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No innovation without world-class culture

by Miki Saxon

Innovation is the hottest discussion topic and I love it. Not because I coach innovation, but because innovation is so tightly tied to company culture, and that is my thing!

One industry that is constantly in the news for innovation, or the lack of it, is the auto industry.

So, here’s the question: Which car company has

  • a culture that not only encourages input from all levels, but uses it;
  • actually forces its management to build multidirectional networks and learn from subordinates and peers;
  • has a completely flexible workforce and a strong union;
  • receives 200,000 applications for work annually, hiring 12,000 of them since 2000 (106,000 total employees);
  • considers brainstorming a constant function and built a new plant to facilitate it; and
  • is superbly profitable?

How many senior managers have you heard say anything similar to “The difference [here] is that [managers] don’t think we have all the right answers… Our job is to ask the right questions.”

How many companies design new facilities, especially production facilities, where “The combination of togetherness and openness sparks impromptu encounters among line workers, logistics engineers, and quality experts. “They meet simply because their paths cross naturally, and they say, ‘Ah, glad I ran into you, I have an idea.'”

Need still another hint? It learned from a near-death experience in 1959 and still indoctrinates all new workers with the story.

The answer: BMW

And they did it all in a country with a work culture and unions infamous for their rigidity—so why isn’t it happening here?

2 Responses to “No innovation without world-class culture”
  1. MAPping Company Success Says:

    […] Culture matters! So say some of the most successful/innovative managers and companies on the planet, Lou Gerstner, BMW, Nucor, Immelt/GE, IBM, and more. […]

  2. MAPping Company Success Says:

    […] What country springs to mind as having some of the most rigid and closed corporate cultures in the industrialized world? Many people would say Germany, but more and more frequently, I find a German company as the poster child for open communications and four-star culture, e.g., BMW. […]

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