Week 11 Reading Reflection

This week's reading is about innovation strategy and why it is necessary it aligns with a business strategy that the firm has communicated.

I would have to say it would seem common sense that your innovation strategy match up to the firm's business strategy, so when I read the author's research reflected the opposite, that was surprising. It clearly can be detrimental to a firm, so not sure I grasp the concept of why it is not unilaterally enforced in the organization.

The reading was easy to understand with the exception of I don't have a clear understanding of exactly what are "phase-gate" models. I understood the positions of the proponents and opponents, but I did not understand what exactly it entailed.

Two questions that arise from the reading for me are:
Am I to understand that most reasons why business and innovative strategies do not align is because the senior leadership is not involved in asking questions directly of the progress of each division regarding what is the progress in innovation alignment with the business?

So it is recommended that there be at least a disruptive innovation in order to stay competitive. I wonder if there should always be R&D to look for those disruptive innovations while maintaining routine innovation?

There was not anything in this week's reading that I disagreed with the author and/or thought he was wrong.