Siemens: Management Innovation at the Corporate Level

The case study explores management innovation at the corporate level at Siemens AG for the ten-year period from 1998 to 2007. Faced with severe capital markets pressure in the late 1990s, Siemens launched its first comprehensive corporate program in July 1998. A critical part of the so-called Ten-Point Program was the top+ program, which exclusively addressed issues of business excellence and management innovation, the adoption of new management ideas, practices, tools, etc. With the revised and more coherent corporate strategy that aimed at vertically and horizontally optimizing the firm's portfolio, Siemens' management was able to add substantial shareholder value over the ten-year period from 1998 to 2007. The case study: (1) highlights the context, evolution, and content of a management innovation program; (2) illustrates how a firm masters the management innovation process, particularly the challenges when dealing with different management innovations and a diverse business portfolio; and (3) provides insights into how a multibusiness firm benefits from a comprehensive management innovation program. This case was written with the support of a Philip Law Scholarship awarded by ecch.