Innovate or Perish: Managing the Enduring Technology Company in the Global Market

Need for Innovation: The Strategy Review

Even during profitable times, enterprises must continue to review and reinvent their corporate strategy, especially in these high-speed times of change. Revenue and market share growth is again at the forefront with most Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) in many industries. Enterprises that have “right-sized” have generally reduced the “R” in R&D budgets and are now limited in internal resources. Even the largest global enterprises, with shareholder pressure on profitability, are struggling to maintain innovation and spot new markets. CEOs and their executive teams face many challenges.

An evolving, aware enterprise will take time and resources to organize strategy reviews and address a set of core questions:^[2]

^[2] Henderson, Bruce D. Henderson on Corporate Strategy (New York: HarperCollins College Division, 1979).

• Where do we put our priorities in allocating our resources in money and effort?

• What are the major policies that we choose to implement the strategy?

• What are the products and markets in which we choose to compete?

• What critical assumptions are we making about the competition and the environment?

• Exactly what do we expect to do differently or better than our competitors?

In many situations, executives lack clear information on how to answer these questions, even with input from customers, suppliers, and other advisers. It is vital that an enterprise understand the market forces and therefore the generic competitive strategies to adopt. ...