INTRODUCTION:
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, commonly referred to
as BMW is a German multinational company which
produces automobiles and motorcycles. The company was
founded in 1916 as a manufacturer of aircraft engines, which
it produced from 1917 until 1918 and again from 1933 to
1945.
Automobiles are marketed under the brands BMW, Mini and
Rolls-Royce, and motorcycles are marketed under the brand
BMW Motorrad. In 2015, BMW was the world's twelfth
largest producer of motor vehicles, with 2,279,503 vehicles
produced.
OBJECTIVES
Strategy Number ONE aligns the BMW Group with two
targets: to be profitable and to enhance long-term value from a
technological, structural and cultural perspective. The mission
statement up to the year 2020 is to become the world's leading
provider of premium products and premium services for
individual mobility.
INTEGRITY
Together with the BMW Group, the BMW Foundation has
now also assisted him with the production of his show in
South Africa, in which Captain Vinny Pillay was voted the
rainbow nation’s first Integrity Idol last year. The support
was helpful, among other things, in the search for media
partners and in the organisation of the final event by
the BMW Foundation Global Table, where leaders from all
regions throughout the world develop possible solutions to
the challenges of our time, Glencorse says. Moreover, as a
result, he and his team also gained comprehensive access to
networks and further sponsors. Further support was received
from ReadyGo. In this young leaders programme
implemented by the BMW Group, junior executives use
their connections and their know-how to commit themselves
to social concerns and greater ecological sustainability. “For
more than a year now, decision makers have helped us
sharpen the concept and develop a strategy”, Glencorse
stresses. “Especially in towns and metropolitan areas where
there is a high degree of anonymity, it is important to be able
to rely on public administrators. They provide the glue that
holds our urban society together and serve as role models.”
Captain Vinny Pillay, but also the other finalists, were the
finest examples of this. “They assume responsibility as
nurses, firemen, doctors or teachers, thereby representing
honest, incorruptible and reliable public engagement.”
EXCELLENCE
The BMW Group is intending to drive forward development
of highly automated vehicles with the new campus in
Unterschleißheim, and is looking to recruit IT specialists
and software developers in the areas of artificial
intelligence, machine learning and data analysis
INNOVATION
Always staying one step ahead and shaping the mobility of the
future is an important part of our company’s philosophy. We
therefore work tirelessly to find innovative solutions today for
the issues of tomorrow.
One company, one vision: to create innovations. Ever since
the company was founded, innovation has been one of the
main success factors for the BMW Group. Focusing on the
future is an integral part of the company's identity and its day-
to-day work and the basis of our business success.
DISCUSSION
The more to the expression than Ideal Buisness, Real Business
found from a discussion with BMW for the latest Corporate
Insights.
As Albert Einstein once said: “We cannot solve the problem
with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
It’s essentially the ability to see, understand and solve a
problem in a unique way – a type of thinking beyond
traditional processes that sets you apart in your endeavour to
give people what they want. One could even deem it the
accumulation of passion, vision and capability of playing
around with ideas. Creativity is thus a must.
But Matt Kingdon, co-founder of ?What If! noted in a
Forbes article that creativity by itself is “an
unexpectedly useless word in the workplace.” Innovation, he
explained, is about turning said creativity into output. That’s
why the word should rather evoke thoughts of a cross
between “a captain and a pirate.”
“Such people would know where they want to go and able to
take people with them, but will throw away the rule book and
make things happen at the same time,” he said. “This
paradoxical combination of skills is at the heart of
innovation.”
Companies have long strived to become the epitome of
innovation, with many claiming it a competitive edge. Indeed,
its of great importance given that most businesses no longer
play in a local field, consumers expect much more and
startups seem to be born almost every other day. The need to
constantly improve and alter previous ways of doing things is
what it now takes to survive.
This concept is nothing new to BMW though. Most people
assume its reputation comes purely from the quality of its
cars. While that may be largely true, it certainly can’t take all
the credit for the brand’s success. This is why one of its
greatest marketing campaigns began with the line, “we do not
make cars…”
The cars served as support when it came to long-distance
events in the Olympics
It’s a brand very much in the business of fostering change.
Take, for example, how the automotive company created an
electric car – the 1602e – in 1972 to debut at the Olympics
that year. Tesla wasn’t created until many years later.
It has since become known for tapping into trends and “going
with the flow” in a time of fast-moving technology
discoveries, with a range of 12 different electric car
models expected to be produced by 2025. It’s an excellent
indication of how BMW is driving innovation.
Another is its want to collaborate. September 2017 saw the
launch of its Innovation Lab 2018, which aims to give early-
stage startups the chance to work with BMW and give
improvements on products and services – or find areas yet to
be fully realised.
Its architect, Jonny Combe, general manager of product and
channel development at BMW Group UK Financial Services,
explained: “BMW opened its doors to external entrepreneurs
to partner with them to support our innovation plan. This way
we develop new services that tackle the changing customer
needs we are seeing and help us find new ways to capitalise
on new technologies.
“Four out of our five startups from the 2016 Lab have an
ongoing relationship with us. Together we’re bringing their
ideas to market. So BMW has seen first-hand the value
collaboration like this brings to innovation.”
But there’s a twist to this year’s Lab, and it leans heavily on
cultivating an innovation culture within BMW itself. Hoping
to foster greater cross-company collaboration and idea
development, some 1,300 employees were invited to join in
the effort of changing the business for the better.
DISGRADE OF BMW. WHY?
EXPENDSIVE:While BMW cars are luxury, high-
performance cars, they are not as expensive as the likes
of Aston Martin or Ferrari. This means that while they are
more expensive to insure compared to a more affordable brand,
they are not as expensive as some of their competitors. They
are going to cost above average to insure, but it won’t break the
bank. This is because of the high-performance and the fact that
BMW’s are more expensive, and therefore more to insure. That
said, BMW’s also come with a lot of safety features these days,
which will in turn, lower the insurance. So they sit comfortably
in the mid-to-high range for insurance. Maintenance is another
thing that will be on your mind when it comes to owning a
BMW. Maintaining your car is a key part of owning it. It means
that you won’t have to fork out so much for repairs and will
help maintain a good resale value should you decide to sell the
car on.
CONCLUSION
The analysis in this paper revealed that BMW sustains
its success as an advancedinnovation leader trough its
unique approach to innovation in three main fields. Firstly
BMWpossesses crucial components of an innovative
organisation that are the base of its openinnovation
network to forecast and to explore and exploit innovation
opportunities internallyand externally. Secondly BMW
early focus on making innovation management a
corecompetency and the subsequent implementation of an
effective and efficient innovation modelthat is internally
interconnected allows the company to rapidly develop core
products that arehard to imitate. Because of the SIP in BMW
history the companies strategic alignment of itsinnovation
model is of crucial importance. Thirdly BMW achieves to
capture the benefitsfrom innovation by steadily building
up characteristics of a learning organisation and
byextensive knowledge acquisition. Trough
appropriate means the company attains andfacilitates
the exchange of tacit and explicit knowledge trough inter-
departmental knowledge management.
