Week 11 Reading Reflection

I was surprised to hear about Steve Job’s opinion that working too closely with customers will blind you to certain types of innovation. It makes sense, though: because customers have limited information (among their willingness to take risks), they often don’t even know what innovation they’d most prefer next.

I was confused why companies would pursue a supply-push approach because it seems too risky. I guess that this strategy makes more sense in a rapidly evolving technological society using proper marketing.

I would ask the author the following questions. If creating an innovation strategy and implementing it through an innovation system is so individualized and particular to a company, what is the best way to identify a direction? Also, how can one differentiate between a value creating innovation and a useless idea? I’d like to know the answer to these questions because the author’s explanation of these concepts was thorough but vague enough to leave some unclear parameters open to interpretation for evaluating strategy.

I disagree with the notion that only senior leaders should set innovation strategy. Yes, it is important for them to clarify company objectives and make sure individual departments are pursuing compatible goals. However, lower level managers should be able to set mini goals in the grand scheme of things as well.