German banks and insurance companies are only satisfactory in innovation management: How the ISO standard can help

German banks and insurance companies are only satisfactory in innovation management: How the ISO standard can help

According to a report from www.der-bank-blog.de, German companies only perform satisfactorily when it comes to innovation. The banking and insurance industry in particular lags behind the overall economy when it comes to innovation management. There is a lack of implementation of innovation strategies and communication about them. Managers in banks and insurance companies have recognized that they can use innovations to increase value, but are not implementing them sufficiently. There is a lack of a common innovation culture, strategy, vision and communication. For improvement, there is a lack of key figures, criteria and measuring instruments as well as continuous recording, evaluation and improvement of innovation projects. The analysis shows that there is a lack of structures when it comes to innovation and there is hardly any time to improve them.

According to the analysis, there is a possibility that the weaknesses could be quickly overcome if banks and insurance companies put their innovative ideas into a structured and holistic framework. The appropriate instruments are needed for this, and the ISO standard could play an important role. Banks and insurance companies are already implementing individual innovation projects well, but there is a lack of a holistic strategy and implementation.

The ISO standard creates clarity and structure in innovation management by specifying a number of dimensions such as organizational context, leadership, planning, support, processes, success measurement and improvement. With the help of the standard, companies can objectively and benchmark-based analyze their ability to innovate and derive appropriate recommendations for action. The maturity level analysis based on the ISO standard can provide valuable and sustainable information about a company's innovation management.

It is therefore obvious that banks and insurance companies need to make more efforts to increase their ability to innovate. Managers in these industries should recognize that innovation management is a matter for the boss and must be integrated into the corporate strategy in order to be prepared for the future.