Perspectives on innovation: a new TAO for business renewal and development

Innovation and technology management have risen to a prime competence requirement for most companies in high tech. Management focus of successful companies is rapidly changing from management for continuity to management for innovation. The value of many companies is more dependent on the speed at which they renew their business than by the assets in their balance sheet. Competing based on innovative power requires different perspectives on the main processes of the firm. An important key to success for innovation in networks and differentiated firms is the effective and efficient communication between partners with different backgrounds, both within and outside the organization. Not only is there a need for synchronizing at the logistic level, the primary process in legacy terms, but also at the level of product and organizational innovation strategy. For this purpose the Dutch Institute of Management and Innovation (DIMI) has developed a model for the management of Technology, Application and Organization, (TAO) model©. The TAO model© maps the innovation process, supporting communication at all levels. It pinpoints the requirements for innovation and easily integrates competence, the concepts of learning and the value chain. The TAO model has been applied successfully in the analysis of essential competencies and strategies of a number of high tech firms, in setting requirements for research transfer and for the development of new business concepts. In this paper the background of the TAO model is reviewed