Innovation Strategy for the Korean Shipbuilding Industry Based on Analysis of the Shift in Industrial Leadership

The purpose of this paper is to provide an innovation strategy for a leading industrial company. We analyze the process of a shift in industrial leadership using the shipbuilding industry as a case study. This paper explains that the three core factors of decline are immobilization, lack of innovation for major products, and organizational inertia. This study presents that the leader of a market is not decided by strong competitiveness, but by quick reaction to major customers' needs, and that out-of-date strategies do not contribute to maintaining leadership. As a result of this study, it shows that the leading Korean industrial companies shall establish a new innovation-oriented and customer-oriented management system that is flexible enough to anticipate and respond to the changes in new competitive environments. These findings contribute to the formulation of new strategies for other manufacturing industries in Korea.