Manufacturing companies guard against technological innovation traps

Abstract China has become a world manufacturing power and is likely to become a new world manufacturing center. However, the comparative advantage with the main advantage of labor cost makes China's manufacturing generally face the crisis of low profits and the crisis of sustainable development. In the long run, Chinese manufacturing wants to be...

China has become a world manufacturing power and is likely to become a new world manufacturing center. However, the comparative advantage with the main advantage of labor cost makes China's manufacturing generally face the crisis of low profits and the crisis of sustainable development. In the long run, Chinese manufacturing wants to grow from big to strong, and must complete the leap from manufacturing to creation, while technological innovation capability is the shortcoming of many manufacturing companies.

We are eager for more miracles created by China, such as Huawei and BYD, so that China can navigate the front stage of international competition.

However, in a sense, although technological innovation is a trend, it is inevitable, but it is not a panacea for companies to cure medicine. The business of the enterprise must not be vain, and entrepreneurs must guard against the trap of technological innovation.

Innovation is not equal to leading
Bao Zhongnan, a consultant of the policy management consulting company, believes that the cruel market competition will force the company to become a leader in the industry and be in an invincible position. Technology leadership is the most direct and effective path that most companies can think of. As a result, many companies have spared no effort in technological innovation. For example, Huawei, Chery, Nokia and other companies have invested more than 10% of their sales.

However, the facts show that even if a company completes technological innovation first, it cannot guarantee that it will gain a leading edge. For example, the first innovator of the fax machine is the United States, but the market leader is the Japanese company. This shows that there is still a long way to go from technological innovation to market leadership, which is subject to various internal and external factors.

Externally, after most of the innovative products are put on the market, they cannot be quickly accepted by the market, and a process that is gradually recognized and accepted by the market is needed.

From the time when the product is put on the market to the commercialization success, whether the enterprise can effectively protect the technology patent and maintain the monopoly of the market, whether it can survive the long product investment period and win the final victory, there are many uncertain factors.

From within the enterprise, even if the company has technically completed the technological innovation, the application of the new technology may require the investment of new proprietary equipment, and the employees need to train new skills.

Bao Zhongnan said that the huge technology conversion cost and the path dependence of enterprise technology learning have formed the rigidity of the enterprise's technical capabilities, which will consciously and unconsciously exclude the application of new technologies. Enterprises then face difficult and painful choices between existing technologies and new technologies. The result of the selection is often a compromise that is not like the four, which seriously hinders the development of new technologies. Those who have not yet formed the technical rigidity can quickly grasp the new technology through imitation and carry out the application improvement and innovation, and become the leader of the new industry.

In addition, the success of enterprise technology innovation does not represent the success of commercial operations. The commercial operation of products also requires supporting support and guarantee for the company's investment and financing capabilities, manufacturing capabilities and marketing capabilities, and even requires a huge amount of market development advertising investment. The lack or weakness of any of these links can't lead the innovation.

Innovation is not the only way to grow
Bao Zhongnan analyzed a large number of Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese companies' rising experiences. He believes that as a follower and laggard in the market, most of them have experienced a difficult growth process from imitation to innovation and from OEM to creation. In the past 30 years, China's manufacturing industry has been actively introducing technology. However, there are two fatal errors in our introduction. One is heavy hardware and light software (technology and management), and the other is to introduce light absorption. The result is often The introduction --- backwardness --- re-introduction --- is backward.

Therefore, although Chinese companies have experienced 30 years of development and made great progress, there has not really been a number of world-class manufacturing enterprises. China's overall manufacturing level is still quite different from that of the world's advanced countries. For most Chinese manufacturing companies, the most urgent need is not the ability to innovate in technology, but to carry out down-to-earth imitation and learning with a protracted attitude, accumulating design techniques, reliability technologies, manufacturing processes, basic materials, and foundations. The basic technical capabilities and manufacturing capabilities of mechanical components and electronic components, basic manufacturing equipment, lean manufacturing, and flexible manufacturing enable the company to thrive.

The Chinese market is an unbalanced market with multiple levels and multiple structures. The gap in the west, the gap between urban and rural areas, and the increasingly integrated international market provide a deep and deep market for domestic companies. In this stage, there is a need for innovative products that can advance into Europe and the United States, as well as a large number of basic traditional products. These traditional products are not innovative and technological, but still traditional cost quality. Faced with such deep market demand, technological innovation is not the only choice for business growth.

Bao Zhongnan believes that from the perspective of industrial division of labor, the individualized excess economy has led to competition for flexibility and speed. Scale is no longer an advantage, and the ability of individual companies is increasingly difficult to support the increasingly complex and cruel requirements of flexibility and speed. As a result, companies began to focus on the construction of their core competitiveness, and the ability to be not good at the supply chain to make up for it, through the supply chain to form a virtual enterprise to enhance the flexibility and speed of competition. Among them, technology research and development, manufacturing, marketing and service are all indispensable links in the supply chain. Of course, the scarcity of capabilities has caused the profit sharing in every part of the supply chain to be uneven, and the so-called “smile curve” has emerged.

However, if enterprises want to be strong in their core competencies, they should at least have a stable ability to survive and develop. If they are fighting in the entire chain of value chain, they will most likely face the danger of being attacked by the enemy. For growing enterprises, It is a fierce battle with few odds. How to strengthen your core competence? Bao Zhongnan felt that innovation is not the only choice. As Liu Chuanzhi said, Huawei and Lenovo are climbing Everest. Huawei has chosen the road of technological innovation, just like climbing from the steep south slope of Mount Everest, and Lenovo chose to trade. The road of work and technology is like climbing from a relatively flat north slope. The roads are different, but the road is the same.

Innovation is the waltz on the tip of the knife
In fact, the success rate of technological innovation is quite low. Even in the United States, the success rate of basic research is only 5%, and the success rate of technology development is only 50%. According to a survey of three major US companies, 60% of innovations are technically successful, but only 30% of projects are commercially successful, and only 12% of the projects ultimately bring economic benefits to the company.

In the process of technological innovation, enterprises need to have strong research and development strength, and need to invest heavily in research and development, and need to maintain a high-level scientific research team. After the innovation is completed, the company needs to develop related special equipment for mass production, and it is necessary to train employees with special skills. After the product goes on the market, it also needs huge sums of money to carry out market cultivation and publicity, and so on. What is even more distressing is whether new products can be accepted by the market, when can commercialization be successful, and whether economic benefits can be created.

Innovation is such a high-risk adventure, and every company needs to carefully examine whether its hard work can bear the burden of innovation: For example, does the company have a clear innovation strategy and effective innovation mechanism? Can you identify innovative opportunities that are truly commercially valuable and suitable for your business? Is there a continuous investment in innovation?

Bao Zhongnan compares innovation to waltzing on the tip of the knife. Successful innovation can enable the company to achieve a gorgeous turn and even jump to become the industry leader. However, if there is no solid footwork, the impulsive turn will only aggravate the stab wound of the knife tip, and even lose it if you are not careful.

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