Managing Innovations Strategically – How to diagnose innovation at Deutsche Bahn, the second-largest transport company in the world

In this innovation diagnostic essay, I will utilize concepts and tools from the “Managing Innovation Strategically” course to diagnose innovation in one of my previous employers, Deutsche Bahn (DB). I have chosen my previous employer because the German incumbent railway company failed and is now reviving its fortunes by transforming itself into a highly intelligent mobility network – at least its IT subsidiary DB Systel. The key issue is at hand: DB could not innovate its way out of the environmental challenges, yet. In the following I will originally analyse the innovation capabilities of DB Group, supported by evidence from my work. After describing the challenge, I will apply the “Framework For Managing Innovation” to diagnose the innovation capabilities: assess the creativity process (ideation), analyse the selection process (selection), and review the innovation implementation (execution). I will close the innovation diagnostic by applying the “Managing Innovation Requires A System” framework.