Keys to innovation: System thinking, strategic alignment, technology focus

Innovation is crucial for any modern business, and especially so in a High-Technology environment. For a fastmoving, dynamic and exponentially changing world the demand on high-tech companies to initiate and implement breakthrough innovation for competitive positioning is increasing inexorably. The authors have considerable experience and research background in high-tech engineering companies as consultants, facilitators and academia and have researched the attributes required from different pertinent perspectives to enable breakthrough and sustainable innovation to take place. Innovation in terms of crucial elements for success is considered from the perspectives of Strategy-, System- and Technology Thinking. The Paper represents the results of appropriate research conducted over the last couple of years and suggests a management model to nurture innovation. The research methodology rests on personal research, literature studies and analysis and shows the interaction/influence of various subdimensions related to the three keys, or crucial elements of innovation. Judicious and effective Engineering & Technology Management is a pre-requisite for elevating Innovation practices, specifically the integration of System Thinking in the widest possible sense, Strategic Alignment of all aspects of the business and a sharp focus on the appropriate Technology to be utilized. Considering frequent quantum-jump changes in the global business environment due to (sometimes) revolutionary innovations by competitors create surprises and can lead to low-quality reactive responses. The results of the research lead to the development of an appropriate management methodology to pro-actively lead the way manage and enable effective innovation.