Strategic Innovation: Insights & Application in Tech Team Leadership

This case study delves into the critical aspects of focusing innovation efforts within organizations, particularly in the context of technological advancements and evolving consumer preferences. It emphasizes the importance of understanding the dimensions along which technology improves to guide research and development investments effectively. The analysis involves tracing the history of technology, evaluating utility curves to identify opportunities, and prioritizing investments based on customer importance, room for improvement, and ease of development. The study highlights the significance of aligning technological development with customer satisfaction and strategic intent, drawing from the experiences of successful global companies. Furthermore, it addresses the practical application of these insights in managing a technological team, emphasizing the need for thorough research, consumer feedback, and a focus on continuous improvement to ensure product success and customer satisfaction. Desklib provides access to this and other solved assignments.

Running Head: WHERE TO FOCUS OUR INNOVATION EFFORTS
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Where to Focus our Innovation Efforts
Student’s Name
Lectures Name
Course Title
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WHERE TO FOCUS OUR INNOVATION EFFORTS
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Where to Focus our Innovation Efforts
QUESTIONS:
1. What insights did you gain from reading the responses to this case?
Technological advancement has birthed many uncertainties in the world. It has made it
difficult for marketers to predict what consumers want. Competitive advantage has been a
challenge for organizations to maintain since it is hard to know what their competitors will do.
Businesses should emulate companies that have proven themselves proficient at inventing new
markets and continuously keeping up with the shifting patterns of consumer preferences in
established markets (Prahalad & Hamel, 2006). Getting the big picture of dimensions along
which technology is improving helps managers to understand where to focus their Research and
Development efforts and to anticipate the move of competitors. There are steps involved that can
help an investor in getting the big picture of technology advancements and how they can
prioritize investments. The first step is to identify the dimensions by tracing the history of
technology to date. After researching the past, determine the dimensions affected by each
significant change. If you go further back, it is easy to see the aspects along which the
dimensions have changed. The second step is to evaluate the utility curve for fidelity to avoid
making poor investment decisions. The curve helps investors to notice where there is the biggest
opportunity for improvement. The last step is to evaluate which technology-development
investments to finance to generate high income. After listing the dimensions with the most
significant opportunities for growth, score each aspect in a scale of one to five. The scores should
be categorized according to the importance to customers, room for improvement, and ease for
development.

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The dissatisfaction of the clients proved that ease of improvement is exceptionally essential in
enhancing the consumer experience.
2. How will you be able to apply them when you manage a technological team?
When managing a technological team, it is crucial to carry out extensive research about a
new product before creating it. It is also vital to do several run trials on consumers to get
feedback before proceeding with the production. The technological team will be assigned
historical data to identify the dimensions along which the technology advanced. They will also
determine the shape of the utility curve of the dimension to determine the value customers derive
from a technology relative to its performance. Lastly, the technological will consider ease of
improvement to ensure customers are satisfied with the product. Companies that have been
successful globally maintained their strategic intent. According to Hamel & Prahalad (2010),
strategic intent envisions a competent project leader who will ensure the progress of the
organization.

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References:
Hamel, G., & Prahalad, C. K. (2010). Strategic Intent. Harvard Business Press.
Prahalad, C. K., & Hamel, G. (2006). The core competence of the corporation. In Strategische
unternehmungsplanung—strategische unternehmungsführung (pp. 275-292). Springer,
Berlin, Heidelberg.