Organizing-for-Innovation and New Models of Corporate Governance in the Automobile Firm of the Future

In an age of fast-paced technological change and hyper-competitive global markets, all firms must focus on putting in place organizational structures and management processes that deliver innovation. This is obviously a technical challenge (developing and gathering together multiple new technologies), but also a “design” challenge (offering end-users a meaningful and frictionless experience). Meeting these challenges and delivering innovation requires a break from traditional hierarchical and centralized approaches to firm organization and governance. In this chapter, we take recent developments in the car industry—specifically the on-going development of automated vehicles—to identify some of the organizational structures, procedures and practices that deliver the best opportunities for meeting the challenge of designing the intelligent car of the future. The chapter suggests that much of the contemporary discourse of corporate governance and compliance (which remains focused on hierarchy, accountability and disclosure) is disconnected from the business realities and needs of firms today (i.e., delivering innovation) and that new frameworks are required. The chapter identifies a number of features of this new approach.