HUR ESKILSTUNA STRÄNGNÄS ENERGI OCH MILJÖ ARBETAR MED UTVECKLING, IMPLEMENTERING OCH UPPFÖLJNING : EN JÄMFÖRANDE STUDIE MELLAN TEORI OCH PRAKTIK I DE OLIKA FASERNA: ETT EXAMENSARBETE.

Sammanfattning: The thinking that a company needs to evolve itself isn’t a new thing, but has become more prominent these last few years due to the increase in information sharing and the evolving technology. This has put more pressure on companies to continuously evolve themselves and their services or products. Swedish companies must dedicate/engage themselves more to improve their development process in order to continue being a competing force on the market. This realization is something that Eskilstuna Strängnäs Energi och Miljö (ESEM) are beginning to realize and have started to make improvements on, partially by developing new and improving on already existing products or services. But first and foremost they are focusing on implementing these, and thereafter evaluating and engaging in follow-up activities. The development phase of the process is something that comes relatively natural to ESEM, likewise so with the implementation phase, but difficulties exist within these phases that requires the companys focus. All to often the evaluation and follow-up phase of the process is forgotten in favour of the two previous phases, development and implementation which can cause the company to miss picking up on important lessons that arise from projects.This study is done on ESEM, a company that handles services such as electrics, heating and waste water and more in Eskilstuna and Strängnäs municipality. The study has focused on their department of Business development that mainly works with process and service development. The study has also complimented their main data source by gathering information from other departments within the company in order to cast a broader perspective on the subject. The purpose of this essay was that the authors wanted to examine if, and if so, how a company works with developing or improving already existing products, services and work processes. This takes its shape in the different phases of a product/service/process, which are Development, Implementation and Evaluation/Follow-up. This work method was later put up against existing literature that is relevant for the subject. The method used to fulfill the Purpose of this essay was an initial innovation literature study within the subjects of development, implementation and evaluation/follow-up that was followed by two semi-structured interviews and a survey in order to compliment the main data gathering method.The results showed by this study is that ESEM can be described by both the theories and themselves as an innovative organization. This despite the fact that they don’t work completely within the framework of what the theories advise, but they do enough right in order to be categorized as Innovative. The ways that ESEM diverges from what the theories advises are that they don’t communicate clearly enough their whole work process as well as them lacking in prioritizing the evaluation and follow-up phase of the process enough after a concluded project. They have succeeded with motivating and engaging their employees in a good way, since they naturally bring forth their own ideas and stand for the majority of the idea generation within the company, which in results in the company not needing to invest any substantial amount of recourses on this particular point. The authors are critical on the amount of trust ESEM puts in this single source that a majority of their current work methods stem from and advise them to seek either complimenting or disagreeing theories in order to continue to evolve and reach a new high in performance.