Business Model Innovation: Some Key Success Factors at Bosch

The concept of business model innovation is currently the focus of many discussions. This is for good reason, since the forthcoming Internet of things offers the possibility to shape business in new ways.

Bosch is pursuing the topic of business model innovation from a number of different angles. First, we believe that having state-of-the-art knowledge about business model innovation as well as being aware of best practices is a prerequisite for enabling new approaches. Furthermore, we are building on cross-domain innovation and looking at external sources for ideas, both of which are helping to foster business innovation within the company. Finally, we see it as essential to rely on the company’s fundamental strengths when proliferating new businesses. To offer a better understanding of how Bosch is using these different approaches to drive forward business model innovation, three case studies are presented. In all of them, leadership is a key success factor for innovation, for example, by providing room for exploration and experimentation.