Strategic Innovation Does Not Equal Dollars Spent
My colleague Gray Hammond sent along this interesting coverage of innovative companies, and I thought it might be of interest to my readers as well.
Booz & Company’s latest annual study of global innovation, The 2010 Innovation 1000: How the Top Innovators Keep Winning, surveyed more than 400 executives at companies worldwide to find out the characteristics of the most innovative firms. Here are the top 10 most innovative companies:
- Apple
- 3M
- GE
- Toyota
- Microsoft
- Procter & Gamble
- IBM
- Samsung
- Intel
Reporting on the study in Forbes, study co-author Barry Jaruzelski shared some of the findings. One finding that might surprise you: Money does not equal innovation. Seven of the top 10 innovators were not in the top 10 spenders on innovation. In fact, many companies identified as top innovators spent well below the average for their industries on R&D.
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- Posted Rita McGrath on May 09, 2011
An Internet Kissing Machine? Oh brother, what’s next. Wait, Maybe I Don’t Want to Know…
Believe it or not, reports have surfaced that a group of Japanese researchers are hard at work on an Internet Kissing Machine. Yes, apparently, two people equipped with the devices can exchange more than just emails if they happen to be separated. And I've evidently been hiding under a rock somewhere, because this is proclaimed to be the latest in whole industry of such devices, under the umbrella name teledildonics, which is code word for cyber sex toys. This could be rather awkward if those companies decide to pursue an advertising model...
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- Posted Rita McGrath on May 04, 2011
Say It Ain’t So: The Shortening Half Life of the Business School Case Study
We in business school just love to use examples. It's examples, stories and personal insights that make what we teach accessible, inspiring and sometimes game-changing. Along the way, many of these great stories get written up as cases, either formal ones like those created by the Harvard Business School, or less formal ones, such as those captured in articles, stories and books. There is just one problem with all this - the companies lauded as examples of greatness don't keep it up. I've had this experience myself - no sooner do you think a practice or process in an organization is interesting and useful for others to learn about than some strategic disaster befalls them and refudiates all the other great stuff that the company did.
I find the current situation over at Nokia to be particularly poignant. As a recent FT article points out, Nokia was the poster child of high-tech stategic success throughout the 90's and even into the early parts of this century. There must be hundreds of cases written about the company and how it manages everything from training to supply chains to design. Personally, I've worked with and enjoyed interacting with Nokia people for years. Unfortunately, the company missed a few strategic pivot points - lack of progress in the USA and being overtaken by the twin combination of Apple and Android in phones being two notable ones - and it is now facing the grim prospect of radical downsizing and a fight for its future. Will they pull it off? I hope so - I admire the company and think they are now making the tough decisions they probably should have made some time ago. Will their eventual success resurrect the value of those old case studies? Probably not.
Which brings me to an interesting point -- just because a company isn't perennially successful doesn't mean we can't learn anything from them. But it probably means that case studies, like other kinds of perishable goods, probably have to be issued with an expiration date.
For a chart of Nokia's stock price relative to its sector, click here.
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- Posted Rita McGrath on May 02, 2011
Free Webinar On Business Model Challenges and Innovation
Business Model Erosion and Innovation to combat this phenomenon is very much a topic of concern for strategists and innovators. In this free half-hour webinar sponsored by Columbia Business School Executive Education, I reflect on some of the ways in which companies need to become alert to the potential erosion of a business model. Have a look! Feedback always welcome.
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- Posted Rita McGrath on April 29, 2011
Intelligent Failure Noted in The Economist
In an article published in the April 16 Economist, the positive side of failure, as featured in a recent special issue of the Harvard Business Review is discussed. Interesting reading for those of us who follow failures and try to learn from them.
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- Posted Rita McGrath on April 25, 2011
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