Innovation
The Cloud Part Two: Disruption in motion in enterprise computing
As I said in my last post, Cloud computing has made operating systems, databases and applications more available, making business more democratic. A few concepts have been game changers in this disruption, and I’d like to touch on them. Note: I’m only mentioning a few key companies here, because this post can’t be 5,000 words…
Read MoreDreamers aren’t intimidated
Last week I was with a group of brilliant engineers and computer scientists from a cross section of large corporations. The subject was leadership in engineering and computer science, based on my concept of Innovation-Based Leadership ™. It was a super-smart group, but something was amiss. At the start of our session, there was silence…
Read MoreWhat would Steve Do?
In writing Provoke, I drew on Apple and Steve Jobs repeatedly to illustrate the importance of disruption leading to innovation and excellence. Apple is the gold standard for what a company could do if it allowed itself the permission to actively disrupt the status quo. Under the late Jobs, Apple disrupted the music industry with…
Read More“Me too” is Not Disrupting!
Last week Amazon introduced its tablet, the Kindle Fire. It was seen as a major move for Amazon, a possible threat to Netflix and an attractively priced alternative to the iPad. The media gushed. Jeff Bezos did his best Steve Jobs impression. It won’t mean a thing. A year from now, the iPad will still…
Read MoreWhy can't we seem to innovate?
For the last decade I have been looking at innovation around the globe. I am seriously distressed about the total lack of innovation on a global scale. Less than 20 years ago we had think tanks such as BBN, Xerox PARC, Bell Labs, SRI and others, whose sole purpose was to bring thousands of brilliant…
Read MoreInnovate or Die
Watching the drop in Eastman Kodak’s stock value is like witnessing death by water torture. The stock has lost 80 percent of its value in 2011 and is hanging on at less than a dollar a share. It’s sad. Kodak was the leader in photographic technology. Thirty years ago, it had an unmatched presence and…
Read MoreGoing Postal
A few weeks back, the United States Postal Service declared an upcoming $10 billion loss and said it might need to lay off over 120,000 people. In an interview the president of the letter carrier association and number of other postal service officials discussed the reasons for the current situation. The following made me fall…
Read MoreIf You Can’t Disrupt, You Won’t Innovate
Innovation is disruptive. The three Merriam-Webster definitions of “disrupt” are “to break apart,” “to throw into disorder” and “to interrupt the normal course or unity of something.” It’s number three that matters. Change is a measure of progress; the stronger the disruption the greater the possibility of improvement. When the Internet was introduced as a…
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