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Strategic innovation management stressed

VEC hosted the seminar as part of its objective of developing enhanced interaction between executives and managers in the Arab world and all over the globe. The club supports executives by utilizing recent developments in tactical and strategic management thinking to improve members' performance in their organisations. Professor Mohammed Zairi, Dean of e-TQM College and Head of European Centre for TQM presided over the seminar which was addressed by Professor Arthur Francis, Dean and Director; and Stuart Sanderson, Associate Dean, Graduate Programmes, School of Management, University of Bradford, the UK. Attended by more than 50 leading management professionals from both the private and public sector in the UAE, the seminar stressed on the crucial role played by innovation in providing and maintaining competitive advantage in face of increasingly demanding markets.

"Many technology- and resource-rich firms often fail to compete in the technologically turbulent environments that they helped to create in the first place. This is due to a failure to perceive the subtle changes taking place in the market. It does not take much for an enterprise to get bogged-down by institutionalised procedures. Research has proven that there are almost no cases of a company transforming itself without there being some huge shock imposed upon it," explained Professor Francis. "On the other hand sustaining innovative management attitudes, that would lead to technological innovation, requires a thorough and timely action against inertia and hubris (normally described as the level of arrogance that leads to disaster) that sets in when companies begin to perceive themselves as comfortably established."

Discussing the evolution of the Information age, Stuart Sanderson detailed the new bases of competitive advantage, which develop from new forms of organisation, new strategies, new models of leadership and new methods of strategic planning.

"There is a clear message that leadership in the 21st century is about engaging people's hearts and minds and harnessing their creative capacities with advanced technological support," said Professor Zairi. "Modern enterprises operate in a knowledge driven competitive environment, where management practices rooted in institutionalised attitudes need to be reformed if the innovation has to be sustained. Performance Management and Total Quality Management have therefore assumed increase importance in business studies. With this seminar, we have attempted to draw in market leaders to encourage a dialogue on management models."