Creative and innovative organizational structures

 

 

 


Evaluate creative and innovative organizational structures
Recommend alternative innovations to solve an internal or market need
Implement creative and innovative processes within an organization
Overview
Companies that are innovative must make sure their organization is structured in a way that supports innovation. A key component of innovation is keeping track of what customers want in terms of products and services. Your CTO has asked you to lead a cross-functional team to develop an innovation strategy and a plan for moving the strategy forward.

Scenario
You work as a middle manager for one of the top U.S. producers of luxury and mass-market automobiles and trucks.

The chief technology officer (CTO) of your company has been watching new technology developments that the company could integrate into its vehicles to enhance the usefulness of and access to the data acquired by the many digital sensors that have been integrated into vehicle subsystems over the past 20–30 years. The technology trend of particular interest is the internet of things (IoT)—the interconnection of embedded devices, such as sensors and computers, over the internet. By taking advantage of this trend, the CTO believes the company can seize an opportunity to provide better service and predictive maintenance to its customers, improving customer satisfaction and adding additional revenue streams.

Based on briefings by the CTO, senior management has decided to implement IoT in its product line. Your CTO has asked you to lead a cross-functional team to take this initiative forward. Your first task is to make a recommendation for how the company should approach this business problem. Do you recommend using incremental or discontinuous (that is, slow or fast) innovation? Specifically:

Should the company...

Design a completely new product line, based on the new technology (discontinuous innovation)
or

Add new technology features into one model and then incrementally into the broader product line (incremental innovation)
The recommendation you and your team make is an important first step in pursuing this new technology.

In Milestone One, you and your team defined what that IoT innovation looked like: would it be discontinuous (new product line) or incremental (new features in one existing product)?

In Milestone Two, you developed a strategy plan and a high-level business model. You shared these with various stakeholders, and they agree with your assessment of how best to get this IoT innovation to market, which will help the company stay competitive.

 

Sample Answer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As the leader of the cross-functional team, I have evaluated the creative and innovative organizational structures that would best support the implementation of our IoT innovation strategy. Given our company's size and the significant shift toward connected vehicles, a traditional hierarchical structure may stifle the interdepartmental collaboration and rapid decision-making required for this initiative. Therefore, I recommend a hybrid structure that combines elements of a matrix and a project-based organization.

Evaluation of Creative and Innovative Organizational Structures

Matrix Structure: This structure would allow for team members to report to both their functional department head (e.g., Engineering, Marketing, IT) and to me as the project lead. This is beneficial because it allows us to leverage the specialized skills and knowledge within each department while maintaining a dedicated focus on the IoT project. This structure would facilitate the cross-functional collaboration necessary for integrating new technology into existing product lines. The downside is the potential for conflicting priorities and reporting lines, which we will mitigate through clear communication and a strong project charter.

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