Implementation of an Innovation Strategy

Implementation of an Innovation Strategy
Name
Institution
Implementation of an Innovation Strategy
Leadership
Due to rapid changes and evolutions that occur in the field of technology, the success of the firm dramatically depends on the kind of leadership it has. Two significant issues the organization should consider are having a cross-functional leadership team and monitoring actions of its leaders. An innovation strategy is deemed to be successful if the leadership ensures that work is complete within a timeframe and the team of different expertise allowed the flexibility and freedom to showcase their creativity.
Engagement
For a firm to survive in this competitive era of technology, it has to actively engage its employees in its flexibility and adaptability to change. Employee engagement is dependent on good employee relations, cooperation, and communication flow within the organization. The various bodies of the firm should be moving in the same direction which they can only achieve by having an organizational culture that emphasizes change and flexibility.
Extension
Extension stage involves information sharing within the organization to identify new opportunities and survey market competition. Firms making entry into a new market, improving a product or developing a new product depend on the extension processes that they use. By filtering lessons learnt they should be able to come up with implementable ideas.
Alignment
The firm should install systems that support innovation and ensure availability of money, workforce and other resources required to achieve the set common goal.

Individuals and groups that assist in achieving the goals should get rewards. Even as the workers are allowed to be creative, it is essential for them to do it within the organization’s realistic financial capability and flexibility.
Differences between product implementation and process innovation
Product implementation is a flat structure involving communication links while process innovation is more functionally oriented. Process innovation consists of an evaluation team that does benchmark while product implementation depends on the findings from the research and development department. Process innovation is dependent on monitoring savings while product implementation depends on a careful survey of the competitors in the market (White & Bruton, 2010). While a product implementation becomes more successful when a group is set aside to work on developing the new product, the success of process innovation depends on the contributions from across the organization.
The most affected issue
For the strategy to be successful there must be coordination within the organization and between the firm and its external environmental factors. It all depends on the alignment of the organization.
Reference
White, M. A., & Bruton, G. D. (2010). The management of technology and innovation: A
strategic approach. Cengage Learning.