Fluent Essays

Overview In Milestone One, you recommended an innovation option (incremental or discontinuous) to the organization from the course scenario. Now that senior management of this organization has approved your recommendation, your task is to ensure your recommended innovation option gets implemented effectively and efficiently. Remember that your perspective is still that of a middle manager for one of the top U.S. producers of luxury and mass-market automobiles and trucks. In this assignment, you will read a case study and write a report that compares the organization’s innovation processes with 3M’s processes. This report will help your cross-functional team identify the organizations process gaps when implementing IoT in the product line and will help to eliminate potential process inefficiencies. Prompt Using the information in the overview above and referring to the 3M: Rethinking Innovation case study in this module’s resources, compare the organization from the course scenario with 3M and identify process gaps within the organization. Your study should include the following points: Analyze 3M’s experience for a process-based approach toward innovation. How does 3M manage innovation? What is the innovation strategy and leadership style within 3M? How does 3M enable the innovation process? Identify significant features or processes that promote innovation. How does the management team recognize and reward employees? What is the importance of permission to play? How do the 3M attributes of patience and acceptance of mistakes enhance an innovative culture? Compare the organization from the course scenario with 3M. You will need to reference the Organization Overview document when comparing the two companies. What are the differences between the two organizational structures? What is the difference in formal and informal innovation management? How does the organizational structure in each company affect communication? Why is this important to innovation?  Identify the process gaps of the organization. You will need to reference the Organization Overview document when identifying process gaps. What needs to be done to make the organizational structure support innovation? What rewards could your organization utilize to motivate innovative behavior? How should your organization examine its timeline to identify ways for longer-term projects to be more successful? Guidelines for Submission Submit a 2- to 3-page Word document using 12-point Times New Roman font, double spacing, and one-inch margins. If references are included, they should be cited according to APA style. Consult the Shapiro Library APA Style Guide for more information on citations. MBA 580 Organization Overview (Processes, Structure, Culture) Your company manufactures and distributes automobiles across six continents. The structure is very complex and it is difficult to accurately count the levels of hierarchy. The company operates under a tall matrixed structure design. Tall structures can be cumbersome, and decision makers are often those farthest from the customer. Communication can be slow and difficult, also slowing down decision-making speed. The specialized functions and organizations, often referred to as centers of excellence or centers of expertise (COE), allow for deep knowledge and expertise. Your company has many functional COEs where increased structure, governance, and control allow for resource and process efficiencies. Resources are centralized, reducing duplication of effort across the organization. These efficiencies can, however, result in rigid, inflexible processes. In addition, COEs can create functional silos or reduced cross- functional coordination and lack of connectedness, where each function is striving toward its own unique objectives. Your company follows a centralized and standardized approach where enterprise-wide decisions are often made centrally and at the top of the hierarchy. This centralization makes it easier to implement common policies and practices, prevents parts of the organization from becoming too independent, and capitalizes on specialization. Matrixed organizations are often associated with this specialized COE structure. Rather than having permanent cross-functional teams or organizations working on specific projects or product launches, matrixed organizations pull teams together from the various functional departments. Specialists are pulled from functional areas to work on a specific project or product design. In essence, they report to two managers at the same time and may work on multiple projects simultaneously. Although the project manager, who is on the same leadership level as the functional vice president (VP), supervises the project, the true management authority still resides with the VP. Specialists supporting specific product launches generally remain “seated” with their functional team but meet regularly with their product team to advance the project. They may be fully dedicated to the project or still work on other unrelated projects. Finally, product teams are pulled together at the enterprise level and are not region-specific. Although they may produce differentiated projects for unique regions, their primary focus is on enterprise-wide initiatives. Organization Structure Chart Product A Product B Product C Functional VPs: Project Manager Project Manager Project Manager Design Technology Hardware Electronic Systems Safety Engineering Sustainability Quality Strategy Finance Procurement Marketing Specialists are pulled from functional area to work on specific project or product design. In essence, they report to two managers at the same time and may work on multiple projects simultaneously.