About Ralph-Christian Ohr

Experienced innovation management and corporate development professional. Consulting on organizational and personal capabilities for high innovation performance. Integrative thinker. T-shaped.

Author Archive | Ralph-Christian Ohr

Scaling-Up: Crossing the Internal Chasm in Corporate Innovation

By on May 2, 2017

This article was co-written with Frank Mattes from Dual Innovation and innovation-3.   The race is on for companies to find big, explorative or even “disruptive” innovation ideas. ‘Disrupt yourself or someone else will’, it has been said. Almost every company shifts into overdrive to create ‘smart’ products, to turn a product business into a […]

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Modern Dual Corporate Innovation Balances Defense with Offense

By on April 4, 2017

This is an excerpt of a post of mine, recently published at Haydn Shaugnessy’s journal “Hack & Craft”.     Modern Dual Corporate Innovation Management approaches encompass two complementary directions of impact: Transforming the Core (by largely changing or even disrupting the existing operating model) Creating the New (by largely changing or even disrupting the existing business model) With […]

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Bad Innovation Systems Beat Good Innovators (Almost) Every Time

By on March 26, 2017

W. Edwards Deming once famously stated: A bad system will beat a good person every time.  What was Deming trying to convey with this quote? It wasn’t an attempt to get people to give up trying because failure was certain. It was an attempt to get people to understand the importance of the system and […]

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Aligning Organizations for Digital Transformation

By on February 3, 2017

To understand the challenges and opportunities associated with digitalization, MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte surveyed more than 3,700 business executives, managers, and analysts from organizations around the world. They have recently published their findings in a report, titled “Aligning the Organization for Its Digital Future“. Some key outcomes (quoted and depicted in an infographic) as well […]

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SCALING UP in Corporate Settings: First Achievements and Outlook

By on January 31, 2017

First of all, Frank Mattes and I would like to wish you all the best for 2017 – we hope you’ve been starting successfully and innovatively into this new year. Last September, Frank and I launched a new initiative „SCALING UP: From Corporate Startup to Innovation Impact“. We have been overwhelmed by the huge resonance […]

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The Firm of the Future Will Manage Two Types of Businesses

By on January 20, 2017

Bain and Company has just published a worthwile article, debating on the question: What will the firm of the future look like? Among several characteristics, the authors also particularly anticipate future-proof companies to be required to manage two types of businesses by deploying distinct “engines”: Companies have always pursued innovation in their core business. Clayton Christensen has called […]

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The Trinity of Dual Innovation and Transformation

By on November 25, 2016

Here is a chart, shown by Scott Anthony from Innosight during a worthwile talk on ‘Dual Transformation’ in July this year. It puts in a nutshell what he refers to as the “hardest challenge in business today”: Simultaneously strengthening today’s business while creating tomorrow’s. The chart greatly captures the fact that dual transformation involves three distinct playing fields: Transformation A: Strengthen Today […]

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Startup Engagement in Corporate Innovation

By on October 18, 2016

Recently, Match-Maker Ventures and Arthur D. Little have released an interesting report, titled “The Age of Collaboration“. The study does a good job in synthesizing the global state of play of corporate-startup collaboration and latest findings on success requirements for its implementation. More and more corporations seek to engage with startups by pursuing corresponding activities across dedicated ecosystems and incorporating them […]

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SCALING UP: From Corporate Startup to Innovation Impact

By on September 21, 2016

More than three years ago, we noticed a pain point in corporate innovation: How should companies balance the different requirements in searching for tomorrow’s business and in running today’s business? We wrote a well-received article series urging the need for organizational ambidexterity, i.e. implementing dual corporate innovation structures.   First important steps have been taken Our […]

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Organizational Agility Entails Complementary Innovation

By on August 2, 2016

Recently, I’ve come across a couple of posts and articles debating on the question: In order to increase agility, should organizations aim to become more nimble across their existing structures or should they capitalize on separated units/ventures – such as innovation or digital labs – being dedicated to initiate and develop explorative ideas and opportunities? Let’s define agility as […]

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