Sun and IBM – Hooking Up Innovation Cultures

This week, another celebrity romance is splashing a ton of digital ink across the web and print media. IBM the father of the PC, and Sun the mother of the dot-com, who first stated “The Network is the Computer” are reportedly in talks, about hanging out or hooking up.  This is a really big deal, as was last weeks “Roche and Genentech Reach a Friendly Agreement to Combine the Two Organizations and Create a Leader in Healthcare Innovation”.

These two situations are reminiscent of the often quoted chinese symbols for crisis as a combination of danger and opportunity. In both situations, two giants each known as innovators  are seeking to combine resources.  Kind of like two CEO’s getting married, even if one is a lot bigger than the other, both of their feelings matter a lot.

“Feelings” you say, what does a merger have to do with feelings?  In fact aren’t feelings a luxury in tight economic times .  Well NO! they are not a luxury, because we are talking about innovation, and about cultures which have successfully housed and nurtured innovation for long periods of time.  In our current economic crisis, innovation no longer seems optional but required. It is well known that organizations founded by innovators, who manage to last long enough to perpetuate the values that support innovation through healthy innovation cultures, outperform the competition.

There are lessons to learn regarding innovation cohabitation, and not all are warm and loving. It is no secret that Sun and IBM have had their healthy differences in the past. The same is true of Roche and Genentech although the differences were (are?) different ones.  What will be important to observe here, will be how these cultural differences are reconciled, as they must for a healthy union.

One thing is clear, just as couples at times can go through counseling to gain detached third party perspectives, that this approach can also facilitate learning how to collaborate.  When giant firms attempt to force smaller ones into “innovation compliance” the results may be oxymoronic.  The largest difference between innovation in the past and in the present has to do with learning to play well with others.  This is a new very helpful skill for all innovators, innovation managers, and innovation cultures to take seriously. Trust me, it can feel very good, something that helps when the goal is to produce healthy offspring.

A Platform for Innovation

Earlier this week on March 17th, Apple computer previewed the iPhone OS 3.0, the latest step in “The Democratization of Technology” and it has deep ramifications for many populations.

Cell phones, vastly outselling PCs, have become the personal computing platform for humanity. We no longer need conventional computers to get on line. Moore’s Law Rules. As all technology platforms evolve, it is not hard to predict the feature set, on tomorrow’s low cost models.  Simply look at todays premium models.  Which brings us to the iPhone, already a darling of consumers who can afford it.  Whatever the iPhone can do today, there will be twenty-five models trying to catch up tomorrow.  As there are well over 3 billion cell phone subscribers, this is perhaps the most important technology market on the planet. The cell phone may be the only modern technological device that more than 50% of the global population owns.

This is also a fantastic platform for innovation. The iPhone 3.0 is widely expected to ship sometime this summer.  If you want to predict the future of computing, which also fits in your pocket, point your browser over to the Apple web site and watch the presentation on the new iPhone, or read some of the many articles and reviews.  For now, I will leave it to others to catalog and analyze the specific capabilities, but will come back to this topic, from a sound centric computing perspective in the future.

Todays theme, is why the Apple smart phone is an innovation platform, and it is not primarily because of the technological wizardry, but because of the distribution channel. Most inventors trying to manage their insights into income, eventually try to become innovators.  One perspective, delineates the difference between invention and innovation as applying a business model.  As one of our innovation colleagues stated in a recent Innovation Society meeting – Creation is about divergence and Innovation is about convergence.

The iPhone has acted as a force of convergence for Apple, notorious for legions of creative people, and it can for you as well.  How?  Well lets say you can write a little software or design a little hardware, or can innovate a business model for providing new capabilities on an iPhone, but have never had a distribution channel or marketing expertise, or were not strong at selling, but you were good at innovating.  Well all you have to do is the technical part and Apple will do the rest!  Check it out – you can be an internet entrepreneur – right now!

A time for improvisation.

March 2009 could be a time for asking questions.  Like, how did things get this way? Or it could be a time for planning… for what comes next.   Or it could be a time, to be fearful, conservative and closed to new ideas.  Some people will do many of these things. Other responses may include play and improvisation.

Humans are the species best at adapting, this is why we have come so far. Other words for adaptation include innovation and improvisation, which may be core competencies for our species. How many of us consider this to be so? Or are open to the idea? Think about it. Improvisation is like mutation in a moment.

Performing musicians are said to play instruments, not to work them. This play takes serious work to do well. Improvisation is not a free-for- all but a highly organized system of behavior. Do not disqualify real-time reality-surfers called improvisers, who may adapt to conditions rather better than those who are rigid.

In addition to musicians and comics, there are other less obvious expert improviser populations.  Think of CEOs, presidents, generals, scientists, inventors, managers and anyone who has responsibility to deliver results. Think of leaders. Think of anyone who takes responsibility to achieve goals. Reality rarely turns out the way we anticipate, but we dream of getting where we want to get, and paths often require improvisation.

In fact we can usually tell when something is canned, and tend to give greater credence to those who are communicate “more authentically” or “naturally”.  These are the um … improvisers who deliver what the situation requires not what the rule book conjectures.

What is improvisation?  It is un-editable real-time creation. Painters, authors, sculptors, potters, playwrights, poets, photographers, game developers and most composers all have the ability to edit creations to improve them. Improvisers do not, they have to function in real time.  They make decisions with incomplete information, by very quickly recognizing rules or patterns as guides. Kind of like the rest of us. We all improvise all of the time.  Maybe we should get better at it? Or value it more? Or be more conscious about it.  Innovation is like editable improvisation. First manifestations are always modified, improved and perfected. If we all improvise in real-time, perhaps innovation, which permits time to improve, looks a bit easier.