Session 3: Developing an Innovation & Technology Strategy

Introduction

The session will review and focus on key questions such as 'do we have a clear innovation strategy'? Assessing if there is a clear sense of where and how innovation will take the organisation forward and is there a roadmap for this? The session then raises the question 'is the strategy shared and understood - and how can we ensure alignment of the various innovation efforts across the organisation'? The session concludes by examining the central role that capabilities and positions have in developing an innovative strategy.

Given the complexity, continuous change and consequent uncertainty, the criticality in developing a viable and agile innovation strategy cannot be stressed. Michael Porter correctly identifies the nature of competitive threats and opportunities that emerge from advances in technology, and rightlystresses the importance of developinga robust innovation strategy in order to enable firms to position themselves against the competition.

Effective strategies rely on the capacity of senior management to identify and predict the importance of change outside the firm, and to implement radical changes in competencies and organisational practices within the firm. However, this is only half the equation, and the success of a viable strategy needs to embrace the views of the workforce as without it the organisation will often struggle in developing an innovation strategy.

Question

Video:Watch Micro TedTalk:Knut Haanaes: Two reasons companies fail -- and how to avoid them

Having reflected on the video answer the following questions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVXmYD0UPRQ

1. What are the two reasons companies fail?
2. What is the difference between exploration and exploitation within an innovation context?
3. What are the traps within innovation and the triumph indicators?

Please make it comprehensive with references