Publications (4)0 Total impact
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Article: Creating Growth with Externalization of R&D Results – The Spin-Along Approach
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ABSTRACT: After a long period of restructuring and outsourcing, companies are increasingly looking for new growth opportunities. Growth with existing prod-ucts or by expansion in new markets is limited. Therefore, companies are searching for ways to expand their activities in new businesses. A frequently used tool of multinational enterprises is corporate venturing. Within corporate venturing a further differentiation can be made between internal venturing and external venturing. Internal venturing promotes business ideas generated within the organization whereas external venturing integrates business ideas developed outside the company. This paper presents a special case of corporate venturing: the spin-along ap-proach of Deutsche Telekom Laboratories. It can be seen as a combination of internal and external venturing. In the spin-along approach, employees of the corporate R&D department are encouraged to take their technology or business idea external by founding a separate company. Successful companies might later be bought and integrated back into Deutsche Telekom.Global Business & Organizational Excellence. 05/2009; 28:44-51. -
Article: Combining spin-out and spin-in activities – the spin-along approach
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ABSTRACT: After a long period of restructuring and outsourcing, companies are increasingly looking for new growth opportunities. Growth with existing prod-ucts or by expansion in new markets is limited. Therefore, companies are searching for ways to expand their activities in new businesses. A frequently used tool of multinational enterprises is corporate venturing. Within cor-porate venturing a further differentiation can be made in internal venturing and external venturing. Internal venturing promotes business ideas generated within the organization whereas external venturing promotes business ideas developed outside the company. Research has been able to show that venturing activi-ties both internal and external can create value. In this paper we explore a special case of venturing which we call the ‘spin-along approach’. It can be seen as a combination of internal and external ven-turing. In the spin-along approach, a company encourages its employees to take their business idea external and to found a company. Successful companies might later be bought back and integrated into the parent company or the paren-tal will exit the company by selling its equity share. Through literature re-view we have identified different motivations, best practices, and barriers to the successful implementation of a spin-along approach. Furthermore, two case studies will be discussed and compared. We conclude that the approach can successfully complement internal innovation management.07/2007; -
Article: Strategic Foresight in multinational enterprises – a case study on the Deutsche Telekom Laboratories
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ABSTRACT: Strategic Foresight activities enable companies to use weak signals to identify opportunities and threats. Research on Strategic Foresight proposes different methods, discusses their implementation and gives recommendations on how to link Strategic Foresight with other functions in an organization. Based on a literature review, we define a generic framework for the management of Strategic Foresight activities on the strategic, tactical and operational level and identify and discuss actors, methods and systems of Strategic Foresight. Building on an in-depth case study of the Deutsche Telekom Laboratories we shed light on the implementation of Strategic Foresight activities. In the discussion we focus on the interaction of methods from Consumer Foresight and Technology Intelligence. Taking an example project, we explore how Strategic Foresight is used on the operational level of innovation management. We conclude that Strategic Foresight can successfully contribute to coping with uncertainty and complexity and can feed the front-end of innovation from the market (customer needs) and technology (realization opportunities) perspective.02/2007; -
Article: Making university-industry collaboration work - a case study on the Deutsche Telekom Laboratories contrasted with findings in literature
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ABSTRACT: The growing competition in consumer as well as business customer markets is forcing industry to explore new ways to foster product and service innovations. To increase the clock speed of incremental innovations and raise the number of radical innovations, university-industry collaborations (UIC) are a powerful means discussed by practitioners as well as by scholars. This paper discusses the approach of the Deutsche Telekom Group (DTAG) of building a UIC by creating a separate organization. This organization consists of R&D personnel both from industry and academia and proves to be effective in channelling innovation potential. Being an organization with its own identity and situated on university premises, the Deutsche Telekom Laboratories (DT Laboratories) offer different ways to overcome the cultural, institutional and operational barriers associated with UIC. The case study validates and challenges findings on UIC in literature. The paper closes with practical advices for the establishment and management of UIC and suggestions for further research in this field.07/2006;
