In addition, the Law no 5746 will cover the support and incentives towards technological centers established according to the Law no 3624 dated 12th April 1990, Research & Development centers in Turkey, Research & Development projects and investments on technological entrepreneurship.



Today, “Research & Development” is perceived as “Research & Technology Development” in most of the activity fields. In fact, the Research & Technology Development studies form a triangle that enables the collaboration of the universities and private and public sectors. In general, the private sector companies carry out development activities especially towards the market where they perform activities; on the contrary the academic activities in the universities cover technology development studies in different fields due to their noncommercial status. The alliance of the universities and industry will certainly play an important role for the utilization of technology on products and the production of high performance technological products.



Today, besides the Research and Technology Development concept, the Innovation concept is also used commonly and accepted as a culture even by lots of enterprises. The innovation forms a notion in entrepreneurial spirit.



Innovation is a word derived from the Latin language and the meaning is “to introduce something new to existing realm and order of things”.



In respect of a world of business, the word “innovation” has a wider meaning. “Innovation” means the processes and the outcomes of the processes developed through an idea of a new product, service, application, method and business model that can meet social and economic requirements, be supplied successfully to the current markets or create new markets. Innovation is a process management and its penetration into the world of business is so deep that the companies specialized in this field can only take their part in the business world.



In order for the companies to increase their innovative capabilities, they should hold sufficient resources and key personnel for the management of the innovation process. Innovation is a field of study having direct relations with the know-how of different fields such as marketing, creating new ideas and concepts, design, industrial development and re-design of the company processes. Process can be explained as a logical system that covers all activities adding value to customers in order for them to reach a defined target.





The innovation process both covers the development of a new product and performance of the activities in a different way with an approach aiming to increase the value of the product. On the other hand, it is the management of both the definition of opportunities and the needs not covered through a well defined balance based on the satisfaction of the customers with new services. It should be kept in mind that each innovation activity holds a risk and for that reason it should be accompanied with a well planned risk management.



Companies setting their sights on success have also included innovation processes in their processes.

The functions of new market opportunities and requirements, production of new products and the customer satisfaction processes are briefly explained below:



Creation of New Concepts:

 Definition of new concepts for products and services,

 Estimation of customer needs in advance through the analysis of the market trends and achievement of the competitors,

 Encouragement of the personnel for new ideas and creativity,

 Determination of mechanisms and criteria for the selection of ideas to be developed,

 Planning of the creation of new product concepts



Product Development:

Development of a new product covers the attainment of producible a product through an original idea or concept, and production and supply of such product according to the market needs. The development process is crucial since 70%-80% of the product cost occurs and many of the product features are determined in such process.



Re-design of the Production Processes:

 Re-design of the production processes for higher flexibility and efficiency through higher quality standards and reduced production costs,

 Changes in production processes allowing changes in products,

 Evaluation of the utilization of new technologies and management and restructuring tools.



When a re-design or a re-regulation of a production process is planned, all related aspects such as the technology to be utilized, resources to be allocated, the structure and possible impacts should be taken into consideration.



Re-design of the Marketing Processes:

Re-design activities generally mean the marketing of product and services totally in a different way. Re-design of marketing processes cover all processes from the determination of packaging to point of sale and communication strategies.



Information and Technology Management:

The management of information and technology is a crucial field based on innovation processes which are described above. Technological change is a determinant on generating new business/trade opportunities and re-structuring of several sectors.



CONCLUSION:

Today, the competitiveness on being in the market in time, with high quality innovative products offering diversity amongst the current products in the market. In recent years, whether it is accepted or not, there is a global competitiveness due to the globalization. One of the important characteristics of the globalization is having higher technology products for being dominant in the market. When the organizations adopt innovation in the sector that they perform activities, they will make difference, create awareness and achieve the competitiveness. This can only be achieved through the establishment of innovation processes appropriately.



I wish you success in your business by innovation processes.



Zeynep KAREL



(Resource: Innovation Process Management MA,SK)