|
Howard Rheingold has written a very interesting summary of a presentation given John Warnock, founder of Adobe, about "how companies deal with new ideas." Warnock was part of the original team at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), which invented a legendary series of innovations in computing, including the point-and-click graphical user interface, the laser printer and the Ethernet in the early 1970s. Xerox then failed to capitalize on these innovations. As the founder of another organization known for innovation, Adobe, Warnock learned many lessons about organizational innovation, which Rheingold passes along in his column. These observations include:
How innovations get starved: "Successful projects generate a kind of gravitational field that draws small projects into it, like a black hole. If something starts out looking like a promising innovation, instead of gaining attention and resources as an exploration in a new direction, it becomes drawn into an adjunct of an existing project." As a result, promising product ideas are unintentionally starved, compromised or killed.
Organizational immnune systems: "Warnock also used a biological metaphor, describing the way people unconsciously create a kind of immune system in organizations: 'Organizations develop corporate antibodies that kill innovations,' Warnock claimed, because budgeting is a zero-sum game. Any new project that rises above the noise becomes budgetary competition."
How to avoid detection by idea killers: "At early stages, Warnock advised, innovators within organizations need to keep costs minimal so the corporate antibodies can't detect and kill them. 'Keep the projects small enough to stay off radar screens' of people who kill things that don't make money the way already-established products did. 'You have to protect resources for new ideas' until they can stand on their own."
Teams needed to move innovations into production: Rheingold outlines Warnock's framework of "arrow shooters," "pathfinders" and "road builders." Please read Rheingold's column for more details on these personality types, and each one's role in the innovation process. |
