Once the strengths have been identified, the next step is to reinforce them. Market research and R&D play important roles here. With respect to internal processes, the special focus is on knowledge management, customer relationship management, and communication channels – vertical and horizontal, formal and informal. A company’s relationships to third parties, e.g., in strategic partnerships or outsourcing, can also contain hidden differentiation potential.

Naturally companies can declare their commitment to innovation and differentiation capability through their top managers, but when all is said and done, such a commitment must be lived by the collective of the employees.  But the decisive point here is not a course of appeals for everyone to pull together, but the implementation of innovation-friendly structures and processes which permit staff members to assume responsibility for their work and to make mistakes. Rigid, bureaucratic structures can snuff out the enthusiasm of the most creative employees.