434 Part 3: Strategic Actions: Strategy Implementation
be valuable and rare early in its life, if a market perspective is used in its development.
However, competitive actions must be taken to introduce the new product to the market
and protect its position in the market against competitors in order to gain a competitive
advantage.^126 In combination, these actions constitute strategic entrepreneurship.
Some large organizations are trying to become more capable of effectively using stra-
tegic entrepreneurship. For example, an increasing number of large, widely known firms,
including Wendy’s International, Gucci Group, Starbucks, and Perry Ellis International,
have established a top-level managerial position commonly called president or executive
vice president of emerging brands. Other companies such as Coca-Cola, GE, Whirlpool,
and Humana have established a position within their top management teams to focus on
innovation.^127 These individuals are often known as chief innovation officers.
The essential responsibility of top-level managers focusing on emerging brands or
innovation is to verify that their firm is consistently finding entrepreneurial opportuni-
ties. They must effectively manage the firm’s portfolio of innovation projects, deciding
which ones require more investment and which ones should be terminated.^128 These
people know that some innovation projects fail but, they also try to learn from those
failures to make future ones more successful.^129 The chief innovation officers must then
work collaboratively with the firm’s chief strategy officer to coordinate the new products
with the firm’s strategic approach and to implement them. In this sense, those responsible
for identifying opportunities the firm might want to pursue and those responsible for
selecting and implementing the strategies the company would use to pursue those oppor-
tunities share responsibility for verifying that the firm is taking entrepreneurial actions
using a strategic perspective. These individuals also help the firm determine the innova-
tions necessary to pursue an opportunity, and if those innovations should be developed
internally, through a cooperative strategy, or by completing an acquisition. In the final
analysis, the objective of these top-level managers is to help firms identify opportunities
and then develop successful incremental and breakthrough innovations and strategies to
exploit them.
Firms must carefully analyze their portfolio of innovations and decide which existing
products or technologies it should exploit with incremental innovations to improve them
and when they need to develop more novel products or technologies. As noted, Boeing
invested heavily to develop a new aircraft
with breakthrough technologies in the 787
Dreamliner. Now, it is trying to exploit those
innovations with incremental innovations.
Yet, it must be careful because the emphasis
on the innovative technologies can become
path-dependent, making it difficult to then
break away from them to develop a novel
innovation when needed.^130 Interestingly,
Honda has recently broken from its con-
servative innovative tradition to deliver a
new personal jet called the HondaJet. It is
a seven-passenger jet that is priced at about
$4.5 million. In addition to autos, Honda
also makes robots, boats, and lawn mow-
ers. With this new product, it enters a new
industry. Michimasa Fujino, the CEO of
Honda Aircraft Co, suggests that Honda is
looking to the future and providing for its
longevity.^131The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images
Honda’s new focus on the innovative frontier produced its new
personal jet, the HondaJet. It carries seven passengers and is priced
at $4.5 million.