Week 11 Reading Reflection

The single biggest surprise while reading this week's article about not only creating but also maintaining an innovation strategy, is that many companies fail to align their business strategy with their innovation strategy. This then creates discord between the company's general course of action and the goals it sets. One thing that was not all to clear for me is how a company decides where to heavily invest in terms of areas of their business, whether it be R&D or manufacturing or marketing. I feel there area plethora of factors that can dictate what area a company should centralize and they tend to change quite often with new trends emerging. Therefore one question I would ask the author is when and how does a company know which trend to invest in and which opportunities to capitalize given the current state of the market they are in. Another question I would ask is how does a company know when to abandon a set goal and when to pick up a new one, does it depend on financial factors? Or maybe on market trends and opportunities? Or even a combination of both? I believe these questions are essential to ask if a firm is to be the leading entity in its field. Lastly, I do not specifically disagree with anything the author says, his argument and supportive data and reasoning seem all very sound and effective.