Technology And Innovation In A Strategic Plan

Technology and innovation in a strategic plan

One of Sun Tzu’s most famous appointments (philosopher and military strategist) is: ‘The strategy without tactics is the slowest route towards victory. Tactics without strategy are noise before defeat ’. A good strategic plan must include innovation and technology, to give the business a competitive advantage over its competitors. But you should not neglect concepts such as ethics and integrity. Important concepts for a business, manage to create a healthy environment. In addition, to focus on increasing productivity. So what is a competitive strategy?, What is business ethics?, How does integrity affect managers?, Within the strategic plan such as production and competitiveness can be achieved? And how does technology help the strategic plan?

Innovation can be seen as an integral component of the business strategy of a company that therefore strengthens the process of creating sustainable competitive advantages that help expand growth and profits. A strategic plan must include innovation and technology. If a company is not innovated, it runs the risk of disappearing. That is the biggest business dilemma innovate or disappear. In a world intertwined with each other, thanks to globalization, innovation plays an important role for business success and especially competitiveness. According to Sánchez & Álvarez, "competitiveness considers the ability of a company to overcome market demand through knowledge management and technological management to achieve continuous innovation processes".

In other words, both innovation and technology are necessary to overcome market demand and be more competitive in market. By taking into account these factors help the strategic plan and must be considered.

Competitiveness is rivalry for achieving an end. According to Maldonado, “the intensity of the competition is greater in the lower performance industries. According to Porter, the nature of competitiveness in a given industry is seen as the set of five: rivalry between competing companies, potential entry of new competitors, potential development of substitutes, negotiating power of suppliers and negotiation power of consumers". The competitive strategy seeks to establish actions, both offensive and defensive, to obtain a privileged position before its competitors;giving the company an advantage. Porter forces theory helps establish an analysis of how to achieve competitiveness and identify that competitive advantage.

For sacristan, “integrity is considered the primary characteristic for effective leadership. In any organization, ethical management must be focused on integrity and must have managers that act from and with integrity to generate trust, loyalty and credibility among their subordinates ”. Integrity helps the leader or manager to be a good leader. A leader who inspires trust, loyalty and the most important credibility. The greatest conflict that a manager can have is that his employees have the vision of absence of integrity and loses all credibility. In addition, that every decision will be questioned.

Ethics is a set of customs and norms that direct or value human behavior in a community. An important factor is business ethics, according to David, “business ethics is defined as the principles of behavior within companies that guide decision making and behavior. A good business ethic is a prerequisite for an effective strategic direction;adequate ethic is simply a good business!”Every day the urgency of doing good business grows, where ethics plays an important role, allowing more credibility before decisions and business behavior. Every strategy has an ethical impact, both in the decision, as the formulation, planning and evaluation of strategies. Business ethics is support in decision making and defines behavior and way of doing business.

We must bear in mind that productivity is a form of economic measurement, where I know how to calculate the goods and services that have occurred, following the factors of the human factor, capital, time, land among others, given a precise time. One of the factors that measures the efficiency of a business is productivity. Productivity helps us evaluate, how motivated is the workforce. Part of the strategic plan is general sense of belonging to the human resource and inspire it, creating a commitment to the company and motivating it to increase productivity. Increasing productivity is an integral part of the goal, in innovation and the strategic management of the plan. Human resource has an important performance within the strategic plan.

As for technological planning, Sánchez & Alvarez tells us: “It is a process in which the technological components of a system are analyzed and a technological strategy is generated that determines the guidelines with which profiles of R&+ projects will be designedD. The purpose of carrying out technological planning is to condense in specific projects the policies proposed in strategic planning. In technological planning there is an exhaustive analysis of technology both within the organization and in the environment. According to the strategies adopted by the company, the relevance of guiding this strategy to the acquisition, improvement and/or development of various technologies is evaluated. This process requires a prospective approach that generates competitive advantages for the organization found in this process. 

The rhythm of technological change is increasing and literally eliminates companies every day. The current general opinion argues that technology management is one of the key responsibilities of strategists. Companies must apply strategies that take advantage of technological opportunities, with the purpose of obtaining sustained competitive advantages in the market ”. Technology allows business to be more competitive and be the reaction manager, instead of reacting to the competition and making the competition react. Technology gives greater competitive advantage in times of crisis. Giving the company opportunities and advantages over its competitors.

Success of a strategic plan is due to several factors, including innovation and technology, allowing the business leadership before its competitors and preventing them from lagging behind and thus disappearing from the business world. Strategic competitiveness seeks to position the company in the market, giving it that competitive advantage over its competitors. An important factor is integrity and as the other components of the company see their leaders. Another important factor is the ethics of doing business, allowing clarity, transparency to decisions taken by the company’s managers. Productivity is an important factor for business success and measures the efficiency of the components that make the strategic plan possible.