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

Managing Innovation Portfolios – Part 1: Strategic Portfolio Management

This is part one of a two-parts article co-written with Kevin McFarthing from Innovation Fixer. The second part can be found here.   Facing increasingly dynamic and unpredictable environments, firms are required to develop convenient innovation strategies, constantly adapt them to changing conditions and properly implement strategically-aligned initiatives throughout their organizations. Innovation portfolio management (IPM) can act […]

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Innovation and Growth

PwC has released the 2013 issue of their Global Innovation Survey, titled ‘Breakthrough Innovation and Growth‘. One of the main outcomes is that there is a clear correlation between innovation and growth. 93% of the executives surveyed indicate that organic growth through Innovation will drive the greater proportion of their revenue growth. Only 2% of companies expect […]

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Balancing Innovation via Organizational Ambidexterity – Part 2

This is part two of a three-parts article co-written with innovation-3‘s Frank Mattes.   In the first part we worked out why successful firms need to balance radical and incremental innovation. We introduced the concept of organizational ambidexterity as an appropriate way for simultaneously conducting exploration and exploitation, the two paradigms behind radical and incremental innovation. This second […]

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Balanced Portfolios and Business Model Innovation Distinguish Outperformers

Among others, Tim Kastelle (here and here) and Paul Hobcraft (here and here) have recently highlighted the increasing importance of business model innovation. A newly published report from the IBM Institute for Business Value confirms this point, the need for balanced innovation portfolios and some other key issues being outlined in a previous post. I’d like to summarize the main results […]

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Balancing Innovation via Organizational Ambidexterity

This is part one of a three-parts article co-written with innovation-3‘s Frank Mattes.   Organizational ambidexterity is becoming a key factor for success in many industries. With a proper ambidextrous set-up, firms can optimally balance radical and incremental innovation. In this article, we are showing the need for organizational ambidexterity, introduce the concept, show how it […]

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Innovation and Serendipity

In a previous post, I have pointed out the importance of diversity for innovation and organizational adaptability. Diversity is a crucial precursor to serendipity. In the Power of Pull, John Hagel, John Seely Brown and Lang Davison emphasize the rising need for serendipity: We need to find ways to attract relevant innovators and edge participants […]

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An Integrative Approach to Strategy and Innovation

In my previous post I have stressed why an integrative approach to sustainable innovation management seems increasingly important to me. The main reason is, that modern organizations range in an environment of various tensions and continuous complexity. This situation requires structures, strategies and cultures to be in place that support dynamic balancing of opposing and complementary elements in the innovation process. Recently, […]

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Integrative Innovation

Some people I’ve been collaborating with have recently encouraged me to open up an own blog. After having given it some thought, I decided to do so. I’m launching a new site and platform titled “Integrative Innovation” to share ideas and perspectives on innovation. You might ask: why “Integrative Innovation”? Is this yet another buzzword? I don’t think so. I rather […]

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Key Issues in Innovation Management

This post was co-written with Tim Kastelle from Innovation for Growth.   What are the key innovation issues facing the business community right now? When we met up in person recently we had a great talk about this question. We’ve continued the discussion over email, and these are the four innovation management issues that we […]

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Reconciling Organizational Improvement and Reinvention Through Social Business Design

This is the second part of a post co-written with Thierry De Baillon from Sonnez en cas d’absence. Read the first part here.   A striking change of focus in the social business arena occurred during the last five years. Despite the fact that Andrew McAfee’s original definition specified its scope as «within companies, or between companies and […]

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