1000 Business Lessons Every Businessman Must Know

Chapter 32 Technological Innovation: Adding Wings to the Enterprise

With the continuous progress of science and technology, technological innovation has become the wings of enterprises to take off.The main feature of technological innovation is to reflect the combination of technology and economy. It is different from scientific inventions and discoveries, and emphasizes the first commercial application of new technologies.

The technological innovation process of enterprises can be divided into four basic stages:

(1) The emergence and formation of technological innovation concepts;
(2) Acquisition of advanced technology (self-developed, or introduced, or introduced and developed);

(3) Technical implementation (engineering);

(4) Achieve commercialization (obtain economic benefits).

257. Technological innovation by source

According to the source of innovation, technological innovation can be divided into the following two types:
1. Independent innovation
That is to say, the enterprise conducts independent research and development on the basis of its own strength, realizes the commercialization of scientific and technological achievements, and takes the recognition of the market as a symbol. my country's "Founder of Peking University" researches and develops and commercializes the electronic publishing system, which is the result of independent innovation.Although independent innovation has the characteristics of reducing transaction costs and improving innovation efficiency, its risks are often borne by itself.At the same time, independent innovation also requires enterprises to have strong research and development institutions and accumulation of achievements, backed by strong and leading technologies.This method is mainly applicable to the innovation of risky and high-tech small and medium-sized enterprises.

2. Collaborative innovation
Refers to the innovations implemented by two or more enterprises or institutions in cooperation with their respective technical strengths.The traditional concept holds that as long as an enterprise has strong technical capabilities, it should adopt independent innovation methods.However, the development of science and technology and social progress have made both manufacturing technology and product technology a complex technical system, and the technical capabilities of individual enterprises can no longer fully cover all technical fields involved in innovation, which makes cooperative innovation an inevitable social division of labor.

3. Imitation innovation
Refers to the innovative way in which enterprises with backward technological levels use various means to introduce other enterprises' technologies, digest and absorb them, and achieve their own innovation goals.This innovative method can enable backward enterprises to improve their technological level and independent innovation capabilities in a short period of time, laying a foundation for further development, and Japanese enterprises are particularly typical in this regard.Of course, the introduction of technology requires certain conditions and qualities, that is, the "social ability" emphasized by Kuznets. For a specific enterprise, this means the technical ability to absorb and digest the imported technology and the organizational implementation ability to re-innovate.

4. Mergers for the purpose of re-innovation
This is the merger of enterprises that have mastered the core or key technologies required by the company's major technological innovations.This innovative method has become one of the important reasons for the mergers and acquisitions of large western enterprises.

258. Divide technological innovation according to the degree of innovation

According to the degree of innovation, technological innovation can be divided into the following two types:
1. Incremental innovation

It shows that the technological innovation of an enterprise starts from countless small innovations, and when a large number of small innovations continuously improve the technological state of the enterprise, and reach a certain level, large innovations that lead to qualitative changes will occur.This kind of innovation is gradual and imitative, the cycle of innovation is generally short, and the innovation effect is good.For example, containers developed from matchboxes and packing boxes, and combined stereos developed from radios.Japanese companies mostly use this method.For example, Sony Corporation launches nearly a thousand new products every year, most of which are some minor changes in product functions, or combinations of different functions, such as a wide variety of Walkmans.

2. Fundamental innovation

It is the product of a major breakthrough in the commercial application of basic research. It is characterized by the fact that products with new technologies enter the market first, often creating a new industry.European and American companies mostly adopt this innovative method.For example, the telephone invented and produced by the Bell Company of the United States opened up a new era of machine intercom. The company invented the transistor and brought mankind into the semiconductor era.Texas Instruments first introduced the integrated circuit, pushing mankind into the era of microelectronics.

Radical innovation takes two forms:
(1) New applications of new technologies, such as the generation of laser discs, etc.;
(2) Brand-new application of existing technology (that is, leveraged innovation), which refers to the use of existing technology and knowledge to achieve a major breakthrough in the actual application of products or production processes.

259. Technological innovation by content

According to the content of innovation, technological innovation can be divided into the following two types:
1. Product innovation
It refers to the innovation of what kind of products are oriented to users and consumers.Or product innovation refers to the commercialization of a technically changed product, which can be a completely new product or an improvement on an existing product.

2. Process innovation (also called process innovation)
It refers to the innovation of product processing, process route and equipment.The value of dividing innovation into product innovation and process innovation is obvious.First, product and process complement each other.New processes can lead to new products, and new products can lead to new processes.Once there is a major product innovation, great efforts are made to innovate the process so that the product innovation has economies of scale.Secondly, because process innovation involves multiple links, such as equipment, technology, skills, etc., the implementation of process innovation is sometimes more difficult than product innovation.

(End of this chapter)