An example of how the studied SMEs use the whole innovation spectrum is provided by Abtion, who are shortening the working

65 week from five to four days (Interview 1: 11:17) illustrating how an agile setup allows them to use the whole innovation spectrum. An agile setup can be identified in almost all of the studied SMEs.

7. Build an innovation culture

Building an innovation culture in LEGO is achieved by focusing on the core business activities and by being very disciplined. In the SMEs studied, resources are somewhat scarce; therefore, to focus on anything else than the core business activities do not seem to be a priority. Concerning the strong discipline, the SMEs cannot be identified to have a strong discipline.