World Monitor Mag, Industrial Overview WM_November_2018_WEB_Version | Page 96

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people collaborating in such a way [that]
you can produce these things that can’t be
produced otherwise.”
Amadeus IT is focused on building cultural
support across its 45 locations worldwide
(the company’s main R&D hubs are in
France, Germany, India, the U.K., and the
U.S.). “We are made up of people who
have a great appetite for new things,
for exciting technology, and for new
opportunities,” says Mesnage. Innovation
teams are very multicultural, she adds,
“which creates a great ground for creativity
and for exchanging different perspectives.”
One of the practices Amadeus has
adopted is creating a system of innovation
champions within its R&D and business
units, whose role is to promote and foster
the company’s innovation approach at their
site, and to encourage people to submit
ideas — and then collect those ideas to
make sure they’re visible to the rest of the
organization.
Cultural support. Seventy-one percent of respondents who reported that their
company’s revenues were growing faster than competitors’ revenues said their
corporate culture was highly or very aligned with their innovation strategy, compared
with 53 percent of companies that reported the same growth as competitors, and
33 percent for companies that reported slower growth. The differentials on cultural
alignment were similar for companies that reported higher profitability.
We also found differences in cultural support by innovation model. Need seekers are
far better at turning their corporate culture to their advantage: 82 percent said their
organization’s culture was highly supportive of the innovation strategy, compared
with 48 percent for market readers and 47 percent for tech drivers.
CEO Tim Cook of Apple (which we have long identified as a need seeker) has said
that innovation is in the company’s DNA, and that its culture is not something
that can be formulaically copied. But he has given some clues about how Apple
fosters that culture — for example, by hiring smart people who can collaborate
cross-functionally. “You look for people that are not political,” Cook said in a 2013
interview with the dean of Duke’s Fuqua School of Business (Cook’s an alumnus).
“You look for wicked smart people...who appreciate different points of view…. The
reason Apple is special is we focus on hardware, software, and services. And the
magic happens where those three come together…. It’s unlikely that somebody that’s
focused on one of those in and of itself can come up with magic, and so you want
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Executive involvement. Survey respondents
reporting higher revenue growth than
competitors were much more likely to
say their company’s executive team was
closely involved with the R&D program
— 78 percent said their executive team
was highly or closely aligned with R&D
investment and strategy, compared with
62 percent for same-growth companies,
and 53 percent for slower-growth
companies.
Among innovation models, most need
seekers reported that their leadership
teams were plugged into their innovation
programs: 84 percent of need seekers
reported that their executive team
was highly involved in decision making
regarding R&D investment and strategy,
compared with 63 percent of market
readers and 57 percent of tech drivers.
All the high-leverage innovators we
interviewed or analyzed said their executive
teams were highly aligned with their
innovation programs. Stanley Black &