Editorial
Innovation is the Competitive Edge
Claus Weyrich
Prof. Claus Weyrich is a Member of the Managing Board of Siemens AG and Head of Corporate Technology
In many ways, companies resemble living organisms. As such, they are subject to Darwin's main thesis of "survival of the fittest," and this is all the more relevant in today's age of global competition. There is no doubt that one of the most successful survival strategies involves not merely reacting to market changes, but acting as a trendsetter and determining future developments. Only those who remain at the forefront of technological development over the long term will be able to gain and maintain market leadership and reap high returns. Successful companies therefore place innovation at the heart of their business activities and entrepreneurial strategy.
But strategic innovation management is by no means an easy task. Simply assembling a group of inventors is not enough. Nor is it enough to systematically organize a process for generating ideas and selecting the best ones among them. Just as important is to put these new ideas into practice within the company and to gain market acceptance for them. This way of thinking has led to a transformation of industrial research, expanding its focus from a narrow fixation on technological development to an orientation toward markets, products, processes and customer benefits.
As the topics dealt with in this issue clearly demonstrate, about 75 % of all innovations today are market driven. For example, customers from the automotive industry are helping shape the automobile of the future from the ground up. One component of the car of tomorrow, the integrated starter-generator, is a prime example of how innovators are making use of Siemens' knowledge baseject teams around the globe that include members from business locations in India, Germany, the U.S., France, Romania, Korea and the Czech Republic. The value of cooperative projects and strategic partnerships with other companies is illustrated by examples such as the development of a biochip and the UMTS field test on the Isle of Man. And finally, our section on Patents and Researchers proves that one can not overestimate the strategic significance of patents and intellectual property rights. These are an essential part of our intellectual capital and are a crucial factor for the success of value-added innovations.
