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    Case Study

    Untangling spaghetti: How innovation changed at Oticon (A)

    By Paul Strebel, Anja Maier and Søren Stranne
    14 pages
    May 2014
    Order this case study
    Reference: IMD-7-1527

    The bottom-up “Spaghetti Organization” for pioneering innovation at Oticon was successful growing the top line for almost two decades, but gradually became too fragmented and costly as the company increased in size. The failure of a high cost revolutionary new product launch, together with the appointment of a new president triggered a redesign of the innovation process towards technological innovation in competence domains producing modules that could be assembled into new products designed by brand specific product teams. However, the new innovation process led to frustration and confusion.

    Learning Objective

    Managing change in the approach to innovation. Designing an innovation process adapted to the evolution of technology and organizational size, especially the tension between bottom-up creativity and developing an integrated product portfolio that exploits changing market needs. Understanding the importance of aligning organization and culture to support change (application of the Galbraith Star Model).

    Keywords
    Change Management, Innovation, Process, Company, Development
    Settings
    World/global, Denmark
    Oticon, Healthcare
    1991-2014
    Type
    Field Research
    Copyright
    © 2014
    Available Languages
    English
    Related material
    Teaching note, Video
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    This case study is part of a series
    • Untangling spaghetti: How innovation changed at Oticon (A)
    • Untangling spaghetti: How innovation changed at Oticon (B)
    • Untangling spaghetti: How innovation changed at Oticon (C)
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    • Untangling spaghetti: How innovation changed at Oticon (A)
    • Untangling spaghetti: How innovation changed at Oticon (B)
    • Untangling spaghetti: How innovation changed at Oticon (C)
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    All case studies
    Untangling spaghetti: How innovation changed at Oticon (A)
    By Paul Strebel Anja Maier and Søren Stranne
    Case reference: IMD-7-1527 ©2014
    Summary
    The bottom-up “Spaghetti Organization” for pioneering innovation at Oticon was successful growing the top line for almost two decades, but graduall...
    Read more
    Reference IMD-7-1527
    Copyright ©2014
    Copyright owner IMD Copyright
    Organization Oticon
    Industry Healthcare, Medical Device
    Available Languages English
    Contact

    Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications

    Related topics
    Change Management
    Browse all topics
    Related content
    Case Study
    Untangling spaghetti: How innovation changed at Oticon (B)

    The management team introduced a “cultural revolution” to support the new innovation process, followed by an innovation workflow involving project ...

    By Paul Strebel, Anja Maier and Søren Stranne
    Case reference: IMD-7-1528, © 2014
    Read more
    Case Study
    Untangling spaghetti: How innovation changed at Oticon (C)

    The new innovation process has been accepted and begun to produce results, but is not yet entirely satisfactory.

    By Paul Strebel, Anja Maier and Søren Stranne
    Case reference: IMD-7-1529, © 2014
    Read more
    Untangling spaghetti: How innovation changed at Oticon (B)
    By Paul Strebel Anja Maier and Søren Stranne
    Case reference: IMD-7-1528 ©2014
    Summary
    The management team introduced a “cultural revolution” to support the new innovation process, followed by an innovation workflow involving project ...
    Read more
    Reference IMD-7-1528
    Copyright ©2014
    Copyright owner IMD Copyright
    Organization Oticon
    Industry Healthcare
    Available Languages English
    Contact

    Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications

    Related content
    Case Study
    Untangling spaghetti: How innovation changed at Oticon (C)

    The new innovation process has been accepted and begun to produce results, but is not yet entirely satisfactory.

    By Paul Strebel, Anja Maier and Søren Stranne
    Case reference: IMD-7-1529, © 2014
    Read more
    Case Study
    Untangling spaghetti: How innovation changed at Oticon (A)

    The bottom-up “Spaghetti Organization” for pioneering innovation at Oticon was successful growing the top line for almost two decades, but graduall...

    Change Management
    By Paul Strebel, Anja Maier and Søren Stranne
    Case reference: IMD-7-1527, © 2014
    Read more
    Untangling spaghetti: How innovation changed at Oticon (C)
    By Paul Strebel Anja Maier and Søren Stranne
    Case reference: IMD-7-1529 ©2014
    Summary
    The new innovation process has been accepted and begun to produce results, but is not yet entirely satisfactory.
    Read more
    Reference IMD-7-1529
    Copyright ©2014
    Copyright owner IMD Copyright
    Organization Oticon
    Industry Healthcare, Medical Equipment
    Available Languages English
    Contact

    Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications

    Related content
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    Untangling spaghetti: How innovation changed at Oticon (B)

    The management team introduced a “cultural revolution” to support the new innovation process, followed by an innovation workflow involving project ...

    By Paul Strebel, Anja Maier and Søren Stranne
    Case reference: IMD-7-1528, © 2014
    Read more
    Case Study
    Untangling spaghetti: How innovation changed at Oticon (A)

    The bottom-up “Spaghetti Organization” for pioneering innovation at Oticon was successful growing the top line for almost two decades, but graduall...

    Change Management
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