Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning pdf ebook

closeness to customers: managers must know their customers and understand their needs 
and requirements well;
2 
cross-functional communications: innovation in most companies (except the ‘one-man-
band’, which is not stereotypical of the average established small/medium-sized firm 
anyway) is about the flow of information between key functions;
3 
multifunctional teamwork: successful product innovations are almost invariably the 
result of people in the firm working together in teams, rather than independently.
These are three deceptively simple criteria for innovation success. In practice, they are 
often very difficult for a firm to achieve. Large, bureaucratic firms face this problem most of 
all. Small companies that can still maintain a cohesive unit may find criteria 2 and 3 easy to 
achieve, but, if led by excessively product-orientated technocrats, will frequently drift away 
from 1. The manager of a small company must, however, take note of the ‘fast-forgetting’ 
syndrome: as the business grows and the organisation expands, the three principal require-
ments for innovation become increasingly difficult to preserve – frequently resulting in 
management losing sight of the very factors that brought success to the business in the first 
place. Entrepreneurship, although highly desirable, is, on its own, insufficient for success-
ful innovation, especially continual innovation. To remain successful innovators, business 
managers must continually review their firm’s ability to meet these three conditions for 
effective innovation.
12.6.3 Organisational alternatives
Although marginal product changes can be managed within conventional organisations, 
radical innovations need suitably radical organisations. Six broad approaches are suggested 
that differ in their isolation from day-to-day business activities. All help small groups escape 
from entrenched departments and attitudes:
1