Innovation and technology

Nowadays, in many sectors of the economy, the key to running a successful business is through technology and innovation. One the exceptions is the food industry, in which there are two different trends. Many companies, such as Coca-Cola Co, Danone or Unilever, introduce innovative products to the market, but on the other hand, many consumers look for local, traditional foodstuffs. Global companies compete with such local producers and have to spend a lot of money to make profit and gain market share. The food market, however, is slowly becoming a global market and many local companies are being taken over by the giants.

Many people don’t understand (I do know), that today, innovation is about much more than new products. It is about reinventing business processes and building entirely new markets that meet untapped customer needs. Most important, as the Internet and globalization widen the pool of new ideas, it's about selecting and executing the right ideas and bringing them to market in record time.

According to different rankings, most of the top innovative companies are originally American. The European Union tries to catch up with them, for example by implementing special EU-funded strategies, such as the Lisbon Strategy. However, it is now considered to have been a failure and new tools are being developed, such as EIT (European Institute of Innovation and Technology http://eit.europa.eu/). 

http://www.fastcompany.com/most-innovative-companies/2011/

In the Internet Era innovation and technology seems to be the best way to succeed. Firms that rely on them do not have to pay particular attention to their environment in their own regions and nations as long as their competitors, collaborators, suppliers and customers are less innovative.

That's what I think.

MANU