Demystifying Strategic Innovation

Abstract

Both the current strategy and innovation concepts are insufficient to give an answer to the future challenges. Both fields of corporate strategy and innovation are characterized by the search for the Holy Grail. Although a lot of insight has been gathered, the core future issues in the fields of strategy and innovation are connected to the rise of China. This rise is accompanied with new policies, new roles of private and public organizations, new industries, new market rules, new norms and values, and different interpretations of time. Consequently, Western management approaches of dealing with the future have to be changed. Current concepts of corporate strategy, innovation, and transition management are obsolete. Popular notions like open innovation, network organization, and knowledge economy do not fit to real market situations. A new approach is necessary. The strategic innovation theory offers a new approach to decide about in which direction to go on the crossroad. Several basic elements of the strategic innovation theory like nontechnical innovations, creating a context for innovation beyond business models, a new profit definition, cross-cultural aspects, and the factor time are pivotal for the future success of China, the USA, and the EU. Paradoxically, Innovative China is more dependent on strategic innovations than on new technologies.