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Webasto Case: Why Would Webasto Want To Create A New Innovation Process?

1. Webasto faced challenges to innovation including diverging customer demands, weak marketing recognition, and a risk-averse culture. 2. Key issues were fostering creativity, integrating lead users, and changing the risk-averse culture. 3. Lang implemented a new lead user process involving workshops and prototyping to generate ideas and prove the innovation concept.

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236 views2 pages

Webasto Case: Why Would Webasto Want To Create A New Innovation Process?

1. Webasto faced challenges to innovation including diverging customer demands, weak marketing recognition, and a risk-averse culture. 2. Key issues were fostering creativity, integrating lead users, and changing the risk-averse culture. 3. Lang implemented a new lead user process involving workshops and prototyping to generate ideas and prove the innovation concept.

Uploaded by

Rahul
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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WEBASTO CASE

 Why would Webasto want to create a new innovation process?


Marketing seemed to have a generally weak recognition and indistinct reputation in
the rest of the organization since the sales function had traditionally commanded a
monopoly on customer contact and lead generation. Since the innovation management
function was located within marketing, it faced some considerable opposition from
the mainly engineering-driven organization. the R&D organization was inflicted with
a strong “not-invented-here” syndrome. They are buffering enormous cost pressures
which jeopardizes innovation even more. Development required a high degree of
secrecy—loss of ideas or concepts at early stages of development to an OEM or
competitor could dramatically erode the marginal competitive advantage achieved by
being ahead in terms of lead time. To be better from competitors Webasto would want
to create a new innovation process.

 Identify key challenges to innovation at Webasto?


1. The widely diverging demands that the lead users voiced during the workshop became
evident.
2. Classical Marketing Research offered little in terms of truly radical innovation
3. Foster a company culture that would be conducive to creativity and innovation
4. Creating an Environment for Creativity and Innovation, From Market Research to
Lead User Integration, Lead user process, New Leadership and Culture Change etc.
5. Rather than creating a completely new set of processes and tools, Lang would have to
work on fundamentally changing the company’s culture
6. Webasto tried to avoid this trend by diversifying into end customer markets and by
building up considerable market power themselves. They tried to capitalize on the
manufacturers’ dependence on suppliers for innovation by coupling its value
proposition with services in innovation and marketing in a highly networked way, as
well as opening up its innovation process to incorporate innovation impulses from
“lead users” or leading buyers who are the early adopters of new methods, products,
or technologies.
7. Development required a high degree of secrecy

 How should the new CEO implement such an ambitious change process within
Webasto?
He had realized that Webasto’s competitive advantage could only be sustained by
integrating forward into services and marketing. His vision was to augment Webasto’s
engineering know-how and technology base with value steps normally carried out by
automotive OEMs. He appointed Alexander Lang, a former management consultant,
as the new director of marketing and innovation in 2002. One of the main objectives
of Lang’s appointment was to re-focus market research in order to identify new areas
of growth. Lang would eventually mastermind a new marketing strategy and the
integration of “lead users”.
 Evaluate Lang’s innovation strategy and process
Lang maintained and furthered his external network from day one of his appointment
at Webasto. Only by leveraging complementary competences, especially universities
and professional networks, was he able to build up his marketing and innovation
department in a relatively short period of time and with an optimal allocation of
resources. The sales department is much more powerful than marketing. It is the
salespeople who generate new leads; they are in close contact with the customers and
identify new ideas. Being a supplier, we are dependent on the input provided by the
OEMs. Secondly, we are buffering enormous cost pressures which jeopardizes
innovation even more.
1. Creating an Environment for Creativity and Innovation - One of the first things Lang
set out to do was to foster a company culture that would be conducive to creativity
and innovation.
2. From Market Research to Lead User Integration - Another change Lang was driving
pertained to the market research methods employed.
3. Webasto Lead User Process - Webasto divided its lead user process into seven steps.
These steps consisted of: (1) Identification of Search Areas, (2) Lead User Workshop,
(3), Concept Creation, (4) Evaluation Survey, (5) Product Clinic, (6) Prototyping, and
(7), Exhibition of Prototype
4. Spinning the Lead User Process Out into a New Service - After having refined the
lead user process to a considerable degree of sophistication, Lang even started to
package the “Webasto Lead User Process” into a product.

 How can Lang prove his concept and ensure long-term success?
In 2008, Webasto was awarded the first place in the category Innovation Marketing at
the “Top 100” industry award, an award honoring best practice among SMEs.
Numerous articles in the industry and trade press lauded Webasto’s process,
generating free PR worth tens of thousands of Euros. In March 2008, Lang said :
“Now we only need a success story, a product coming out of our lead user process.”
Lang depended dearly on a successful product or service coming out of his many
internally held lead user workshops. Despite his efforts, he felt he was fighting a
losing battle to really get a new approach off the ground. Some of his attempts at
introducing new environments for creativity had been thwarted, and he felt he still
lacked the initially higher resources to really manage the change. Budget cuts at all
ends were de rigueur, and marketing, which was valued as considerably less core than
other functions in the organizations, certainly wasn’t spared. Webasto had conducted
12 lead user workshops, in turn generating around 100 ideas each. To provide some
examples, the workshops treated “light and shadow” or how lighting systems could be
integrated into roof systems to play with the lighting ambience in the car. A further
workshop in the summer of 2006 was aimed at creating ideas for new concepts for
novel tailgate systems. In 2008, finally an idea made it from lead user workshop to a
joint predevelopment project with an OEM.

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