INNOVATION CULTURE AS A FACTOR OF COMPETITIVENESS IN A PUBLIC COMPANY OF ENERGY SOLUTIONS: A CASE STUDY AT CEMIG SIM

Abstract

The article discusses the culture of innovation as a factor to stimulate competitiveness in an energy solutions company. The research, of an exploratory, descriptive and qualitative approach, aimed to identify, from the structured interview and the documentary research, which are the elements to stimulate the culture of innovation adopted by Cemig Sim, subsidiary of energy solutions of Companhia Energética de Minas Gerais. The script of questions consisted of 22 questions, being applied to the Marketing, Culture and Customer Success Manager. After data collection, the guidelines to encourage innovation adopted by Cemig Sim were compared with the model proposed by Dutra e Almeida, from 2018, in order to analyze the practices carried out by the company and point out the highlights and possible opportunities for improvement. It was found that of the 33 variables proposed by the aforementioned model, Cemig Sim fully fulfills 26 categories, representing 78.7% of completeness. Initiatives such as error tolerance; learning organizations; cross-functional teamwork; processes and tools for generating new ideas; meet current and potential customers/search for ideas outside the organization; explicit top management support for innovation; creating and maintaining a flexible organizational structure and employee autonomy. However, the company fails to adopt important initiatives for the innovation management process, such as establishing reward and recognition mechanisms for creative behavior; job rotation and; innovation metrics. It is suggested the development of practices that contemplate and encourage such activities in the company.