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Ques: Evaluate scope of managing Technology & Innovation to ensure effective

implementation of strategy

Ans:

Role of managing Technology in strategy implementation

Technology can be defined as the knowledge, tools, equipment, and work methods used by an

organization in providing its goods and services. The technology employed must fit the selectedstrategy for it to be successfully implemented. Companies planning to differentiate their product

on the basis of quality must take steps to assure that the technology is in place to produce

superior quality products or services. This may entail tighter quality control or state-of-the-art

equipment. Firms pursuing a low-cost strategy may take steps to automate as a means of reducing labor costs. Similarly, they might use older equipment to minimize the immediate

expenditure of funds for new equipment.

The four “structural levers” for strategy implementations are actions, programs, systems, and  policies. There is an importance of involving all levels of the company in strategy

implementation. “Programs” refers to the need to place innovation throughout a company, particularly with regards to how an organization learns. “Systems” emphasizes the importance of information technology to strategy implementation. The final structural lever, “policies,” points

to the need for companies to have formal policies that are in harmony with the overall strategy.

 Role of innovation in strategy implementation 

The term innovation refers to both radical and incremental changes in thinking, in things,  processes or in services (McKeon 2008). Innovation is an important topic in the study of 

economics, business, technology, sociology, and engineering. Since innovation is also

considered a major driver of the economy, the factors that lead to innovation are also considered

to be critical to policy makers.

In the organizational context, innovation may be linked to performance and growth through

improvements in efficiency, productivity, quality, competitive positioning, market share etc

while innovation typically adds value, innovation may also have a negative or destructive effect

as new developments clear away or change old organizational forms and practices. Organizationsthat do not innovate effectively may be destroyed by those that do, hence innovation involves

risk. A key challenge in innovation is maintaining a balance between process and product

innovations where process innovations tend to involve a business model which may developshareholder satisfaction through improved efficiencies while product innovations develop

customer support however at the risk of costly Research and Development that can erodeshareholder return.In the 21st century competition has occupied the centre of strategic thinking. Most strategic

 prescriptions redefine the ways companies build advantages, outperforming their competitors.

Companies need advantages over the competition to sustain them in the marketplace. Companies

strive to do better than their competitors. Companies who are not innovation driven are spendinga lot of time and resources on incremental improvement/imitation rather than innovation.

Companies need to be wary of this as they can miss opportunities to capture the mass market.

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Companies driven by competition usually fall into the following traps; imitative no innovative

approaches to the market, acting reactively and understanding of emerging mass markets and

changing customer demands becomes hazy.With the 21st century challenges the key is not to strive to outperform the competition but to

  pursue value innovation. Value innovation makes the competition irrelevant by offering

fundamentally new and superior buyer value in existing markets. Companies need ask themselves “How can we offer buyers greater value that will result in soaring profitable growth

irrespective of industry or competitive conditions?”

For innovation to happen top management needs to drive the organizational conventionalcompetition-based thinking that leads only to incremental market improvements. Senior 

management plays a critical role in initiating this change (Kanter, 1996). The challenge is what

type of organization best unlocks the ideas and creativity of the employees. Strategic business

units (SBUs) teams focusing on a common business or product goal and team members of diverse backgrounds and perspectives bring on board value innovation. The task lies with

management to cultivate a corporate culture conducive to willing collaboration. Promotion of 

voluntary cooperation among organizational members is critical as this goes beyond the call of 

duty. Individuals exert effort, energy and initiative to the best of their abilities on behalf of theorganization.

The collaboration initiative is a characteristic of voluntary cooperation and key to adaptingchange. Individuals tend to share ideas and cooperate voluntarily when the company

acknowledges their intellectual and emotional worth.

To attain breakthroughs in their markets companies need to know that value innovation is the

essence of strategy. Companies need people who can identify the gaps in the market and bydoing so make things happen to fill the gap. Upon identifying the gaps the entrepreneur in the

company needs to do a business plan and set out the strategy for presentation to the

shareholders/owner for financing as they are not necessarily the owners of the business.Alford (1977) and Foxall and Minkes (1996) argue that entrepreneurship is diffused throughout

the organization leaving senior managers to clearly set out the strategic direction of the

organization.Organizations are challenged to deal with today’ s complexities of getting co-workers to think 

like the entrepreneurs. This calls for change in the way business has always been done.

Organizations internally have to face uncertainty with this change process. Being innovativethey have to be movers' in-order to penetrate the market before the golden opportunities are lost

 but this has its negative and positive side, failure or success. With this the entrepreneur takes

 position of satisfiers rather than maximums of the market. The costs of being wrong have to be

 borne by the company.