Unit 2 Preview Effective strategic thinking, as noted last unit, included the ability to analyze and evaluate current patterns and trends in the environment, as well as the ability to use foresight to project what the future might hold and how the business should prepare for that future. As such, good strategic thinking also requires that an organization build capabilities to be creative and to innovate, to bring new products and services to current markets, and to bring new products and services – and combinations of current products and services – to entirely new market spaces (blue oceans). Innovation, within the strategic management context, is a process and is the outcome of creating the environment so that people in the organization can produce creative ideas and transforms them into value-added goods and services that customer's value and for which they will pay. The capability to innovate is vital for business growth and sustainability, yet it is a difficult capability to build, as it requires patience, openness and a tolerance for failure on the part of senior leadership. This unit focuses on a range of innovation strategies that companies can attempt to deploy, including those outlined by Kim and Mauborgne (2004) and Pitt and Koufopoulos (2012: Chapter 9). You will analyze how innovative thinking can help expand an organization's reach through the development of blue ocean strategies, and you will evaluate strategies for expanding an organization's performance frontier for ecosystem sustainability and growth. Learning Objectives Students will: • Evaluate innovation strategies in the marketplace • Analyze an organization's environmental, social and governance approach (ESG) to enhancing sustainable innovation and performance • Evaluate strategies for performance frontier innovativeness and sustainability