Four steps to re-ignite Japan’s innovation leadership

Abstract

Purpose

This analysis assesses the barriers to innovation Japanese executives must contend with and outlines key strategies to help their organizations, and all companies that seek to compete in global marketplaces, assume a leadership role in implementing a business ecosystem strategy.

Design/methodology/approach

To better understand the economic and management challenges Japan’s business leaders face and how they are addressing them, the IBM Institute for Business Value in collaboration with Oxford Economics conducted a survey of 1,151 Japanese executives across 17 industries.

Findings

While the strategy of opening up innovation processes to customers, partners and other stakeholders has been adopted successfully in many nations, Japanese organizations appear stuck in closed, insular innovation paradigms

Practical implications

Japanese organizations need to embrace entirely new customer value propositions, build new partnering arrangements and more effectively harness the power of innovation by taking four key sets of actions that: Re-imagine customer experience; Redefine business ecosystems; Promote ecosystem connectivity; Revitalize innovation governance.

Originality/value

A bold analysis of why Japanese business leaders largely ignore new forms of competition emanating from startups or emergent cross-industry players, even as traditional industries such as banking now anticipate massive technology-fueled disruption and how they can change.

Citation

Ikeda, K., Marshall, A. and Okamura, S. (2016), "Four steps to re-ignite Japan’s innovation leadership", Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 44 No. 6, pp. 35-45. https://doi.org/10.1108/SL-09-2016-0075