Comments on: Long Term Success or Survival?

By: avich » Innovation and survival in the information age

avich » Innovation and survival in the information age — Wed, 02 May 2007 13:17:51 +0000

[...] From the innovation zen post: In 1983 IBM was the most admired company of the Fortune 500 list, it accounted for 40% of sales and 70% of profits in the computer industry. The company had enormous resources, fine-tuned internal routines, a vast technological knowledge base and, as the press used to acclaim, it had also the best management team one could aspire. Yet, only four years later it started somehow to struggle, IBM became too focused on its core business and too arrogant with its market dominance, they were organized for “optimization” and not for “innovation”. Between 1986 and 1993 Big Blue was forced to lay out 200.000 employees and its profitability declined by billions of dollars, in 1993 alone it reported a financial loss of $8.1 billion. [...]

By: Open Innovation

Open Innovation — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 20:48:55 +0000

[...] Personally I think Chesbrough theories are very insightful because they go against conventional wisdom, and throughout this blog I have always defended that success in emerging markets where innovation plays a central role will require a completely different mindset from the one that is practiced in business schools (you can read some of my criticism here). [...]

By: Innovation is a 2-level game

Innovation is a 2-level game — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 19:53:32 +0000

[...] The “traditional” management thought in business schools is focused in administering companies under stable and mature environments, which is partly the reason why innovation represents such a challenge for most organizations. As I have outlined in the article “Long Term Success or Survival?” practically all large companies fail sustain returns over the long run. [...]

By: Innovation Zen - Management, Business Strategy, Technology and more

Innovation Zen - Management, Business Strategy, Technology and more — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 12:25:32 +0000

[...] In the article “Long Term Success or Survival” I quoted one of my professors when he said that “the failure rate (of large companies) is so high not despite the efforts of MBA-educated managers, but because of it! In fact they are awarded a Master in Business Administration and not a Master in Business Innovation”. [...]

By: Innovation Zen - Management, Business Strategy, Technology and more

Innovation Zen - Management, Business Strategy, Technology and more — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 20:06:45 +0000

[...] The usage of the term innovation has grown exponentially over the last decade, I wonder indeed if it would be possible to open a business magazine, a newspaper or a management book without coming across it at some point. During the last decades whenever managers or shareholders talked about mergers and strategic decisions they would justify everything with the word synergy. What is the purpose of such acquisition? Synergies! Why is your company investing in such segment? Synergies! Well, guess what, now they have another magic word under their belt, innovation.Now don’t get me wrong here. It is beyond discussion the fact that innovation plays a central role in the success of companies. In my article Long Term Success or Survival? I show how the failure rate of top companies around the world is surprisingly high also due to their inability to manage innovation. When I say that people is using innovation as magic word I mean that often times managers and politicians are concerned too much in filling their speeches with the term and not concerned at all in understanding the dynamics behind the phenomenon. [...]