Germany's Siemens AG is Europe's largest electrical and electronics company, one of the world's top ten electronics companies, and the world's fourth-ranked home appliance manufacturer. Siemens is a comprehensive group company mainly engaged in the production of electronic and communication products, energy and industrial equipment, transportation and medical equipment. Its business covers more than 190 countries in Europe, America, Asia, Africa and Australia, and it has 39 employees in 27 regions around the world. This factory produces home appliances and communication products that enjoy an international reputation. In its long history spanning two centuries, Siemens has adhered to founder Werner von Siemens’ secret of success of “twenty thousand inventions and innovations a year” and has systematically established innovative technology management, innovative organizational management, and innovative talent management. The management mechanism continuously improves the core competitiveness of enterprises and promotes the increasing intellectual capital content and operational capabilities of enterprises. Siemens' practice once again shows the world that innovation is the life of an enterprise, and only innovation can keep an enterprise young forever.
In 2004, Siemens ranked 21st among the Fortune Global 500 companies, with total annual operating revenue of US$80.501 billion.
1. A Century of Brilliant Innovation History of Siemens
Siemens was founded in 1847. Starting from the mid-19th century, it has led a glorious journey across the entire 20th century and entered the world with a vigorous and heroic attitude. The 21st century. The predecessor of Siemens was Siemens-Halske Telegraph Manufacturing Company. It was a small business with only 10 people founded by Werner von Siemens, known as the "Father of Siemens", and his partner John George Halske. .
The era of Werner von Siemens was a glorious period of entrepreneurial development for Siemens. Siemens quickly achieved success due to the inventions of Werner von Siemens. Siemens quickly began to develop the company internationally, establishing overseas branches in Britain in 1850, Russia in 1855, and Austria in 1858. In 1890, Werner von Siemens retired, and Siemens had more than 5,500 employees, half of whom worked overseas. In 1892, Werner von Siemens died in Berlin at the age of 76. He left countless inventions and creations to mankind, a huge legacy, and valuable successful experiences. Because of his outstanding contributions to mankind, he is known as a bright star in the European electrical industry.
After the death of Werner von Siemens, his three sons successively served as heads of the company. In 1897, the family business was reorganized into a joint-stock company and renamed "Siemens & Halsk AG". During World War I, Siemens lost almost all of its overseas assets, and Carl Friedrich Siemens, the third son of Werner von Siemens, successfully rebuilt the company. Carl Friedrich changed the direction of the company, concentrating the company's activities on electrical engineering and at the same time covering "all areas of electrical engineering" and withdrawing from those "non-company" areas. By 1939, Siemens' sales exceeded 1 billion marks for the first time, making it the world's largest electrical company. During World War II, the company was forced to increase production of wartime supplies. At the end of the war, most of the company's factories were destroyed and the company lost approximately 80% of its assets. After the war, Siemens began reconstruction work in Erlgen and Munich, two industrial towns in western Germany.
Siemens has been succeeded by the descendants of the three brothers Carl Friedrich Siemens. They are all technical experts and management experts with doctorate titles, and they insist on exploring new technical fields and innovative development. After World War II, Siemens, together with "Krupp" and other Concern partners, established the first Institute of Nuclear Physics in the Federal Republic of Germany to jointly develop and research nuclear industry technology. In 1953, Siemens' development of a process for obtaining ultra-pure silicon triggered a revolution in the entire electronic and electrical technology. The company's sales increased year by year, from 1 billion marks in 1951 to more than 5 billion marks in 1962. In 1966, it was officially renamed Siemens AG.
In the early 1970s, Siemens successfully developed a system for transmitting telephone signals, contributing to the modernization of the communications industry. In 1989, Siemens was reorganized using a modern structure and formed 17 core business groups to better adapt to the company's development in new areas. In 1990, Siemens acquired Nixdorf Computer AG and became the largest manufacturer in the developing European personal computer market.
In 1982, Siemens entered modern China and opened a representative office in Beijing. Later, it opened three more local representative offices in Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenyang. Two years later, Siemens cooperated with the Beijing International Technical Cooperation Center to establish the Beijing Technical Exchange and Training Center. In 1986, Siemens introduced the world's advanced CNC system to China, which impressed Chinese machine tool manufacturers whose main products were ordinary machine tools. In October 1994, Siemens invested and established a holding company in China. Siemens (China) Co., Ltd. was established in Beijing to provide sales, marketing, human resources, information and communications, e-commerce, procurement, financing, Legal and strategic planning services. All business branches of Siemens, including information and communications, automation and control, electric power, transportation, medical care, lighting and household appliances, are established in China. Infrastructure construction and automation control are Siemens' core industries in China. After 10 years of unremitting efforts, Siemens' business in China has developed rapidly, with a total long-term investment of more than 500 million euros. It has more than 40 branches and 26 representative offices across the country. In 2001, Siemens' total sales in China were More than 3.5 billion euros. China has become one of the main pillars of Siemens' business development globally and in the Asia-Pacific region.
2. Innovation management improves core competitiveness
Pralhalad and Gary Hamel first proposed the concept of "core competitiveness" in their classic article "The Core Competitiveness of a Company" "Competitiveness" concept, and pointed out: "A company is like a big tree. The trunk and several main branches are the core products, the thinner branches are the business units, and the leaves, flowers and fruits are the final products provided by the big tree." Nutrients and the root system that play a supporting and fixing role are the core competitiveness of the company. "Siemens' innovative management is exactly the root system that provides nutrients and supports and fixes the big trees." Innovation management has three interrelated different meanings: first, management innovation; second, management of innovative activities; third, innovative management. Siemens' innovation management refers to "the management of innovation activities", including innovative technology management, innovative product management, and innovative talent management. Innovation is the deepening, expansion and sublimation of people's understanding of the laws of development of things. The purpose of innovation is to explore new knowledge and promote development. The premise is that we must have correct thinking methods, a scientific and realistic attitude, and the courage to change and seek innovation. Theoretically speaking, the driving force for innovation is, first, the pull of social needs and market needs; second, the push of science, technology and the development of the enterprise itself. Market demand has always been the main source of innovation for Siemens. With the advancement of civilization in human society, consumer needs continue to become more advanced and diverse. In response to this change in market demand, one attitude is to follow closely behind negatively, and the other is to be proactive and appropriately advance. Siemens adopts an appropriately forward-looking attitude and relies on innovative talents and innovative technologies based on market demand surveys and demand development forecasts to produce innovative products to drive and influence new consumption habits, consumer culture and corresponding new market policies. and market purchasing power, create new market demand, and form a virtuous cycle of "market demand forecast → technological innovation and product innovation → new consumption patterns and market adaptability → new market demand → new innovative ideas". Innovation is based on objective needs, combining existing production factors, existing conditions, and technologies to create a new leap, thereby improving production efficiency, innovating product value, providing convenience for enterprises to enter multiple markets, and affecting the final product Contribute to the perceived value brought to customers and make innovations difficult for competitors to imitate, thus enhancing the core competitiveness of the company. In the continuous cycle of innovation, Siemens has maintained strong vitality as a company and remains young even though it has lasted for a hundred years.
1. Siemens’ innovation tradition
In 1997, Siemens published a company autobiographical book called "Siemens - 150 Years of Glory". There is an opening statement printed on the front cover, which includes the following sentence: "In 1997, Siemens opened the 150th page of its history. This is a historical moment worthy of special celebration. Looking at the world, there are many companies of similar scale. "There are only a few industrial companies that can enjoy such a long and successful history." Siemens has maintained and carried forward the technological invention and innovation pioneered by Werner von Siemens, making Siemens a pioneer in the electrical era in human history. , the leader of the electronic age and the coming photovoltaic age.
Werner von Siemens' life was brilliant. Due to his outstanding contributions to mankind, he was known as a bright star in the European electrical industry. Werner von Siemens was born in Hanover, Germany in 1816. His parents, who were farmers, could not afford to send him to college. Forced to make a living, the 18-year-old Werner von Siemens entered the Berlin Artillery School to study. While studying, Werner von Siemens began his inventions. In his second year of school, Werner von Siemens used the metal gold plating and silver plating technology he developed to co-organize Germany's first electroplating department in the same factory. He also invented zinc type printing and built the first zinc type printing press. After graduating from school, Werner von Siemens served in the Prussian army, continued scientific research, and studied at the University of Berlin. In 1845, after graduating from university, Siemens invented the automatic intermittent pointer telegraph. Soon after, he successfully trial-produced cotton gunpowder with powerful explosive power. In 1846, he invented Malay gum wire, the first to solve the problem of wire insulation. The following year he used this wire to lay an underground line from Berlin to Grospel. In October 1847, Werner von Siemens, who had become a Prussian second lieutenant, and the mechanic Johann Georg Halske founded the Siemens-Halske Telegraph Manufacturing Company in Berlin. The company was a success, so Werner von Siemens took off his military uniform and focused on building his business. The company successively undertook the laying project of 500 kilometers of communication lines between Berlin and Frankfurt, and was designated by the Russian government as the "Czarist Russian Telegraph System Construction and Maintenance Contractor". It completed the telegraph system projects in the United Kingdom and Austria, and laid The 11,000-kilometer-long Indo-European telegraph line connecting London and Calcutta laid an undersea wire across the Atlantic Ocean. In 1848, Werner von Siemens invented electric current-detonated submarine mines and extremely lethal mines. He also developed an electrical distance measuring device and used electricity to control ships. In 1866, Werner von Siemens discovered the working principle of the generator. After repeated and arduous experiments, he developed the world's first two "self-excited magnetic field" generators. This is the core technology of the second world industrial revolution, and since then generators have been widely used around the world. As a result, Siemens won France's highest award, the "Legion of Honor", and was named a noble by the King of Prussia. In 1867, Werner von Siemens invented the alcohol measuring device, which was designated as a standard measuring device by many European countries and has been used for a long time, contributing to the world's standardization work. In 1881, Werner von Siemens successfully developed the world's first electric car.
In 1892, Werner von Siemens died. Before his death, Werner von Siemens asked his descendants to adhere to the policy and successful experience of "twenty thousand inventions and innovations a year" and "benefit human society", and insist on attaching great importance to exploring new technological fields and innovative development. In 1936, Siemens built the first cable television for the World Olympics. In 1938, the first imaging telephone and electron microscope were built. In 1953, Siemens' development of ultra-pure silicon technology triggered a revolution in the entire electronic and electrical technology.
In the early 1970s, Siemens successfully developed a system for transmitting telephone signals, which contributed to the modernization of the communications industry. A coaxial telephone line can transmit 10,800 telephone signals at the same time, putting the telephone communication network on the road to full automation. . Siemens has developed the use of traditional photolithography to manufacture micro-integrated circuit boards, reaching a leading level. In addition, Siemens also innovatively launched a new copier that can copy two colors on both sides of a piece of paper at the same time, and cooperated with the Dutch company Philips to develop microcomputers.
Siemens always puts technological innovation, mainly creating inventions, at the top of all its work, attaches great importance to scientific research and development, and continues to transform scientific research results into real productivity as soon as possible. In the invention book of Siemens, you can see a series of European and world firsts: the first automatic telephone exchange, the first long-distance telephone, the first generator, the first electric locomotive, the first electron microscope , the first telex machine... According to statistics, Siemens accounts for more than a quarter of all patents in German electrical technology.
2. Siemens’ technological innovation management
Core competitiveness is a unique and dynamic capability resource formed by an enterprise in its long-term operations, which supports the enterprise’s current and future success in the market. To maintain the development of sustainable competitive advantage, this core competitiveness is the result of an enterprise integrating various resources and capabilities in all aspects. The purpose of technological innovation management is to enhance corporate research and development (Ramp; D) capabilities. Enterprise development is the source of enterprise development and the basic guarantee for long-term competitive advantage. Enterprise R&D capabilities mainly include: resource acquisition and utilization capabilities, development capabilities, achievement conversion capabilities, etc. Everything in the world has a life cycle of emergence, development and decline. As an economic organization, enterprises also have to go through the life course of startup period, rising period, heyday, decline period and bankruptcy. The key to the length of a company's life cycle lies in how to accelerate its rise, prolong its heyday, and delay its decline after the entrepreneurial period. As a collection of resources and capabilities, an enterprise must continuously inject new resources and continuously improve its market operation capabilities and corporate management capabilities in order to maintain and extend the life cycle of the enterprise. Products and services are the life elements of an enterprise, and the life cycle of a product is short compared to the life cycle of an enterprise. Enterprises must develop multiple innovative products with market value. After one or several products reach a period of rise and peak, before they enter a period of decline, another or several products have reached a period of rise and peak, and so on. The waves are connected, relying on the "surge" formed by the continuous launch of innovative products to achieve the continuous survival of the enterprise. Innovation continuously injects vitality into Siemens. In the long history of more than a century and a half, Siemens has continued to innovate, develop, and launch innovative products, so that the company is always on the rise or in its heyday, and has maintained its long-term prosperity. In recent years, with the acceleration of the world economic integration process, the speed of Siemens product upgrading has also increased. In 1980, 48% of Siemens' innovative products were no more than five years old. By 1998, this had risen to 74%. By 2003, more than 90% of Siemens' products were innovative products containing high-tech software. Among Siemens' more than 100,000 products, 92% have been around for less than four years. This is the secret of Siemens becoming a "longevity enterprise".
The main task of innovation management is the management of the innovation process. The innovation process refers to a series of activities and their logical relationships from the generation of innovative ideas to the realization of innovation, until the improvement of innovation after innovative products are put on the market. The innovation process is the most complex business process and organizational process, involving marketing, design, R&D, manufacturing, management, finance, business strategy and other activities. Innovation of technology and products is the core of the entire innovation work, innovation of concepts is the basis of technology and product innovation, and innovation of systems and mechanisms is the guarantee of technology and product innovation.
Siemens realizes: "In an era of continuous development of high technology, everything will soon become a thing of the past. Only by grasping the future can we have hope." In order to ensure that it firmly occupies an active position in the new technology industry , Siemens regards artificial intelligence, nuclear fusion, space technology, ultra-high-speed trains, solar energy utilization, optical communication technology and other topics as the focus of scientific research, and strives to achieve new breakthroughs as soon as possible. Enterprises' technological innovation can be divided into various forms such as original innovation, introduced innovation and imitation innovation. Original innovation is a developmental innovation based on sufficient theoretical research. Introduced innovation and imitation innovation are innovations that are improved and perfected on the basis of original innovation, so the market risk is smaller and the results are faster. However, as competition in the technology market intensifies, introduced innovation and imitation innovation have been greatly restricted in terms of technological advancement, usability and timeliness. From the comprehensive perspective of innovation decision-making, technology development, capital investment, achievement transformation and risk-taking, Siemens mainly adopts original innovation. Siemens has gathered a large number of scientific researchers, increased investment in scientific and technological innovation, attached great importance to technology accumulation, and has strong innovative research and technology development capabilities. Siemens currently has 48,000 professionals engaged in research and development around the world. There are large-scale research and development centers in Berlin, Erlangen and Munich. Annual scientific research expenditures account for more than 10% of the company's total operating expenses, accounting for approximately 1/3 of all scientific research expenditures in the German electrical industry. This ensures its leading position in the field of new technologies.
Siemens' research and development work came to a halt after World War II. The Potsdam Agreement provided for the dismantling and control of German industry, with scientific research and technological development activities bearing the brunt. It was not until the late 1940s that routine research and development work in individual fields resumed. Nonetheless, Siemens is required to provide the military government with detailed reports on individual research projects and their progress. Due to the serious losses caused by the war, Siemens's expenditure on development and research work in terms of sales in the early 1950s nearly doubled compared with pre-war levels. Despite various Allied restrictions and prohibitions, Siemens' innovative development still achieved considerable results. In 1951, *** registered approximately 2,100 inventions, obtained 700 patents, and obtained 900 patents abroad. In 1955, after the Allies finally gave up monitoring German scientific research, Siemens was able to reconnect with international scientific research and set up a laboratory in Munich. In 1965, the Erlangen Research Center was established. Later, research laboratories were set up in Berlin and Princeton. Siemens has also established important research bases in the United States, Austria and the United Kingdom. In 1969, Siemens adjusted its scientific research and development institutions and established the Central Technology Department. In 1988, the functions of the Central Research and Development Department were further strengthened. In 1996, Siemens merged its central technology department and development center. The number of patents applied for every year is increasing year by year. Siemens applied for 2,920 patents and sample registrations at the German Patent Office in 1995/96, and made another 80 first-time registrations at the European Patent Office. The number of patent applications at the German Patent Office increased by 18% compared with the previous year. During this year, Siemens AG obtained 5,200 invention registrations, an increase of 125% compared with 1989/90. At the end of 1995/96, Siemens had approximately 73,000 protection rights worldwide, 44% of which were issued patents and registered usage patterns.
The significant advantage of Siemens’ technological innovation is that all research projects included in the company emphasize that they must have high technical content and market competitiveness, thus developing and trial-producing batch after batch of products that meet market needs. New technologies and new products in the world's cutting-edge fields of science and technology. In terms of electronic technology, Siemens successfully developed a 256-kilobit memory chip that could be mass-produced in 1983. In the mid-1990s, efforts to catch up with the world's top level were successful. And, by cooperating with IBM, Toshiba and Motorola to develop gigabit chips, Siemens has regained its role as a technology leader.
As it emphasizes that technological innovation is based on the future, most of the projects researched and developed by Siemens are forward-looking. In terms of research and development of solar clean energy, the company has invested a lot of money and achieved leading results. In the laboratory, a new solar cell developed using "copper-indium-selenium" ternary materials has a photoelectric conversion efficiency of more than 18%, which has a huge potential market. Technological innovation adheres to "customer-oriented, customer first" which is Siemens' consistent principle. Taking mobile phones as an example, German users emphasize the functions of mobile phones, while Chinese users pay more attention to the appearance and practicality of mobile phones. Therefore, it is very important for Chinese users that the operation is easy and the sales staff understands the instructions for using the mobile phone. Siemens attaches great importance to the differences in consumer behavior caused by cultural differences. In October 1999, it established two user interface design centers in Beijing, China and Princeton, the United States, to promote the localization of Siemens products.
3. Siemens’ innovative organizational management
Innovative organizational management includes organizational innovation and the organization of innovative activities. Innovative organizational management is the guarantee of technological innovation and product innovation. Innovative organizational management refers to the formation of a new organization with the same purpose through the effective allocation of human, material and financial resources, and the reconstruction of the original organizational identity's responsibilities, rights and interests among its members. The purpose is to obtain the right Further knowledge of innovation goals. Organizational innovation is not based on material carriers but focuses on management, which is called "soft technology innovation"; while technological innovation and product innovation are called "hard technology innovation". "Soft technology innovation" has a series of advantages such as low investment, low risk, and easy results. Through the active implementation of innovative organizational management, Siemens makes the use of various resources of the enterprise more reasonable, the entire enterprise system operates more harmoniously and efficiently, and the production capacity is exerted more effectively, accumulating strength for "hard technology innovation" and promoting "hard technology innovation" "The progress of this strategy plays an extremely important role in improving the competitiveness of enterprises. "Hard technological innovation" and "soft technological innovation" are interrelated and mutually reinforcing. If the results of "hard technological innovation" are to be continuously and effectively transformed into economic benefits for enterprises, they must be matched by corresponding "soft technological innovation". When "hard technology innovation" reaches a certain level, it will often call for and force corresponding changes in the operation methods of the management system, thereby promoting "soft technology innovation"; on the other hand, effective organizational innovation maximizes the efficiency of the production system. It can bring out the "bottlenecks" in "hard technology" that limit the further improvement of production capacity and economic benefits of enterprises, which can attract the attention of enterprises and concentrate their efforts on solving them, thereby promoting "hard technology innovation".
3. Knowledge management is the foundation of innovation management
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