Transformation and innovation are big buzzwords in today's corporate culture. According to a 2020 Garnter report, 60% of businesses mention that digital transformation is a topic of conversation in almost every board meeting. Where you focus your innovation efforts can be just as impactful as your methods of implementation. The end goal is the same: to implement changes that have a positive impact both within your company and in the industry as a whole. So, in this C-Suite viewpoint, we ask you to share your views on how specifically YOUR organization deals with transformation and innovation.

Have you documented your innovation goals along with a dedicated annual budget? Where and how does the process start... and what are the critical success factors that turn great "ideas" into actual implementation?

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Marcus Bernhardt
Marcus Bernhardt
Chief Executive Officer at Deutsche Hospitality

To drive change, innovation, and growth throughout the company and to implement innovations in our hotels, we have a dedicated budget for strategy development. In this context, the area of transformation and growth in our company does not only include technical innovations and processes. Our staff at the headquarter and in the hotels are ambassadors for new solutions and services and therefore an important pillar in the creation and implementation.

Innovation is seen as an integral part of all our strategic projects. Our recent transformation process started with developing and building a commercial platform as the basis for the change of Deutsche Hospitality towards being a comprehensive international hotel-service provider to our business partners and stakeholders as well as to set up a client centric strategy. This includes the areas of franchise and management as well as consulting. The strategy was initiated right after Ulrich Johannwille (CFO) and I were appointed as the Board of Directors in November 2020.

Several aspects have a major impact when it comes to turning ideas into implementation: our successful strategy relies partly on ongoing communication, stakeholder management and participation, as well as a change process supported by our HR team. We established a Business Innovation department, which acts as a key component for creating new ideas and thinking outside the box. Furthermore, employees are encouraged to participate in special workshops driving change processes. Also, the ongoing communication across many professional areas on the management level works very well and, last but not least, the integration of innovation goals into the budget guidelines of the hotels and Corporate Office units is the breeding ground for our achievements. Together, the DHfamily is doing a great job in implementing changes that benefit our business clients and customers.

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