Convincing Managing Innovation Report Sample

Innovation management is a discipline, which is designed to manage innovations, related to both products and innovations. We have decided to dedicate our study of innovation management to managing organizational innovations. So, for this assignment we have referred to well-known Thor Industries case study. According to the text of case study, Thor Industries is world’s largest recreational vehicles producer.
Organizational innovation, represented in the aforementioned case study, relates to great extent to enterprise’s organizational structure. As far as it is known, companies tend to use different combinations of functional, geographical, product- or customer-oriented organizational structure. Mangers of Thor Industries combined geographical and functional organizational structures, which let them get divisions and functional groups, which operate independently and whose managers and employees are rewarded based on unit’s performance. This kind of organizational structure is designed to encourage innovations and customer service. Moreover, when each division is responsible for its research, manufacturing and sales, these divisions’ managers will have more incentive to make the performance of their division more efficient than the performance, demonstrated by other divisions or brands. Having smaller divisions is also more practical in terms of being able to conduct field marketing research, be aware of the needs of target groups and, therefore, be more ready to respond to feedback of their customers. Such a situation can be easily contrasted with the way new ideas are managed in big centralized corporations. To introduce a new idea and get it realized, a manager should go up a long chain of command, whereas Thor Industries organizational structure is the one, which lets new valuable ideas be brought to the market as soon as possible.