Notes on Management of Technology & Innovation (different sources)

Compilation from all over the World Wide Web!

Definition of Technological Environment:-

“Technological Environment means the development in the field of technology which affects business by new inventions of productions and other improvements in techniques to perform the business

External factors in technology that impact business operations. changes n technology affect how a company will do business. A business may have to dramatically change their operating strategy as a result of changes in the technological environment.

Technology is a much broader concept than many people today think it is. It is the application of knowledge to the world that allows people to affect their environment by controlling or changing it.

Notes: Changes in the technological environment have had some of the most dramatic effects on business. A company may be thoroughly committed to a particular type of technology and may have made major investments in equipment and training only to new.

Social Impact of technology:

1. Technology reaches people through business
2. High expectation of consumer
3. System complexity
4. Social change
5. Technological phases

TECHNOLOGY and Economy

1. Increased productivity -> quality and quantity
2. Need to spend on research and development
3. Technology transfer
4. Jobs tend to become more intellectual
5. Problem of techno structure
6. Need for multi professional
7. Increased regulation and stiff opposition
8. Rise and decline of product and organization
9. Insatiable demand of capital

Main problems and issues facing technology environment and policy in India

 Heavy dominance of government in technology dept.
 Condition of stagnation in technology research
 Low rate of technology commercialiation
 Weak intellectual regime
 Limited import of technology due to restriction
 Inferior proposition of Indian partner
 Import of outdated and inappropriate technology
 Little emphasis on technology assimilation and absorption

Technological Change
Technological change is improvement in the 'art' of making products or developing processes.
A technological product is just something that man created using the application of knowledge to improve a person's life, environment or society.
A technological process is a means to make and improve products and services. For example, the traditional manner of 'printing' magazines involved a mechanical printing press.

Technological Change is a term that is used to describe the overall process of invention, innovation, diffusion of technology or process. The term is synonymous with technological development, achievement and process. In essence TC is the invention of a technology, the continuous process of improving technology and its diffusion throughout industry or society. In short, technological change is based on both better or more technology.

Process:

1. Technology Creation
2. Technology monitoring
3. Technology assessment
4. Technology transfer
5. Technology acceptance
6. Technology utilization
7. Technology maturity
8. Technology decline

Technology Creation: This phase involves creating and Generation of new technologies. This phase involves:
a. Creativity and Invention
b. Innovation
c. Senior management commitment to technology creating and generation
d. Developing requisite and supportive corporate culture for promoting technology creating and generation

Technology Monitoring: This phase calls for monitoring technology trends and changes before implementing new technology. It involves following activities:
a. Installing and developing information systems for monitoring technological trends and changes
b. Competitive analysis to understand competitiveness provided by existing and prospective technologies
c. Customer and Supplier interfaces to understand market and technological changes
d. People links to understand market trends and technological changes.

Technology assessment: This phase involves understanding, integration. Involves following activity:
a. Understanding the direction of markets in terms of technology.
b. Integration of technology and business planning
c. Customer interfaces to assess the commercial feasibility of prospective technologies
d. Assessing contributions of technology projects to business strategy.
Technology Transfer: This phase leads to transfer of technology from external source to own Research and Development; and internally from R&D to production. This phase involves following activities:
a. Entering strategic alliance to develop or acquire potential technologies
b. Using product design teams for reaping benfits of planned technological changes.
c. Reducing functional barriers to technology transfer
d. Utilizing people links for successful technology transfer i.e. involving people across the organization.

Technology Acceptance: This phase calls for acceptance of technology as a beneficial change and involves following activities:

a. Supportive organizational design and structures
b. Supportive corporate culture
c. Senior management commitment
d. Assessment of impacts of technological change on organization, enhancing benefits, reducing adverse effects, smoothening barriers, hurdles in the change

Technology Utilization: This phase involves: 

a. Effective project management for seeking maximum utilization
b. Process technologies to support and facilitate maximum utilization
c. Supportive marketing strategies, efforts and utilizing feedback for improvement.

This phase leads to technology growth as reflected by increase in sales.

Technology Maturity: This phase involves analyzing maturity of existing technology and its related products/ services/ processes through study of following indicators:
a. Efficiency vs. effectiveness contributed by the current technologies in attaining organizational goals.
b. Market stability in terms of volumes/ sales
c. Rise of substitutes in the marketplace
d. Diminished returns on investment
e. Decline of market share
f. Loss of competitiveness in the marketplace

     Technology Decline

a. This is the last phase. During this phase a technology and its related products/ services/ process/ application/ sales. Technology and its associated products or services become ordinary commodity. Technology degrades and become obsolete.
b. This phase calls for movement to new technological opportunities.
c. Thereafter the cycle restarts by the creating of a new technology/ movement towards a new technology.

Technology Strategy:
Technology strategy is a function of quantity and quality of technological capabilities and competences. Experience obtained from enacting technology strategy feeds back to technological capability and technology strategy.

Technological capability and competence are complementary concepts and value chain of porter provides a useful tool for examining their interim interrelationships.

In competitive domains, the outcome of rivalry are determined by technological choices. The success of products and processes that leads the firm to secure the competitive advantage by gaining the core competence.

In short, the technology strategy of a firm is a fundamental driver of its profitability.

USP: Unique selling point

Core competence : HRM,Marketing, Self Actualiziation, Production
A harmonized combination of multiple resources and skills that distinguish a firm in the market place. Core competence acc to MTI will come through technology strategy i.e. Research and Development/Transfer of technology as it is present in all departments.

A technology strategy is the approach that a firm takes to obtaining and using technology to achieve a new competitive advantage, or to define an existing technology oriented competitive advantage against erosion.

Substance of Technology Strategy:
1.Competitive strategy stance
• Technology Choice: Targeted technologies development may range from minor improvement to employment of emerging technologies in a first new product in new market.
• Technology Leadership (pioneering role in the development of a technology vs monitoring role)
• Technology Entry timing (appropriability regimes and control over complementary assets)
• Technology Licensing (marketing of technologies)
2.Value chain stance (technology strategy)
• Scope of technology strategy is the set of technological capabilities that the firm decide to develop internally.
• Developing and enriching technological competences.
• Avoiding from the threats of new entrants (if all other four forces be equal)

1. Resources commitment stance (depth of technology strategy)
   • Depth of TS is firm prowess within the various core technologies.
   • Depth of TS can be expressed in terms of the number of technological options that the firm has available.
   • Depth of technology is likely to be correlated with the firms capacity to anticipate technological developments in particular area early on.
2. Management Stance
   • Organizational Fit
   • Firms that can organize themselves to meet the organizational requirements flowing from their competitive, value chain and resources commitment stances are more likely to have an effective technology strategy.

Technology Strategy Implementation
• Technology sourcing (internal or external)
• Product and process development
• Technical Support

Technology Strategy at National Level
• At national level two types of strategy options are usually explored
o Internalization Oriented Strategy
♣ This strategy aims at seeking technological development with an objective to become internally self reliant.
♣ This strategy aims at seeking technology transfer by TNCs/MNCs via Foreign Direct Investment
♣ The strategy seeks proactive role in attracting TNCs/MNCs and focusses on ensuring a stable macro-economic environment and good supportive infrastructure.
o Externalization Oriented Strategy
♣ This strategy aims at seeking technological development with an objective to tap external market.
♣ Under this strategy. There is restricted role of FDI. This strategy seeks to foster/encourage indigenous technology development i.e. Developing domestic technology capabilities in general or in selected strategic industries.
♣ Eg. Minority Joint Ventures, Technological assistance to domestic firms, encouraging import of capital goods

• At Enterprise Level
A formal set of enterprise intentions that allocates available resources and sets priorities based on clearly stated technological and enterprise objectives and a perceived environment in which the process is to be embedded.

o Factors that Influence
♣ Sustainability of Technological Lead
• Only if competitors can’t copy it
♣ First Mover advantage
• Advantages like increased reputation, pre-empting competition, early profits, new sales.
• Disadvantages like cost of regulatory approvals, cost of educating buyers, demand uncertainty, low cost imitations by competitors, risk of technological discontinuities of existing technology/products/processes
o Types of Strategies
♣ Leadership Strategy: Under this strategy, a firm seeks to be the first to introduce technological changes/innovations.
♣ Followership Strategy: A conscious & active strategy, by which a firm chooses not to be first on innovations.
♣ Niche Strategy: Focuses on a limited number of critical technologies to seek leadership. Technology development is selective, and deployment is oriented towards exploiting the technological strength of the firm in selected technologies to create competitive advantage.
♣ Technology rationalization involves maintain adequacy only in a select set of technologies. For these firms, their technology deficit should be compensated by other competitive strengths in order for them to service in many competitive domains.

Technology strategy is different from overall business strategy.
• Higher uncertainty
• More use of intellectual property
• Sometimes results are new to the world (innovation)
• Create strategies and dyanmics that are different
• Require different organizations
• Use different decision making tools
• Opens up new opportunities
• Face different strategic issues

Appropriation of Technology:

The vernacular engineering of Latino car design to environmental analysis among rural women, groups outside the centers of scientific power persistently defy the notion that they are merely passive recipients of technological products and scientific knowledge. Rather, there are many instances in which they reinvent these products and rethink these knowledge systems, often in ways that embody critique, resistance, or outright revolt.

Appropriability refers to the degree to which the potential economic benefits from an innovation can be appropriated by the firms engaged in technology. Where appropriability is high, firms can reap the benefits of their innovation; in low appropriability environments, the profit potential of innovation is dissipated through imitation by other firms or ceded to suppliers, distribution channels, or customers.

Technology Transfer
It is the process by which basic science research and fundamental discoveries are developed into practical and commercially relevant applications and products.

The process by which existing knowledge, facilities or capabilities developed under R&D funding are utilized to fulfill public and private need.

Elements:
TT Function: Coordinate
Coordinating between technology users and developers, between researchers and manufactures is an important element of technology transfer. Access to relevant internal and external resources to individual projects and enterprises has to be enabled.

TT Function: Nurture
A main ingredient for moving technology from a research laboratory to a new business enterprise successfully is an environment that is supportive of entrepreneurship. This needs to be encouraged by providing guidance, counseling and resources.

TT Function: Link
Cataloging resources related to business enterprises and connecting would-be entrepreneurs/researchers and other technology developers to outside groups and organizations which can help in the process of starting new products, companies etc. Such linkages provide referrals for individual business counseling, sources of financing or the names of individuals who can help with a particular facet of business development.

Also includes processing and evaluating invention disclosures; filing for patents; technology marketing; licensing; protecting intellectual property arising from research activity; and assisting in creating new businesses and promoting the success of existing firms. The result of these activities will be new products, more high-quality jobs, and an expanded economy.

Agents:

1. Research and Development Units
   a. Universities
   b. Public research centers
   c. Technology institutes (institutions, labs etc)

2. Companies
   a. Supplier of technology and R&D to third parties
   b. Spin-off
   c. Large R&D Department
   d. Competitors , suppliers (technological alliances)

Types of Technology Transfer:
Vertical technology transfer and Horizontal technology transfer: “Vertical technology transfer occurs when information is transmitted from basic research to applied research, from applied research to development, and from development to production. Such transfers occur in both directions, and the form of the information changes as it moves along this dimension. Horizontal transfer of technology occurs when technology used in one place, organization, or context is transferred and used in another place, organization, or context

Types of Technology Transfer•
• Scientific Knowledge Transfer, Direct Technology Transfer, Spin-off Technology Transfer
• Informal Technology Transfer & Formal Technology Transfer
• Internal Technology Transfer & External Technology Transfer
Internal Technology Transfer:
Internal Technology Transfer refer to such technology transfers / investments where control on the ownership & usage of technology resides with the transferor. It is a complex process involving following decisions. Decisions: Timing, Location, Multi-functional teams, Communication methods & Procedures
Problems:
1.R&D goals are not known to production department.

1. Difficulties in stopping current production to test the new products/processes
2. Production department is resistant to innovation and is bound by routine
3. Non-linkage of new technologies to marketing/customer needs
   Overcoming Barriers to Internal Technology Transfer:
4. Top management support and participation in the transfer process.
5. Use of multi-functional teams in the transfer process.
6. Brining R&D closer to production
7. Rotation of few persons between R&D and production.
8. Ensuring effective communication in the organization.

External Technology Transfer:
In these transfers, control on the ownership & usage of technology usually does not remain with the transferor and it passes on to the recipient, like joint venture with local control, licensing agreement etc.
• Type of technology being transferred
• Complexity of the technology being transferred
• Transfer mechanism selected
• Relationship between the parties & compatibility thereof
• Organizational culture of the parties & mutual understanding thereof

Methods:
• Co-operative & Collaborative ventures/strategic alliances
• Licensing agreements
• Contracting agreements
• Enterprise acquisition
Why External?
• Technology already developed saves time and efforts
• Sometimes growth objectives or competitive goals cannot be reached through internal development
• Lack of internal resources (physical & human) for innovation
• Firm does not have core competencies to deal with complex technological developments
• Need to keep up with competitors
• Need to cope up with acceleration of technological change
Barriers:
• Associated Costs – usually high prices are required to be paid in the form of royalties, technical & knowhow fees etc over medium to long term period.
• Appropriateness of technology i.e. its suitability to core competencies and market needs is always a point of discussion and investigation
• Heavy reliance on foreign technology – may make transferee/ recipient technologically dependent on external technology providers/ transferors even for small issues
• Lack of mutual trust between two parties may hinder full & timely transfer
• Risk of loss of control over technology and the transferee/ recipient may use technology in an arbitrary manner
• Transfer may render existing technology and its related products/ services / processes obsolete
• Transferee may turn a potential competitor in future
• Mismatch in core competencies of the transferor and transferee may create difficulties in transfer
• Different organization cultures may create difficulties in transfer
• Lack of effective communication between the parties may also create difficulties in transfer

Overcoming barriers to External Technology Transfer
• Proper and well defined technology transfer agreement should be signed
• Proper assessment/ evaluation of appropriation of technology
• Proper assessment/ evaluation of compatibility core competencies of the parties
• Building pre-agreement relationships so as to develop mutual trust and so as to understand culture of opposite parties
• Seeking cross cultural training
• Ensuring effective communication
• Anticipating problems and adopting measures and facilitating transfer

Technology Transfer Agreement
Tech It can be developed through own research and development or it can be purchased through indigenous or imported sources.

1. Inventor Assignment Agreement
2. Confidentiality Agreements
3. License Agreements
4. Patents
   a. Provision applications
   b. PCT applications
   c. National applications
   d. Issued Patents
5. Drawings and Specification, Machinery and Components list etc

License & Technology
• Define technology and list of Intellectual Property Rights
• Grant of License
• Rights and Obligations of licensee and licensor
• Exclusive/ Non Exclusive
• Transferability
• Revocability
• Territory
• Sub-licensing
• Advertising & Promotion
• Audit of accounts from outside agency
• Royalty Payment and Calculation

INNOVATION
Innovation = Invention + Exploitation
Innovation involves the creation of new product, process or service to an organization and introduce them to the market place by utilization and commercialization of them
Sources: Internal (1-3) External (4-6)

1. R&D
2. Patents
3. Employees (suggestions)
4. Customers (traders, suppliers, competitors)
5. Products in other sectors (market research)
6. Technology
   Why?
   • Competitive advantage
   • Consumer behavior is changing
   • Products short life cycle
   • Technology changes & new products
   • New customers/ markets
   Why aren’t they?
   • No awareness of innovation (managers)
   • High Costs of Innovation
   • Employees resistance to change
   • Monopoly position
   • Innovation is a long term process
   • Strategic decision to wait and observe
   • No incentive for innovation (employees)
   • The cash cow exists (a business, investment, or product that provides a steady income or profit.)

The idea of innovation at large is habitually associated with the making and development of new products and services: different from the existing ones, capable to meet an increased number of users’ needs, performing better and easier to use, store and carry. The constant technological advances have and are indeed favoring this process so that in many cases the application of the latest technology to the existing products and the provision of services making use of new technologies have enabled employers to introduce in their relevant market innovative products and services. Most importantly, technology can clearly help employers to develop and design unparalleled, completely new products.

Innovation, nonetheless, is not exclusively concerned with products and services, but also with processes and procedures, which can be designed and developed to the benefit of a person, unit, business or community at large (Farr, 1990). As stressed by Martins (2000), the concept of innovation is also strictly contextual-related; more specifically, a new idea can be actually considered as genuinely innovative whether regarded as such within the specific settings and, it could be added, by the individuals to whom it is directed.

Identified the different degrees of innovation and stressed the fact that innovation depends on the circumstances, it is also crucially important to ensure that innovation serves the business cause. New ideas have hence to represent for employer’s valuable opportunities enabling these to effectually pursue their intended strategy (Gaynor, 2002). Once again, the context and the specific circumstances came to play; what is considered innovative today might become obsolete or unsuitable tomorrow as a consequence of a strategy or environment change, never mind technological advances. To ensure that employers’ expectations in terms of innovation are constantly met these need hence to be relentlessly monitored and the consequent possibly required initiatives and actions adapted and adopted accordingly.

The circumstance innovation strongly supports an employer strategy and essentially enables this to gain competitive edge has accounted for innovation also being essentially perceived and seen as an, it could be argued innovative, approach to problem solving.

Innovation does not derive from the development and introduction of new technologies only; new ideas can in fact also be identified by creatively adapting, improving and enhancing current and even past technologies.

Product Innovation v/s Process Innovation
Product Innovation:
A product innovation is the introduction of a good or service that is new or significantly improved with respect to its characteristics or intended uses. These include significant improvements in technical specifications, components and materials, incorporated software, user friendliness or other functional characteristics. Product innovations include both new products and new uses for existing products.
¥ New products. These are goods and services that differ significantly in their characteristics or intended uses from products previously produced by the firm. The first microprocessors and digital cameras are examples of new products using new technologies. The first portable MP3 player, which combined existing software standards with miniaturised hard-drive technology, was a new product combining existing technologies.
• New uses for products. The development of a new use for a product with only minor changes to its technical specifications is a product innovation. An example is the introduction of a new detergent using an existing chemical composition that was previously used as an intermediary for coating production only.
A product is any tangible offering that might satisfy the needs or aspirations of the consumer.
A product has following dimensions:
a. Core Benefits: basic functions and attributes meant to be provided by the good/product
b. Tangible Specification: these define shape, size, appearance etc. of the product
c. Augmented Features: these are the additional benefits or utilities associated with the product like after sales service, perceived benefits of a brand etc.
Product design is the complete specifications of a product to be manufactured and contains details like: functions/attributes, size, weight, appearance, engineering/technical specifications, constituents/ components/ parts of final product. It is the first step immediately after accepting the concept of the product. It has direct impact over the selection of processing equipment’s and methods, plant layout and in process material flows.
¬ Ensures that the intended functions are discharged by the product
¬ It can be manufactured with ease in the factory
¬ It can be sold to the customer

Drivers of Product Innovation
• Change in customer requirement
• Adding more functions/attributes
• Increasing salability (appearance)
• Enhancing ease in manufacturing
• Tapping new markets or market segments
• Increasing products life cycle
• Enhancing convenience to use
• Technological advancement and progress
• Standardization and simplification efforts in an organization.
• Improving quality
• Improving product reliability
• Maintaining technological leadership
• Reducing processing and manufacturing costs
• Gaining competitive edge
• Sustaining competitiveness

PROCESS INNOVATION
A process innovation is the implementation of a new or significantly improved production or delivery method. This includes significant changes in techniques, equipment and/or software. Process innovations can be indented to decrease the unit costs of production or delivery, to increase quality or to produce or deliver new or significantly improved products.

• Production methods. These methods involve the techniques, equipment and software used to produce goods or services. Examples of new production methods are the implementation of new automation equipment on a production line or the implementation of computer-assisted design for product development.

• Delivery methods. These concern the logistics of the firm and encompass equipment, software and techniques to source inputs, allocate supplies within the firm or deliver final products. An example of a new delivery method is the introduction of a bar-coded or active RFID (radio frequency identification) goods tracking system.

Process innovation results in:

1. Reduce costs
2. Improve quality
3. Shorten delivery time
4. Reduce inventories
5. Minimize plant and equipment investment
6. Shift scale economies
7. Allow greater flexibility
8. Strategic initiative to defend a market niche by increasing entry barriers
9. Safeguards competitive advantage

Embedding Innovation in Organizational Culture

Why it is necessary to embed innovation into organizational culture

There are indeed plenty of reasons for employers having to introduce innovation as a strong component of corporate culture. As suggested by Voelpel et al (2005), an innovation-based organizational culture should first and foremost enable employers to successfully compete in their market in a sustainable way. Albeit innovation is crucially important for all the employers, irrespective of the industry they operate in, in some industries, as for instance it is the case of high-tech and information technology, innovation plays an even more significant role insofar as employers need imperatively to innovate, seriously risking otherwise to disappear (Angel, 2006). Organizational culture should hence first and foremost support and ensure individual readiness to change. In order to become part of everyday employee behaviour, needing to be embedded into culture

Encouraging continuous innovation is essentially important to support the business over time and enable the organization to gain and maintain competitive edge. This unremitting process clearly entails remarkable efforts which would be pointless to think could be ever made by a limited number of employees who, by reason of their formal role, may be considered as the only ones suitable to take the challenge up. Including innovation as a founding pillar of culture enables employers to ensure that every individual takes up the challenge and does his/her utmost to contribute to a constant, unrelenting innovation process (Kenny and Reedy, 2007).

Embedding innovation into culture can also help individuals to come up with new, innovative ways to analyse problems and identify solutions (Lock and Kirkpatrick, 1995). Employers are in fact increasingly considering embedding innovation into organizational culture to promote and encourage problem solving within their business. One of the main reasons for managers usually complaining about their direct reports relates to their readiness to represent the issues and difficulties associated with their tasks and duties, and their lack of ability and eagerness to come up with and suggest appropriate solutions to overcome these. Despite this is not obviously the sole reason for employers deciding to include innovation amongst their organizational values, developing and rooting within a firm’s culture a strong employee aptitude to problem solving clearly represents a massive advantage and asset on its own. Managers at all levels could thus focus on other issues and employees would find their job and daily activities definitely much more significant and compelling, increasing their self-esteem and deriving from their job a higher value in terms of intrinsic reward.

The development of innovation as a means to foster problem solving within a business can indeed prove to be particularly advantageous. Whether employers are keen and long to come up with new ideas, products, services, processes and procedures this is indeed invariably associated with their need to solve current problems and anticipate or avoid likely future ones to arise. Regularly introducing in the relevant market new products and services would enable organizations to stay ahead of the competition, whereas developing more efficient and effective processes and procedures can enable these to control variable and fixed costs and to resist and insist thus in the market.

Employers, those who strive for innovation included, unfortunately also constantly wait in ambush in order to be ready to copy and replicate the innovative ideas developed by their direct and indirect competitors as quickly as possible. This actually is one of the main reasons, arguably the main reason, for innovation being all too often short-lived. This is indeed also the motive for innovation being typically regarded as an everything but straightforward process and should be as far as possible invariably coupled with the concept of “difficult to replicate” (it can hardly be used the term “impossible”). All of that should not deter employers from struggling for innovation. Copying and replicating also require time and efforts and sometimes it can also be the cause for dismal failure. Yet, introducing in the market innovative and original products and services definitely contributes to the employer brand image, in addition to the consumer brand image. Findings of an investigation carried out in the health sector (Tuan and Venkatesh, 2010), for instance, revealed that technological innovation is considered by many hospitals’ directors as an effective means to increase both “hospitals reputation and brand image” and improve the institutions marketing efforts credibility.

How can I start to embed innovation within my organization?

The three absolute basics every organization must do that don’t require budget are as follows:
¥ Firstly, start involving all your employees in everything and I mean ‘all’ your employees.
Remind yourself of the NASA story where a reporter asked a janitor what he did, a seemingly obvious question. However, the janitor replied: “I’m part of the team that puts people on the moon.”
It doesn’t cost anything to create a culture like that as it’s about people, relationships and how you collaborate.

¥ Secondly, start talking about innovation and differentiation. But, make sure you use your own language in order to translate innovation into something you and your people can understand.
Most organizations start their innovation journey because the proverbial doodoo has hit the fan and a quick fix is needed. In this instance the ‘innovation’ requirement is usually interpreted as being ‘radical’, which is too big for most people to cope with hence nothing happens and the innovation efforts stall.

¥ Finally, however much you think you talk to your people increase it. Communication either poor or a lack of is one of the biggest barriers to organizations pushing forward and is almost a brick wall in terms of driving innovation.
Create small hubs, teams of groups and give them different initiatives based around driving innovation and doing things differently. Choose champions from every corner of your organization to help galvanize your innovation efforts and create a community of entrepreneurs, ideas and potential.

ECONOMIES OF INNOVATION

Innovation Strategy:
How?

1. Scan and monitor the sources of innovation opportunity.
2. Create a personal future scan system.
3. Integrate future scanning with your companies idea management system.
4. Assault industry assumptions.
5. Broaden your company’s vision. Strategize your place in the first mover, fast follower race.
6. Focus relentlessly on value creation throughout the developmental process
7. Design and implement a new product development process.
8. Use cross functional teams
9. Use rapid prototyping

Strategies:

1. First-Mover
   a. High Risk
2. Second- Mover (follow the leader)
   a. Adaptive
   b. Second but “best”
   c. Can fail in industries with short product cycles or network effects
3. Late-to-Market (application engineering)
   a. Economic
   b. Low cost producer requires lots of manufacturing innovation
   c. Made in China
4. Market Segmentation (me-too)
5. Innovative Application
   a. Creative use of existing technology

Models:

1. The suggestion system
2. Continuous improvements teams
3. New venture team model
4. The incubator model of idea management
5. Innovation team

Innovation Relevance
What are the core business benefits?
This enables them to achieve a range of key business outcomes including;
– Engaging and inspiring people to tap into the power of the internal crowd, and empower people to create, invent and innovate new products, processes and services.
– Increasing their ROI to shareholders,
– Achieving business growth goals and improving bottom line results,
– Increasing business value making the business attractive to shareholders, mergers and acquisitions,
– Making productivity and efficiency gains to increase profitability,
– Competing successfully to respond to industry disrupters, increase market shares and extend product lifecycles,
– Responding quickly by developing the internal capability in both human and technology resources to change direction and do things differently.

More importantly:

1. Creates a competitive advantage
2. Establish the best method for your own business
   a. Own unique priorities, sector specific issues, business pobjectives
   b. Recognize your own current resources, opportunities for development, response to customer or organizational needs and anticipation of future trends

INNOVATION AS COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

Competition is more and more present on the business environment, on the firm’s environment and on the management decision taking. Mainly in the last and in the current century, the market globalization deeply influenced how the companies compete among themselves and for their own survival. The frequent need of showing something new, improved or unique to the consumption shows the competitive level that companies are having. What was great yesterday already suffering from contests today and it will possibly not be supported tomorrow.

The market dynamics are affected by many factors - from consumers’ socioeconomic conditions to a firm’s capacity to show an innovative product for consumption. Thus, innovation is becoming the companies’ main competitive factor to increase and keep their operating area.

To be innovative is seeing things from new angles, having broad perspectives, taking risks and being flexible. Promoting innovation in the workplace entails encouraging employees to become idea champions.
Two indispensable and strategic ways of developing idea champions are extensive and continuing training, and development programs.

Large companies see training and development as a vital strategy in human resource management because this stimulates innovation among employees.
Training and development do not just improve job performance but also develop creativity and problem-solving skills. They also contribute to employee flexibility, especially in adapting to change.

innovations are crucial, because they distinguish their products and services from the competitors, creating an additional or new value to customers.

Innovation is becoming more and more crucial for business competitiveness (Giget, 1997), and in sequence, having reflection on the regional development. Results from studies taken in more developed countries indicate that innovation is responsible for 80% to 90% of productivity growth.

The markets have become more complex and unpredictable, demanding, from the management, mechanisms which can follow and recognize future trends in the industry in which the firm is inserted. Knowing the competitors’’ movements have also become more frequent by the firm. It is no longer possible to expect that a competitor implements a new market strategy without having in mind how to react.

INNOVATION AS A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE FACTOR

It is necessary to emphasize the causal link of innovation, making the competitive advantages generation possible for the firm. It is common that managers seek the survival of the organization in the initial moments and, later, the expansion of their activities through strategies that unfold in differentiation or competition for costs, either having a broad or specific focus. In this process, it is also natural to imagine that the challenges appear and that firms seek adaptation to the context, preferably in a unique way over their competitors. Giving these assurances, in order to achieve sustainable competitive advantages, there is the need of implementing new procedures and attributes, internal or external, which so far has not been used by the market or by the organization. It is in this context that the function of innovation is inserted as a competitive advantage generation factor.

Firms operate in a competitive environment, and one of the adopted ways to face the competition is the adoption of strategies which aim at strengthening the organization in the market. The way that the company will model its strategies to face the challenges and the way that will take advantage of the opportunities will result or not in the achievement of competitive advantages (Porter, 1989). However, Barney (2001) mentions that the company must take into consideration the available sources, which can be the difference on the construction and consolidation of the advantages. In this way, the competitive advantage is achieved when the organization effectively implements a strategy or an innovation capable of creating value for the market (Bharadwaj et al., 1993).

Thereby, the innovation can be the main mechanism for a company to achieve sustainable competitive advantage facing the other competitors. According to Hall (1980), the source of differentiated competitive advantages is achieved by the reduction of prices, the use of advertising means and the innovation of products. In accordance with this purpose, Coyne (1986) argues that the existing difference between the firm’s product or service and its competitors must be a long-lasting difference under the market’s supervision. Hence, the competitive advantage becomes sustainable when none of the other rival firms can replicate the benefits of the adopted strategy (Barney, 2001).
Thus, the existing relation between innovation and competitive advantage is in the organization’s fact to use more efficient its sources, in a way to manage them to generate innovations and those to be subjected to achieve competitive advantage (Ito et al., 2012). In this way, according to Figure 1, it will only be considered an innovation if there is (viable) economic result and (quantitative) financial result and this innovation will be able to determine if the firm will obtain competitive advantage facing its competitors. This advantage is characterized by the market perception on the differentiation and the value creation of products and services, which so far were not available to consumers. It is reinforced in this assurance the ex post facto character of innovation.