Blue Ocean Strategy for small and mid-sized companies in Germany - Development of a consulting approach

Chapter 5.2, Current Situation of SMEs: Results from the Literature Research: The cyclical upturn in Germany is now visible. That is the headline in the media. Especially small and medium-sized companies are playing an important role in this situation. This is caused due to the fact that the majority of companies participating in the markets are part of this group. But only the minority of innovations which are important to protect the future profit and company's existence were developed here. In 2006 more than 48.000 new ideas were patented which were developed at universities or by private persons. The majority of these ideas which includes innovation of products, services and processes were sold to international companies. Results from the Interviews: In the media the current situation is described by experts as following: In Germany the cyclical upturn is visible. The experts and also the national SMEs associations are talking about full order books and the fact that many companies are searching for new employees to fulfil the outstanding orders. The results from the interviews with experts of medium-sized companies revealed another reality. Yes, companies have got full order books but only in combination with a strictly cost reduction. Only the company which can offer its products at a very low price is able to catch the order. The competition of low price suppliers increases on the national markets. Especially the globalisation and the entry of companies which are located in Russia and China in the existing markets increase the cost pressure for SMEs in Germany. In the past these companies were accepted as cooperation partners and German companies have proceeded knowledge transfer to manifest production standards. Nowadays these cooperation partners are competitors acting on the same markets with another cost structure which is a competitive advantage. On the other hand the buyers' side customers are price sensible and trying to decrease the price of products further. Another problem which is named by the expert is the order process. Today the time from the first contact, the offering and the order from the customer is taking longer and is a very complex procedure. The customers are asking e.g. for risk reducing methods and just-in-time deliveries. The main message of the interviews is that the managers of the SMEs need to find their niche or new ways to reduce the market's pressure. Innovation Behaviour and Strategies: For their strategies regarding the innovation behaviour companies can only choose one of two categories: acting as innovator or as imitator. At the beginning of the literature research for this dissertation the author got the impression that the majority of the SME are acting as imitators and only a small group of companies are using their chance as innovators to spread their range of sales or improve their market shares. The opinion was conformed by a study proceeded by the BDU in the Southwest part of Germany. Following the results of this investigation 21 percent of SMEs in Baden-Württemberg are innovative and 45 percent are not really innovative. This result is driven by the self-description of the companies' management. Regarding the fact that the existence of companies (especially for SMEs) requires continuously the development of new products and services, these figures are unusual low and not understandable. For the small part of companies which are acting as innovators the process of developing new ideas is not a strange concept. It is part of their day-to-day business to create new products and services. Though most of the time the process is not very systematic or structured. The generation of ideas can be called intuitive and depending on one person (e.g. owner) or a small number of key persons in the company. 89 percent of the interview partners of an investigation which concerns with the development and management of innovations regarding especially the key persons of the innovation process named the CEO and the management as leading idea generators. The detailed results are as followed: 89 percent of the interviewees named the CEO and the management, 80 percent of the interviewees said the ideas will be generated by the employees, 79 percent of the interviewees get the ideas from a good customer relationship, 67 percent of the interviewees are discussing new ideas with suppliers, 56 percent of the interviewees named their competitors, 27 percent of the interviewees are looking for dialogues between research teams and universities. Only 26 percent of the interviewees are consulting an external consultant. The consequence of this 'few persons' strategy is an unplanned, unstructured process of generating business ideas. While competing in red ocean markets a company needs the structured process of innovation. Looking at the results of the same investigation the main innovation regularly are about optimisation of companies processes and the development of new products. The Consultant-client Relationship: The consulting process involves two partners - the consultant and the client. Building the relationship is not easy but important for the efficiency of the problem-solving process. To achieve a successful cooperation, both sides (consultants and clients) need to be aware of the human, cultural and other factors that will affect the relationship. Consultants and clients need to build and maintain a relationship of collaboration, understanding and trust. The consultant is supposed to achieve valid results in the client organisation without being part of it. This situation which needs a relationship of trust can provide problems if it lacks any of the mentioned factors. Beside that, the management of SMEs might have several issues which they can discuss with consultants or areas the leaders will be supported by an external consulting company. The demand of external consulting depends on the actual situation of the company. As result of the conducted interviews only 14% of the interviewees do not need the support of external consultants and 86% usually are looking for the support of consultants in special issues. Regarding the possible fields of expertise offered by consultants, the following topics were regularly demanded according to the studies of literature (Figure 5-3: Central Issues of SMEs related to support by External Consultants (own design)). One of the substantial issues for consulting could be found in the area of general management: strategy.