Increasing Competitiveness Through Innovation in an Industrial Enterprise – A Case Study of the Company Massag

Abstract

The paper focuses on the definition of innovation and innovation process from the historical and today’s perspec-tive of the Massag engineering company. In order to analyse the innovation process, a SWOT analysis was per-formed, and, based on the results obtained, the correlation between the results of the analysis and the statistics of innovation activities in the Czech Republic was made. Within the historical analysis of the company, key innovation milestones were identified and described. The main finding was the combination of the use of different types of innovation activities, which plays an important role in terms of the access to innovations and it is necessary to take innovation as a whole, composed of sub-types of innovation that permeate the whole society. The results of the SWOT analysis showed that the main factor that affects the success of the organization and innovation is the long history of the company and knowledge of the markets. This is reflected in the long-term and quality customer relationships. These established contacts with other companies engaged in engineering production are strengths, which are today reflected in the opportunities for further development of the company. The correlation between results and statistics shows that SMEs are forced to innovate because they are under constant pressure from com-petitors and the market. Therefore, innovation activities are essential for these companies and play a significant role in their current and future competitiveness.