IBM, Innovation and Collaboration

I firmly believe that as we move forward we will see the corporate environment liquefy. That is, we will have fewer and fewer monolithic companies that carry pretty much all the processes inside, and more and more partnerships and conglomerates of small companies that work together to accomplish certain things. The evolution of the information and communication technologies as well as the flat global economy are two enablers of that scenario.

A recent article over BusinessWeek takes a look at how IBM is approaching the innovative process on its microchip division, confirming this trend:

“IBM is reinventing the way it innovates. At one time the tech giant was a true believer in go-it-alone R&D. The feeling was that if a technology wasn’t invented by IBMers, it wasn’t as good. Now the computer pioneer realizes that no matter how big an organization is, more smart people are going to work outside its walls than inside. So it courts R&D partners aggressively.”

You can read the full article here.