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Innovation is regarded as a critical business success factor, yet only a few firms are happy with their current performance in innovation. An innovative firm not only satisfies its customers, but also employees and stockholders. We have identified six important factors in capturing Innovation Premium: (1.) Clear top management support and commitment; (2.) Effectively executed role of chief technology officer (CTO); (3.) Skilled leaders and manager; (4.) Marketing and technology departments in the same location; (5.) Seamless and value-driven innovation process, and (6.) Visions and idea-generation processes. It is also important to have appropriate metrics in place to ensure that progress is being made in making the firm increasingly innovative.

In today's automotive industry, developing new products and systems is more important than ever before. Central to the creation of innovative products is technology development. However, managing technology development has often proven to be a difficult task for many American firms. This book provides instruction on how to make technology management more effective and efficient. It discusses several ways to leverage technology development to get more value with fewer resources. Alignment, globalization, centralization/decentralization, sourcing, co-development, technology intelligence, and intellectual property are all extensively covered. Advice is provided on how to ease implementation of these solutions, and several examples of the successes enjoyed by best-practice companies are detailed. Chapters cover: Global Trends in Automotive Systems Management of Technology Challenges in Automotive Technology Management Meeting Technology Management Challenges Best Practice Case Studies

The transformation of the automotive industry poses several challenges to the way technology is managed. Of the many challenges, three stand out: making R&D more “business like”, making suppliers more actively participate in technology development, and making engineering and R&D more global. This paper discusses these challenges and offers some thoughts on ways to address them. Four suggestions are offered: (i) Ensure that the technology strategy is aligned with product strategy and that, in turn, is aligned with the corporate and SBU strategies, (ii) Ensure that the technology processes, resources and organization are in alignment with technology strategy, (iii) Optimize the entire innovation “funnel” from idea creation to value capture, and (iv) Pay attention to the people issues, particularly those related to developing competencies required to bring about change.