Critical Competencies for the Innovativeness of Value Creation Champions: Identifying Challenges and Work-integrated Solutions ☆

Medium-sized manufacturers of technical products with a high degree of in-house value adding activities – so-called value creation champions – are very important to the success of German industry and to safeguarding attractive jobs in Germany. Key to their success is their distinct innovativeness. The innovative capacities of these companies are increasingly under threat, especially as they are often based on the competencies of only few individual employees. Therefore, solutions are needed to first identify such critical competencies and then to develop new ways of work-integrated learning and knowledge exchange to develop respective capabilities. Based on current literature this paper first identifies the importance of four clusters of competencies, namely network competence, creative problem-solving competence, overview competence and integration competence, and explains under which conditions they should be rated as critical. This paper then proposes a five-step-process that enables companies to identify possible critical competencies and take suitable measures to avoid putting their innovativeness at risk.