Strategic planning and aiming for long term objectives

In today’s globally competitive industry, sprouting and even established business companies couldn’t help but figure out an innovative way so as not to be left behind. Innovation seems to be the prime solution in order to continually entice different target markets and gain more profit. People would never get tired of exploring new things as curiosity is a basic human instinct. However, what most people do not understand is the value and appropriateness of a certain product or service and its suitability as a necessity to a person’s lifestyle.

More often, businesses would jump into innovative strategies without taking into consideration the adverse effects that this might bring about to the company. One noticeable mistake in innovation is the “Misapplication of other companies' approaches”. According to Dev Patnaik, Managing Associate of Jump Associates, “It can be more enlightening but equally dangerous to emulate the approaches of other companies. Of late, P;G has received much attention for its "Connect and Develop" strategy, whereby the company reaches out to promising entrepreneurs, scientists, and consumers in the hopes of mainstreaming the ideas they present.

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IBM has received similar praise for its experiments with "Open Innovation. " Such strategies are far more useful than those that rely on charismatic individuals. At the same time, these approaches work because they're tailored to the conditions of the companies in question”. It maybe wise to observe what made a certain company rise to fame but it doesn’t always mean that the strategy that they used would be applicable to your own as it may give a less favorable result.

Another issue is “The ability of traditional customers to quickly adapt to innovation”.

There are certain ways, like management policies that the traditional customers have gotten used to. They patronize a particular product or brand because they have been comfortable with its whole concept for over a period of time. Consequently, applying innovative measures would drastically bring about changes which would alter the original context of the product or service. This would also affect the customers’ perception and preference as they may no longer be comfortable or interested with the new thing. Over-reliance on pilot initiatives is also another dilemma which oftentimes leads to misconception.

Companies would always want to have quick results, so they opt to apply a quick strategy which mainly focuses on a single product idea. They tend to initiate projects which promise a short-term opportunity. What they fail to realize is that, depending on a single technique isn’t always enough, they should do more than making ethnographies or brainstorming since the scale of impact required is too massive to depend on a single approach. Resignation to superficial changes is also another common mistake in innovation.

According to Dev Patnaik, “Perhaps most depressing of all are the companies that turn away from significant structural improvement in favor of cosmetic changes. After benchmarking several Silicon Valley companies, one firm noticed that many companies it admired had yellow and purple walls. The team went back and painted the walls of their offices yellow and purple, thinking this might actually make them more innovative. While color can influence behavior, and there's something important to be said about the effect of environment on creativity, such initiatives alone usually aren't enough to actually change the DNA of the organization”.

In conclusion, when companies aim for success, innovation maybe the answer but the bottom lines are still “strategic planning” where suitability and impact to both the company and the consumers should be taken into consideration, and “aiming for long term objectives” that would give beneficial and lasting results. References: Munro, N. (2006, April). Making mistakes and taking risks spur Innovation. Retrieved March 26, 2009, from http://www. inma. org/pdf/028. pdf Patnaik, D. (2007, October 17). Five Common Mistakes in Innovation. Retrieved March 26, 2009, from http://www. businessweek. com/innovate/content/oct2007/id20071019_786269. htm