Today, the word innovation is a word we all know and hear often, but many do not give it the importance it deserves. It is a foundation for companies to have competitiveness in the sector, in which they operate and act, and there are increasingly more and more claimed people with innovative features. But not only aptitudes are sought; it is also necessary financing to acquire or develop advanced technologies. We can speak of two fronts, is that on the one hand, a company can innovate to improve your product or create a new one, but it can be done to reduce the cost of its production process, and both options will provide benefits either increasing their revenues with differentiated products, since it could charge a higher price, or lowering their costs; opt also supports both simultaneously.
Given this, it is logical that all companies want to innovate, either to improve their benefits, for not reducing their market share because if the other improve, companies which remain unchanged will be left behind, leaving obsolete their products, with the aggravating circumstance that the life of most products is becoming shorter.
We cansee a clear example, the case of mobile phones, is that 10 years ago, mobile only called, sent sms, had games like Snake or Tetris, .. and new models were created, but few advances compared with today, where almost every month there is a new application or an internal differentiation between each model; 10 years ago, a person could be five years quietly with the same phone, however, in recent years we cannot stand more than 1 year and a half with it, because it will become obsolete … we go mad for a mobile of the latest generation!! Well, this is what happens in business; out of here comes the need for innovation, the need to improve to keep up and be able to compete and survive in the market.
Therefore companies must keep pace as technology advances, and differentiating their products, bringing new ideas to develop new products or that might attract society.
It is unthinkable to imagine a company to survive in an industry without part of its activity dedicated to innovation.
Data from Spain in innovation leave many to be desired, especially compared to European countries like Germany, England, or even to countries in North America.
For the past ten years, in Spain there has been an increase in business spending on R & D by 50%, while in the other major European countries has been only 20%. But do not delude us, this is just an illusory reflection, for we are far from converging with them yet, and they have taken a big advantage years ago.
And finally, let a phrase picked up by Juan Mulet Meliá summarizing the above and which seems very successful:
“Technological innovation has become a necessity and the limiting factor of innovation is simply the threshold of technological knowledge which must exceed any company to survive.”
Vanessa Marqués