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To readers of the Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship blog:
I expect to make a brief posting about once per week -- on innovation related to individuals and/or innovation related to companies. If you would like to add your ideas to this blog, send me your proposed posting via e-mail to mrice@babson.edu. I'll try to select postings that will continue the current train of thought, or trigger a productive new track.
Sincerely,
Mark Rice, Murata Dean of Babson's Graduate School of Business and Professor of Technology Entrepreneurship at Olin College of Engineering
Now, about the focus of this entry: Innovation at Motorola........
The cover story of the March / April 2007 issue of BizEd magazine features a profile and interview of Ed Zander, Motorola's CEO. (Ed is a bright, high energy, innovative leader, whom I know from my RPI days.) Quotes from the article:
"Zander was instrumental in managing the company's turnaround, overseeing the launch of the RAZR and the Q."
Zander himself is quoted as saying: "Companies that don't innovative don't survive, and leaders who don't innovative are replaced by those willing to take risks. The key to success is to drive innovation."
Contrast the quotes above with the following quote from the April 27, 2007 Wall Street Journal article detailing Motorola's (and Ed Zander's) difficulties in sustaining innovatoin:
"Amid its success with the RAZR, it [Motorola] fell behind on developing a phone with the next generation of technology."
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Since I have done training and consulting focused on innovation in a wide variety of companies, I often get asked: "What company is best in class with respect to innovation?" My response: "I can't name one. Many companies have had some innovation successes on an ad hoc basis, but no company has done innovation well consistently across the innovation spectrum -- from incremental to breakthrough innovation -- and in a sustained way across time."
If you want to read more about leadership and innovation, check out the article I wrote for Financial Times, which is reprinted on the following website.
http://www.babsoninsight.com/contentmgr/showdetails.php/id/707
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Re: Innovation at Motorola
