Thornton Tomasetti and Weidlinger Associates - Great example of innovation driven merger

Thornton Tomasetti and Weidlinger associates announced recently that they would be merging under the Thornton Tomasetti brand.The aim of the merger is to drive innovation in the construction business and the combined firm aims to be the global innovation leader for the construction industry.

With the transaction , the firm would have a much broader reach in terms of market segments and geographies. The merger would also enable the firm to create a focused R&D group that would bring in the newest ideas (like digital technologies / 3D printing) contextual to the construction industry.

To enable long term success of the venture , the combined entity is looking at structural refinements to enable an innovation driven culture at the firm, which includes :

1) Creating a customer value proposition around cutting-edge and integrated services.

2) Setup of a decidated Innovation / R&D holding company to build assets focused on innovation.

3) Driving innovation through an idea generation culture, and potentially spinning off key ideas into separate businesses.

4) Creating a career structure for employees to motivate such culture.

5) Creating a investment model in the industry that could potentially be based on intellectual property and R&D, similar to the patent model in the Pharmaceutical industry.

You can read the WSJ article on this here : http://www.wsj.com/articles/engineering-firms-merge-aim-to-drive-innovation-1441674247

#Innovation #Strategy