Managing Innovation: Integrating Technological, Market and Organizational Change, 5th Edition

Chapter 4

Developing an Innovation Strategy^*

‘A great deal of business success depends on generating new knowledge and on having the capabilities to react quickly and intelligently to this new knowledge … I believe that strategic thinking is a necessary but overrated element of business success. If you know how to design great motorcycle engines, I can teach you all you need to know about strategy in a few days. If you have a Ph.D. in strategy, years of labor are unlikely to give you the ability to design great new motorcycle engines.’

– Richard Rumelt (1996) California Management Review, 38, 110, on the continuing debate about the causes of Honda's success in the US motorcycle market

Go online to access your interactive e-book and additional resources for this chapter at www.innovation-portal.info

The above quotation from a distinguished professor of strategy appears on the surface not to be a strong endorsement of his particular trade. In fact, it offers indirect support for the central propositions of this chapter:¹

1. 1. Firm-specific knowledge – including the capacity to exploit it – is an essential feature of competitive success.
2. 2. An essential feature of corporate strategy should therefore be an innovation strategy, the purpose of which is deliberately to accumulate such ...