This was great, Noreen. Really thought provoking.
Who innovates?
ProfR
1/25/2012 8:53:39 AM
Yes, the state of innovation is sad. I have never thought of Google as innovative. They are good at copying technology, buying companies and selling ads...
Yes, I was also sad to see the state of things at CES. Very little of interest.
So why is this? Partially it is about the focus of corporations: short term, profit, risk adverse. If you are going to be innovative you need a longer term focus and money to back it up. You need to give some people a free hand in pursuing things you might not understand right now. Tough to find companies willing to do this.
Re: Thought provoking
Tenacious
1/25/2012 8:57:53 AM
There appears to be a problematic trend by corporations to quash innovation, as this post so clearly explains. I remember last summer when the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) urged a federal court to block Microsoft Corporation's attempt to misuse copyright law to thwart a competitor offering memory cards for the Xbox gaming system. That's just one example. We shouldn't let innovation die in the name of competition.
Google had one huge innovation: keyword marketing. They also did okay with Android. But when you think about the fact that Google has allegedly hired the "best and the brightest" and plowed billions of dollars into new products, it's a bit sad that still 98% of their revenue comes from keyword marketing.
Re: Thought provoking
tokyogai
1/25/2012 9:19:40 AM
I fully agree. Maybe Google execs should read this!
Well maybe Google doesn't need to innovate because it's just taking all of your ideas.
Google will begin tracking people as they use Google search and Gmail, watch YouTube videos and use other Google services — at their computers and on their mobile devices. (And suck your memories out of your brains too?)
moratorium on ideas
AskAsa
1/25/2012 10:07:33 AM
Reading about all of this stillborn innovation makes me wonder how many fantastic ideas have been stomped into dust because they didnt fit into the current plan.
Was there one product -- like the Cabbage Patch Kids or Furby or Talking Elmo of years past -- that all the kids on your holiday list had to have this year?
Say what you want, but Furbys were creepy. They would go off all the time in the middle of the night and when I was in other rooms and it made for a stressful few weeks.
That's what worries me. I tend to feel intuitively that their is a lot of innovation out there -- but the process of bringing it to market is cumbersome -- and someone may be waiting to stomp it to dust in the end anyway, even the person that buys it.
Parents loved them Bargain Bin. They really kept the kids in line. That's innovation at its finest, second only to benedryl as a life saver for someone with kids under five.
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