Here is a wonderful quote from my friend Garry Jacobs' epic business novel THE BOOK that I hope you will appreciate.
"When development of the silicon chip made possible a breakthrough in computer technology, it was not IBM and Unisys that were first off the block to invent the personal computer. It was Commodore, Apple, Microsoft and a whole brood of start-up companies that were not mired in old concepts and past habits.
By the time the Internet and World Wide Web were born, firms such as Microsoft, Oracle, HP and Apple were already suffering from mental myopia and organizational ossification, so the lead shifted to companies like AOL, Compuserve and Dell who could define themselves freshly in terms of the emerging world of cyberspace.
It was not Barnes & Noble or Waldenbooks that saw and responded to the opportunity to become a global bookseller, but start-up Amazon which had no vested interests in brick and mortar to defend. Five years after the birth of the web, it was not search engine leaders such as Yahoo, MSN and Excite, but late comer Google that saw the opportunity to marry search engine technology with personalized advertising to emerge as the global leader.
These examples illustrate only the most visible and external part of the process, but the challenge and disorder permeated much deeper down. It was not just products, technologies and market needs that evolve, the whole society was a moving glacier. Everything changed simultaneously and in proportion.
One cannot change strategy without modifying structure. New structures will behave just like the old ones unless attitudes toward freedom and authority change as well. Attitudes depend on values. Most of the old Titanic companies sank due to their refusal to embrace new values, rather than their resistance to new technology.
While freedom, initiative, innovation and achievement were replacing authority, discipline, conformity and prestige in society, older firms were shoring up the old corporate character or trying to repackage it in jeans and athletic shoes, but the body inside the clothes continued to age. Changing products is easy–like changing behavior. Changing character–individual or corporate–is a challenge few can rise to.
If a company maintains live linkages with the society that gave it birth, it will always be capable of original thinking, creative initiatives and endless expansion."
"When development of the silicon chip made possible a breakthrough in computer technology, it was not IBM and Unisys that were first off the block to invent the personal computer. It was Commodore, Apple, Microsoft and a whole brood of start-up companies that were not mired in old concepts and past habits.
By the time the Internet and World Wide Web were born, firms such as Microsoft, Oracle, HP and Apple were already suffering from mental myopia and organizational ossification, so the lead shifted to companies like AOL, Compuserve and Dell who could define themselves freshly in terms of the emerging world of cyberspace.
It was not Barnes & Noble or Waldenbooks that saw and responded to the opportunity to become a global bookseller, but start-up Amazon which had no vested interests in brick and mortar to defend. Five years after the birth of the web, it was not search engine leaders such as Yahoo, MSN and Excite, but late comer Google that saw the opportunity to marry search engine technology with personalized advertising to emerge as the global leader.
These examples illustrate only the most visible and external part of the process, but the challenge and disorder permeated much deeper down. It was not just products, technologies and market needs that evolve, the whole society was a moving glacier. Everything changed simultaneously and in proportion.
One cannot change strategy without modifying structure. New structures will behave just like the old ones unless attitudes toward freedom and authority change as well. Attitudes depend on values. Most of the old Titanic companies sank due to their refusal to embrace new values, rather than their resistance to new technology.
While freedom, initiative, innovation and achievement were replacing authority, discipline, conformity and prestige in society, older firms were shoring up the old corporate character or trying to repackage it in jeans and athletic shoes, but the body inside the clothes continued to age. Changing products is easy–like changing behavior. Changing character–individual or corporate–is a challenge few can rise to.
If a company maintains live linkages with the society that gave it birth, it will always be capable of original thinking, creative initiatives and endless expansion."