Innovation and Using Technology to Make Better

¶ … innovation and using technology to make better products. It discuses several tactics taken up by companies and they used the plans for their growth and success. The long-term impact of strategies is discussed and emphasized. Furthermore, personal opinions about the implementation of strategies are also discussed.

Strategic Management

Due to the increase in the rate of technological enhancements and globalization, technological innovation is something crucial to the growth and survival of any company. A business environment is very competitive, complex and ever changing. The strategies taken up by an organization to manage the ongoing innovation play a very crucial role in all of the technology-based companies. This process is basically used to manage the production of a certain product and how that production is organization within in the company. There are many tools that engineers and managers have to implement. This clearly states that both the upper level and the lower level administration need to have a clear cut understanding of the company's process and goals. The company should basically keep itself open to different opportunities. The opportunities can either be external or internal. Apart from being proactive with attain opportunities, a company should be alert to out all of its effort to introduce new ideas, products and processes. Further down management strat4egis of innovation of different companies will be discussed and compared.

P&G

The growth in sales and profit got decreased and halted at P&G some time ago. IT was during the hard times that the new CEO, Art Lately, recognized that the company wasn't focusing its attention to developing new and better products. In 2002, only 12 of the company's 250 and plus brands made a decent about of sales and profit to the company. (Andrew & Sirkin, 2003) Subsequent to that, Lafley pushed the product groups to be interlinked to each other. Along with connecting present products, experts were called and they assisted with making new products. This direction further directed the company into a home car-care business. This therefore states that instead of the company trying to make up a new product on its own, P&G found expertise in varied parts of the company. Using this specialty, the company's cascade brand unit integrated with the car care area and went on to produce the Mr. Clean Auto Dry handheld sprayer. This also shows another tactic or strategy that when a company goes on to make a product, it should use the best technology. Along with the best technology being used, the company has to keep the consumers in mind as well. It has been estimated that 33%-60% of all new products that are introduced fail t reach the market or to make profit. (Schilling & Hill, 1998) A reason this could be happening is because the consumers already have a product similar to that thus they don't show much interest in the new product.

Apple

As mentioned earlier, there has to be coordination between the top management and the people who make the products as well. The importance of these top managers is made prominent most by the sense of direction that Steve Jobs' management gave to Apple Computer. Ever since Jobs c-founded the company, he has been on a mission to revive and it excel it to new heights. Jobs didn't only provide one single product but an entire system to the consumers. In 2001, Apple embarked on the journey of making iPod. It was then that Jobs realized that the company could not be successful by only producing and selling hardware.

He thought out of the box and thought of certain possibilities to the product he made. Jobs used the strategy on building on what's already there and expanding it. He knew that digital player wouldn't really be a success if there wasn't an online download store. Jobs thus took the extra step and negotiated digital rights problems with some record companies. This negotiation led to the predication of an online store with a legal access to more than one million songs. Just by three years, Apple was successful in selling 3.7 million iPods. The sales of these new products soared to one billion dollars. The answer that Jobs had to the success that was the company made a solution that works for all. (Hof et.al, 2004)

Motorola

A major strategy in coming up with new products is that a company needs to be aware and alert about all that is going around them. This is basically stated that a corporation needs to analyze the external task and societal atmosphere for newer products. This scan for the new products isn't so the company copies or makes a similar product. IT is also so they can learn from and use it to add to their current or future products. Research shows that companies who carefully analyze their outside environment are more innovative as compared to those who only focus on themselves. This strategy is well employed by Motorola. Motorola has a tendency to invest in technologies that are profitable. It also believes in working on improvements and also has an efficient analyzing system. The intelligence department of the company looks over and analyzes what is new in the market. It keeps itself updated about the new journals, gossip and the new conferences. The information that the team collects is later utilized in making road maps or plans. These plans thus decide and hint to where the company can step in and introduce a new product. These plans also inform how much money the company will make and which of the innovations will actually work for the company.

Generally, there is a rule of thumb about managing innovations properly. The most successful innovations are somewhat new to the market. Along with being new and updated, they save the customers money. They support the existing practices and go on and satisfy the customers' needs. Also, these new products are established on tried-and-tested technology. Where successful innovations are discussed, it only seems necessary to talk about some mistakes that companies make. The unsuccessful strategies are such that the innovations follow an approach that follows companies who have made similar product before. The innovations were created on untested or cutting edge technology. The products were produced with no solution in mind.