Barriers of Innovation and Creativity in Webasto Group

This report discusses the barriers of innovation and creativity faced by Webasto Group in expanding their business and maintaining efficiency. It also explores the support for creativity and innovation, theories and models of effective creativity and innovation, and the Kotter's 8 stage change model.

BSS057-6
CORPORATE
INNOVATION AND
ENTREPRENEURSH
IP BLK6 1920

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Barriers of innovation and Creativity..........................................................................................1
Support of Creativity and Innovation..........................................................................................3
Theories and Models of Effective Creativity and Innovation......................................................4
Interrelationship between Creativity, Change and Innovation....................................................8
Recommendations........................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Innovation and creativity is the process of critically evaluating the environment and
formulating the effective idea with available resources to increase the efficiency of the business
organization. Every business Entity need to analyse the efficiency of entrepreneurs as they have
ability to generate powerful ideas and ideology which will help company to increase its
productivity. It will also help the organization to achieve the objectives and compete in market to
increase profitability. Knowledge and skills will only increase in entrepreneurs to increase the
analytical skills. Innovation is also very important part of growth of the organization and it is
very effective in increasing quality of the operations. Invention, extension, duplication and
synthesis are the various types of innovation which any entrepreneurs will adopt in order to
achieve the efficiency of business firm. Innovation is a planned process and need much
information to achieve the effectiveness of the objectives.
This report have detailed description about Webasto group which is competitive dealer of
automotive parts of the auto-mobile industry. Company was established in 1901 and had an aim
of producing vehicle parts and components for the industry to increase the market share. There is
a brief discussion about barriers of innovation, creativity which the company faces in expanding
the business in the market and how they maintain the efficiency to achieve the leadership in the
market.
Barriers of innovation and Creativity
Creativity and innovation are very essential part of the business organization ad Webasto
Group have analysed the barriers in company which is decreasing the efficiency. Innovation
increases the productivity of the workplace and also help the firm to identify all obstacles which
are in the path of success (Mir, Casadesús and Petnji, 2016). As innovation and creativity
provide leverage to long term growth of the business entity this will also help to achieve the
market share by competing in competition of market. As entrepreneurship is the combination of
creativity and innovation so that also help the entrepreneurs to have effective skills and
knowledge about the area to increase growth of the business firm.
Barriers of Creativity
Webasto need to understand all the barriers of creativity as this will also decease the
efficiency of the entrepreneur to formulate the effective strategies (Kanagal, 2015).
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 Beliefs- This is the factors by which the entrepreneur also decrease the efficiency to think
and increase their skills to generate any idea (Burke, 2017). Belief of the entrepreneur
will also restrict the thought of entrepreneur and it will not allow them to gain more
information about the outside world. This will also decrease the options in making
effective decisions as the entrepreneur do not have proper information about the subject.
 Stress- Mental stability is also very important in making effective decision and also
increasing the efficiency of the thought process. Entrepreneur also need to have p mental
peace and should not be stressed as that will decrease the ability to think something
different and out of the box(Dawson, 2019).
 Unhealthy Environment- organization also need to have an effective and healthy working
environment as it will decrease the efficiency of the entrepreneur to make new decisions
if they are busy solving the old problems they will not be able to focus on anything new.
 Fears- fear is the mental throat which restrict the entrepreneur to increase their ability as
it will decrease the mental peace. Fear is also a major factors in by which entrepreneur
have decreased the ability to be creative in business firm(Kesting and et.al., 2015). Ego-it is the feeling in which entrepreneur self analyse himself as the most superior and
also feel that the organization is nothing without them. This will also discourage the
entrepreneur to make effective ideas in increasing the efficiency of the business entity.
Barriers of Innovation
Webasto also analysed that innovation also have some barriers which decrease the
entrepreneur efficiency in making effective policies for the organization.
 Lack of leadership- Leadership skills is very essential in influence the employees to
follow the innovation and also make the innovation more productive so that the company
ca get maximum benefit from that. As many top-level managers do not have the effective
leadership quality to innovate the policies and strategies(Caniëls and Rietzschel, 2015).
 Lack of Resources- effective innovation need to have proper resources which can
increase efficiency of the process(West and Bogers, 2017). Human resources, raw
materials, capital and land are the basic resources which are required in the organization
to increase the innovation process. Cost of innovation also is the barrier to innovation of
the products and services of the company and it also decreases quality of output.
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 Lack of Collaboration- Budget and Organization structure also hinder the efficiency of
the innovative ideas. It does not provide effective platform to the innovation to improve
the quality of the employees. Employees are also ineffective in integrating with the
innovation of entrepreneurs (Pugh,2016).
 Lack of Focus- Due to ineffective distribution of employees the focus will also be on
making them more effective and this deceases the efficiency of innovation, and
entrepreneur is not focusing on innovation at that moment. This also effect the
productivity and decrease the competitiveness in the market to attract more customers.
Support of Creativity and Innovation
Webasto have also analysed that there are many factors which increase the efficiency of
the organization as entrepreneur help to increase the creativity and innovation to develop the
policies and strategies(Sigala and Kyriakidou, 2015). As entrepreneurs are known for their
problem solving and effective skills which also support the innovation and creativity.
Support of Creativity
 Increase productivity- It helped the organization to achieve the efficiency by
implementing the effective strategies and ideas which also decrease the cot and increases
the profit margins. Webasto is very effective in implementing the strategies to compete in
market and develop some effective marketing strategies to increase the sales of the
company.
 Exploit Human Resources- Creativity is also helped Webasto to develop effective
motivation strategies so that the company can increase efficiency of employees and make
them more effective in achieving the objectives. Creative idea like recreational activities
also help the employees to be loyal to the company and increases the value towards the
company.
 Motivate Critical Thinking- Creativity also support Webasto to generate effective and
healthy working environment which triggers the effective thinking to achieve the tasks
and achieve the objectives of the organization. This will also help company to move
towards the leadership in market(Fay and et.al., 2015).
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 Promote Innovation- Creativity also promote innovation in the Business organization and
help to develop new products and services which will help to increase the return of
investments. High Overall Success- Creativity s the key to success as it also decrease the time to
achieve the goals but also helps to develop the personality. Entrepreneur need to have the
effective skills and knowledge to make successful ideas as the information helps to
promote effective ideas in the organization(Valaei, Rezaei and Ismail, 2017).
Support of Innovation
 Webasto have innovated their products like foldable roofs in the cars which have also
increased the sales of the company. Innovation also helped the organization to maintain
the quality of the products and services and also create new opportunity to increase the
growth.
 Technology- Innovation helped Webasto to increase efficiency of the technology so that
they can also increase the quality of the products and support the growth. Webasto also
have innovated the equipments which are used in the vehicles which provided better
satisfaction to the customers (Sarooghi, Libaers and Burkemper, 2015).
 E-commerce- Company have also invested in e-commerce as it have innovated the
products to increase the market share and compete in them market with greater impact.
 Economic Growth- Innovation have also foster the growth financially with the increase in
sales ad products quality. Webasto is motivated to increase the customer satisfaction to
increase the goodwill of the company.
 Increase in the goodwill- Innovation also have increase the brand image and goodwill of
the company which help Webasto to attract more investors to increase capital and achieve
objectives. At also created better trust within the Micro environment of the organization.
Theories and Models of Effective Creativity and Innovation
Webasto Group have analysed some effective theories and models which will help to
increase the two factors in the organization. This will also help to motivate the employees to be
more efficient to increase the performance to achieve the goals. These theories will increase the
efficiency of the work culture and values of the company which will develop a healthy work
environment(Cropley, 2016).
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Componential Theory of Organizational Creativity and Innovation.
This theory is adopted by Webasto as helps to improve the knowledge and skills of the
employees to promote creativity and innovation in the organization. This theory works as the
base to support other theories of creativity and innovation and also provide brief knowledge to
employees to become more productive. As this theory focuses on Social and Psychological
behaviours of the employees In the organization also that they can analyse better and effective
was to increase the knowledge and skills of employees.
 This theory assist the organization to promote high skills and expertise of specific field.
Which will also increase the knowledge and thinking skills to increase the productivity of
the employees achieve the goals effectively.
 Personality development is also the part of this theory as it provide techniques and skills
which develop the characteristics of the employees so that they can effectively accept all
the knowledge and skills. Social environment is also developed in such a way which trigger the development of the
employees and the organization to increase personality of employees. Values, ethics,
attitudes, morals, culture (Roth, Schneckenberg and Tsai, 2015). Beliefs are the part of
this theory. This will help employees increase creativity and innovative activities and
increase the performance.
Four-Factor Theory of Team Climate for Innovation
This theory was adopted by the Webasto to increase the innovation of in the organization
and this theory is divided into four factors to grow the company and motivate the employees to
work efficiently. This theory aids business firm to analyse the team climate to develop some
effective strategies which will help to make productive results.
 Vision- The first Factor is the setting effective vision which will motivate employees to
increase the efficiency and reach the higher set objectives. Vision will also help to
provide better information about organization's goals and objectives which need to be
attained (Potočnik and Anderson, 2016). This will also help the employees to form the
effective teams increase the performance to achieve the team goals with the shared values
and intellectual.
 Participative Safety- this factor of the theory states that more the employees is
participating in activities of the teams they are more likely to share and contribute with
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other which will also induce new thoughts and ideas t promote innovation and creativity
in the organization. This will also increase the quality of planning and strategies
formulation.
 Task orientation- task orientation help the teams to be competitive in the organization in
the positive way and also help them to generate better innovative ideas to achieve tasks
allotted to teams(van den Ende, Frederiksen and Prencipe, 2015). This will also help the
employees to increase the standards by self analysing and sharing skills with each other.
Task orientation also help the organization to promote innovation within teams in the
form of tasks.
 Support for Innovation- team innovation can only be possible if the support is provided
by the organization in the form of policies and strategies which will help the employees
to develop the conscience to achieve task effectively and also innovate the methods and
techniques.
Kotter's 8 stage Change Model
Webasto is dealing In automotive parts and equipments which make company more
prone to change as there are many external factors which can impact the efficiency and the
factors can also decrease the quality of products and services. This model is adopted to establish
an effective change in the organization by analysing all the changes required to successfully
achieve the efficiency in the market. This model is divided into 8 stages which will help
company to identify all the elements which can help to accomplish change. In the change process
innovation and creativity takes place and it will increase efficiency of the organization to achieve
the objectives of the organization as a whole.(Braun and et.al., 2016)
 Create Necessity- in this stage management of Webasto will create the necessity of
change in the organization. Management will help to provide information to employees
about the opportunities and threats of the current working environment and policies.
Importance of change will be explained to employees so that they can understand the
situation. This stage will also trigger the assessment of issues and problems which are
faced with the current factors and culture.
 Developing Teams- in this stage management will develop the teams by analysing the
skills and knowledge of thee employees which will be helpful in increasing the efficiency
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in the future. This stage will also help the organization to find employees so that they can
be formed in a group or team which are highly efficient to influence other employees
effectively.
 Create Insight- Stage three helps the management to develop effective culture value
which can be connected with the personal values and beliefs of employees. Innovation
and creativity is important in change so the importance of innovation will be provided to
employees and what benefits it will have in future to attract employees to become more
effective.(Demircioglu and Audretsch, 2017)
 Communicating Insight- Step four is management have to communicate the information
about all the future possibilities to employees with the help of high performance teams
and groups. This will help management to increase and motivate them to increase the
innovative skills and creative knowledge to improve the efficiency of the company.
 Remove Hindrance- This stage help the management to analyse all employees which are
still not ready to accept the change. They are then provided with training and
development so that they cab understand the importance and accept the change(Khalili,
2016). The issues and problems will be solved with the help of innovation and creativity
in the policies and strategies which will also increase the productivity of the organization.
Motivation is also used in this stage to provide better leverage which will also help
employees to increase skills and knowledge.
 Small Victories- management will divide the tasks and mission of Webasto into small
tasks so that they can analyse the efficiency of the change and also lower the risk of
failure in the organization. This will also help the organization to increase the quality of
operations and achieve the competitive advantage and compete in market.
 Formulate Strategies- in this stage all the changes will be implemented as permanent
strategies and policy of organization which will also ensure that employees do not
decrease the efficiency again.
 Integration with Market- after the change management process it will be necessary for
Webasto to analyse the market trends and factors which will increase the employees. All
the stakeholders should be taken care by increasing profitability which will also help the
organization to grow effectively.(Hosking and Anderson, 2018)
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Interrelationship between Creativity, Change and Innovation
Creativity is growing competence in the business environment and it will also help the
organization to develop some smart decisions to analyse efficiency of the company(Tidd and
Bessant, 2018). It can be said that innovation is done on the base of creativity to bring the change
in the organization as all the factors are interrelated to each other to increase the efficiency of
business organization. As the change is constant and the need to improve the innovation skills
and knowledge to motive the creativity is also very important.
In some cases due to change in some circumstances which are constant earlier will also
induce creativity in the thought process and it will provide the efficiency to develop same
outcomes with different methods so the operations of the business is carried as planned. The
organization will also be effective in deciding the changes with the internal and external factors
which are organizational structure, culture, political factors, economic factors, legal factors,
social factors, technological factors(Nicholls, 2018). As creative idea is developed the innovation
will be made to achieve that ideas and achieve the planned objectives and increase the efficiency
of the organization.
Webasto also have analysed that due to external and internal change policies and
strategies also change and it also got impacted. Management of the company need to analyse the
path I n which the cost of operation is decreased and various theories and model is applied to
increase efficiency of employees. Skills and knowledge of employees will also generate better
and effective ideas and creativity to increase the efficiency of policies. Webasto also develop
products and services with the effective healthy work environment which facilitate positive
thinking of employees tom create effective ideas so that it can also innovate the products and
services of the company and increase core competence in market. Price strategies can also be
every effective with the hlp of creative ideas to reduce the cost of production of goods and
transportation cost to delver the goods to destination. This will also help the company to attract
more customers and increase the sales. Creativity in policies will also help Webasto to use
competitors marketing strategies to increase the sales and also reducing the cost drastically.
Creativity is the engine of change and innovation as it provide the base and increases the
efficiency of process to get better output. Innovation carries positive change to the organization
which increases the efficiency of operation to carry the work and achieve the objectives
easily(Hon and Lui, 2016).
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Recommendations
Innovation and creativity is very essential aspect of the organization and have to analyse
the internal and external factors of business environment. Entrepreneurs are responsible for
motivation of creativity and innovation in organization to provide better quality of products and
services. Webasto Group also need to analyse the opportunity of sun roofs in cars in new market
and also increase innovation in the products with the help training and developing employees.
This will also help the employees to support the creative ideas to develop quality ideas and teams
which will support the aim and vision of the organization to change t internal structure. Company
also should have healthy work environment which will help the employees to decrease the stress
and improve the respect to reach employees(Kim and Yoon, 2015). This will also help them to
share the knowledge and skills to create better ideas and develop effective ideologies.
Motivation will also help employees to increase the knowledge and increase the ratio to
develop new ideas which will be regenerated into innovations and create a better position of the
organization. Financial position of company also ned to be analysed in order to attract more
investors and with the help of innovation it will increase size of company and increase the
investors to increase the capital of Webasto.
Webasto also should adopt kotter's change model and innovation and creative theories as
it will help the company to increase the importance of innovation and creativity in the value of
employees which will also help the organization to develop and grow effectively. This will also
help Webasto to achieve the objectives and increase market share. Webasto also need to recruit
and select talented employees which are more skill-full and have better knowledge this will also
reduce the cost of training all the employees. This will also decrease the employees turnover and
motive more employees to be loyal in organization to increase production efficiency. Innovation
of recruitment and selection process will also increase the criteria of employees which have
better potential according to the current market trends. This will also grow the organization.
Webasto also need to develop the market research strategies to gain better information
about the market so it will help to develop effective theories and help the company to make
effective penetration in new market. Customers satisfaction is also very essential aspect of
Webasto and It nee to be fulfilled(Serrat, 2017). With the help of technological advancement
awareness can be provided to customers to increase their knowledge make effective decisions
and increase satisfaction level of the customers. This will also help the organization to increase
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market segmentation and analyse change to formulate innovation strategies and increase the
company competency.
CONCLUSION
This report had concluded that Webasto has analysed the importance of innovation and
creativity in decision-making and policy formulation. The need to innovation was also felt by the
company, and they provided effective training and develop activities to increase the skills and
knowledge of the employees. This helped employees analyse the importance to accept the
change in the organization. As change is combination of innovation and creativity of
organization. Creativity can be developed within the employees values and beliefs and with
various activities which make the decision of the employees more cost-effectiveness was based
on the ideas and ideologies which were formulated by employees to gain better information and
create effective strategies. This helped Webasto to increase market share and improve quality of
products and services to increase the satisfaction level of customers.
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