BusinessWeek Article ….
blog | philmckinney | November 16, 2007 at 4:36 pm
In this weeks issue of BusinessWeek’s In Innovation special report, there is an article on my "day job". The photo above appears in the article and is of Rahul Sood, Founder of Voodoo, and myself ….
The article gives a good overview of how large corporation’s can use start-up’s to influence their innovation culture.
Probably the most notable quote in the article is . . . .
Their new strategy is innovation via absorption—and that’s very hard to do. "It’s difficult to infuse the acquirer’s culture with the target’s culture," says Saikat Chaudhuri, a Wharton School assistant professor of management who’s followed the tactic for a decade. Even HP’s McKinney admits: "Companies have to realize this isn’t a quick fix. It isn’t business process re-engineering. This is a fundamental shift in the culture of an organization."
HP has embraced many kinds of innovation in recent years. The acquisition of Compaq, for example, changed the nature of its business. Hurd’s move to raise efficiency and cut costs changed its many processes. Now, it’s inciting a cultural change. And the company that began as the prototypical story of two guys experimenting in a garage is trying to see the world through the fresh eyes of a startup. Again.
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When Christianssen talks about the innovator’s dilemma, he says that the new company that grows inside the original to survive in the new bigger market at the lower margins has to kill the parent. This is more like a zombie takeover (but in a good way). I was talking to Helen Vaid of Snapfish this week and it was interesting to hear about how a fanatically independant entrepreneur works inside HP, which she called the most process driven company in the universe
She was a great speaker for the London Girl Geek Dinner – I also got to have my first proper go with mscape. Have to say I love it (confessions at http://www.itpro.co.uk/blogs/editorial-blogs/simon-bisson-and-mary-branscombe/984903/the-best-mobile-game-ever.thtm); you should do a Barcelona game for 3GSM and a Vegas game for CES.