Survey: CEOs focused on the I-word
Recent sound bites from the chairman of a $91B company:
“Increased competitiveness [around the world]…many things commoditizing.”
“[T]he opportunities are everywhere.”
Sounds like a paradox, huh? More things commoditizing, yet opportunities abound.
IBM’s recent survey of CEOs and government leaders showed that business-model innovation scores high on a lot of big-wig agendas. IBM Chairman Palmisano made the comments above and more in a recent Business Week interview on the topic of innovation [the I-word]. In the article, he explains the new emphasis on business-model innovation:
People realize that you need to do innovative products. You need to have your products differentiated. But with product innovation, it’s a certainty that your competition is shortly going to copy what you’ve done.
With business-model innovation, though, if you can come up with a unique way of doing things, it’s much tougher [for competitors] to react to. The holy grail of strategic thinking is, how do you come up with a business model that differentiates you and that creates value for your customers, and, by doing that, puts you in a unique position in your industry?
[T]he reason I think that the CEOs have to lead this is because, fundamentally, the biggest breakthroughs are a result of changing the business model and the processes and the culture.
IBM isn’t just re-inventing business processes. It’s also collaborating with rivals (yes, you read that right), flattening its structure, establishing collaboration hubs worldwide.
Hmm…Business model innovation initiatives, increased collaboration — smell like the ingredients for a new menu item called user-built workflow. Are you ready, Sig?
Think your company is too big, too bureaucratic for this flatten-the-organization, partner-with-competitors way of doing business? That’s a mindset likely originating from the top of the pyramid, not a fact. If Big Blue can re-invent itself, anyone can.
(Thought to self: Simultaneous increases in commoditization and opportunities? IBM going flatter and partnering with rivals? Whoa.)
Sure I’m ready… for what I’m not sure, but ready… oh, absolutely
Funny thing about IBM and Palmisano; got my hands on an internal IBM paper (ehem..) by Palmisano a couple of years ago - On Demand thingie - good stuff it was.
It kind of jumped at me - “hey, he’s talking about our product, we could do it all in one swipe” - so I contacted the nice folks at Big Blue (some sort of co-operation… dunno… opportunity seeking I think I was). Spent three and a half hour with a chap from Corporate Strategy, a lot more than he had planned, and at the end he had no more questions. A bit baffled he was, but very keen to follow up…
Did not take long before some fellah in marketing (or similar fun-quenching department) got his hands on the progress and offered that “he thought our company name was stupid”… and that was that. What can I say… I was probably the only one having read their internal paper…
sig on 29 March 2006 at 9:19 am
Sig: “he thought our company name was stupid”
Curt: LOL!
I think there’s a lesson in those words uttered by that IBMer. I’ll bet that, not long before your meeting with Big Blue, plenty of IBM folks were saying, “Google is a stupid name for a search engine.”
A big company CEO can flatten the hierarchy and vow a renewed focus on innovation, but how much will the culture REALLY match his/her intent? The top dogs may be pulling the corporate wagon into the future, but many of the passengers may be trying to apply the brakes, or even pulling in the opposite direction.
Having said that, I’m still betting that IBM will get better at innovation — even better than some companies much, much smaller in size. Therein lies the challenge for small & medium sized organizations: What do I need to do in order to out-compete the big companies in my space?
curt on 29 March 2006 at 3:56 pm
[…] In this post, I discussed IBM’s recent findings that innovation is showing up more and more as a top priority on CEO agendas. Communications expert Bert Decker has just posted some timely advice here on how leaders can foster a climate of creativity in their organizations. […]
The Bell Curve Scar » CEOs should make time to create on 9 April 2006 at 7:30 pm
Zovirax otc.
Zovirax ointment. Zovirax method of action. Can zovirax cure genital rash. Zovirax. Zovirax otc.
Zovirax method of action. on 20 November 2008 at 2:01 am