Corporate Terms

I found Horace Dediu’s article on what “innovation” means at the workplace an eye-opened. He identifies 4 related terms (each term includes the attributes of the terms preceding it):
- Novelty: something new, may or may not have any value.
- Creation: something new and valuable, but like art or books.
- Invention: something patentable.
- Innovation: valuable in the market place; often includes not just the invention but even the method to make money out of it.
Thus, for Dediu, Google’s innovation is not just the search algorithm; it is also the way to make money (ads linked to your search terms).

That certainly explains why so many people feel all confused about the word “innovation” at the workplace. Based on our schooling, we don’t think of the “How will it make money?” question as part of an innovation. And so end up feeling all confused (This isn’t to pass a judgment on what is right: it’s just to explain that the term “innovation” in the corporate world includes the money making aspect on top of the school book definition of the term). It also explains why the world associates innovation with Apple even though Nokia invented the tablet and Microsoft had a phone OS a decade before Apple: Apple did it better and found a way to make a truckload of money!

Ben Evans points out that in the market, often “it's an unfair comparison, but it's a relevant one”. Are there are more iOS and Android devices to access the Net than Windows based systems? Unfair comparison (phones and tablets are cheaper; they often can’t be used for all the tasks a PC/laptop can do)? Sure. But, as Evans says, “this isn't the Olympics”! If the world is moving to the smart phones and tablets rather than the PC/laptop, guess where the money is going? Not to Microsoft, that’s for sure.
“Unfair advantages are often the best kind. They are something that flows structurally from the reason why your business is going to change everything - they flow from a technology change you are building on or a change in market dynamics or consumer behaviour that you're riding, and that your competitors cannot address.”
And Evans concludes with:
“WhatsApp and Skype use the infrastructure others built at great cost to offer voice or messaging for free. But really, that applies to any internet business. That's, well, unfair.”

The business world’s unfair. Then again, you’re not at school anymore…adapt or you will go the Nokia/BlackBerry way.

Comments

  1. Ramiah KumarOctober 19, 2016 at 11:42 AM

    It looks reasonable to say:
    The business world’s unfair.

    Maybe it has its root in something more fundamental:
    World’s unfair. :-)
    If you have doubt in this, get a prey's opinion or watch a predator!

    [By the way when his dad told him,"The world is unfair", Calvin retorted, "Why it is not so in my favor?!" Calvin's future is bright; he will be successful in business, when he (is it 'if he') grows up!]

    ReplyDelete

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