Requiem for Innovation

Ten days ago, we had a scheduled meeting with one of the historic hi-tech companies of America. We were excited, working with a dynamite new proposal that could change much for the scientific and engineering fields in terms of tools and procedures. They were "primed" and "ready" after a preliminary meeting, and they have the wherewithall to ante the funds, even in this sobering economy.

Moreover, my reputation preceded me, and the room of six folk asserted at the meeting start that they, too, were mavericks, probably the most mavericky in their entire company. Huzzanna on the highest! We even got out a maypole and danced around it in the early phase of the meeting.

As the morning flowed, however, some disquieting things emerged. One, they only commission university research when they KNOW what they'll get for it. And this project sounded, well... just a little bit speculative. One of the self-proclaimed mavericks said that one thing he'd learned was that it helped to write Tight Specifications, and that way you know what you can expect.

Over lunch, since a number of these people were ex-HP folk, I described our forthcoming book about Hewlett-Packard, . They concurred with the conclusion that Great Products used to come from "the Troops" and not from top management. But they lamented that "NOW" it seems to have stopped, and ideas, at least at their company, no longer emerged from "the bottom" which they said seemed to have killed innovation.

This group included two senior Vice-Presidents (the very folk talking) and three key managers, as well as the University Research co-ordinator.

I was reminded of the time that I tried to arrange a trip for market research for the first computer graphics terminal, and the question that my boss had was: "what will you learn on the trip?" My answer was that if I knew, I wouldn't need to go.

After lunch, we outlined the proposal. The immediate visceral answer was that it sounded VERY AMBITIOUS, and probably VERY VALUABLE but they weren't IN THAT BUSINESS. I reminded them that the reason we were there to see them was that NO ONE is in the business, and they have more capability and resources in adjacent businesses than any other three companies, so it would be a natural extension for them.

The letter a week later said that they were hopeful to find a project to do at Stanford that relates to one of their current development ideas.