BMW Group: Strategic Framework for Global Innovation to Enhance the Efficiency of Global R&D

The performance measures of most of today’s cars have started to converge and nowadays design and brand are often the only real differentiators. However, innovative technology can still make a difference. The BMW Group therefore has a strong focus on design and brand but has ever since given much attention to R&D in order to keep its advantage and remain in the pinnacle position in the automotive industry’s stiff competition for innovation. International R&D has been an issue for quite a while since innovation does not only happen in the labs of the car manufacturers. It emerges from various sources and those sources increasingly spread globally. The challenge of this situation lies in the seamless integration and the coordination of all those efforts with only one thing in mind: to build the ultimate driving machine.