6.2.1 Directors

Directors on the Board of the company have their vision for future growth of the enterprise, commitment to product development as a method of ensuring company growth, understanding of the knowledge and skills needed for product development, provision of resources for product development. They need to have the abilities for: incorporating innovation into the business strategy, analysis and decision making, intelligent risk-taking, selecting and directing a chief executive with the knowledge and skills for the innovation strategy that they have developed. They need an understanding of the company's technological and marketing environments, the competitors' innovative strategies and multi-industry evolution, the company's structural and cultural context, and the company's resources and capabilities.

The Board sets the overall innovation strategy and the philosophy for product development, gives appropriate allocation of resources and makes the major decisions in the development. As with most business activities, product development is most successful when it starts from the top.