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CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 44 6 Conclusions and Recommendations The concrete background and rationale for the conclusions and recommendations of the Joint Task Force on Corporate Innovation are contained in the Executive Summary. This chapter lists the specific conclusions and action items identified by the Joint Task Force. CONCLUSIONS Globalization of Corporate Innovation From its comparative study of trends in corporate innovation by Japanand U.S.-based companies, the Joint Task Force observes that important forces in the world economy are affecting the innovation strategies and capabilities of leading edge companies worldwide. Corporate innovation in the United States, Japan and other countries is undergoing important, fundamental shifts. The most important underlying force for these shifts is the globalization of markets and competition, with the accompanying increased pressure on companies to deliver high quality products to demanding end users quickly and at reasonable cost. In the view of the task force, the trend toward increased reliance on external sources of innovation by companies is the most important development in global technology management. In order to make effective use of external sources of innovation and prioritize internal R&D optimally, companies are adjusting their internal structures, and forming a variety of new alliances with domestic and foreign partners. U.S.-Japan "Problem Convergence" and Continued Disparities in Environments and Approaches Increasingly, leading edge companies based in Japan, the United States and other countries are competing in the global market, and are responding to similar pressures to deliver technological solutions to a worldwide customer base in a rapid and cost effective manner. In this sense, the problems addressed by corporate innovation throughout the world have more in common than they once did. The Joint Task Force believes that such problem convergence is evident between companies based in the United States and Japan, and will likely accelerate and broaden to affect companies based in other countries. As such, problem convergence may serve as an effective framework for addressing the globalization of corporate innovation mentioned above. Although there is a consensus among Joint Task Force members that problem convergence is occurring between U.S. and Japanese companies, there is a variety of views concerning the implications. Most of the Japanese members and several of the U.S. members believe that as the problems faced by companies become more similar, the innovation systems of the two countries will tend to converge toward each other as they approach a new innovation model relevant to all
