Reflection 1_Dynamic Capabilities
Lawrence Choi
1. By reflecting on the readings/lectures/discussions, what specific ideas, concepts and tools
from these modules can aid you in this innovation project?
After reflecting on the readings and discussions from the past weeks’ modules, I thought that the
ideas around the Five Barriers of Innovation from IBM and the ideas in Dynamic Capabilities
and Strategic Management by Teece, Pisano, and Shuen were especially poignant. Competitive
advantage is one that is often constantly at the forefront of the great companies. Teece, Pisano,
and Shuen go into this more on how in the field of strategic management, how the top firms are
able to stay ahead of the game. They write how “one aspect of the strategic problem facing an
innovating firm in a world of Schumpeterian competition is to identify difficult to imitate
internal and external competences most likely to support valuable products and services” (pg
515). Inherently in a competitive advantage, there must be something that cannot be repeated by
any other competitor because then it would not be an advantage. This lesson is something that as
I think of my innovation project to innovate the restaurant industry, I am pushed to think about
what are things in the restaurant industry that other industries cannot imitate and as well what is
the competitive advantage that an innovative company in the restaurant industry would hold over
its competition. Teece, Pisano, and Shuen go on to describe this as a “distinctive competence”; in
which, it must be something in which there is no market for it yet except possibly through the
market for business units. Secondly, I thought that in the IBM article on the Five Barriers to
Innovation its’ points on Risk Avoidance and Incorrect Measures were absolutely on point and
