Can change management resolve the innovator's Dilemma?
The short answer is no, not on it's own. The long answer, well it can certainly play a part.
Some famous examples of the Innovator's Dilemma:
IBM ignoring the PC and then rushing to market with a computer which was made of bought components rather than IBM IP. It included the biggest trojan horse since Troy - the operating system was bought from Microsoft (a small Seattle company at the time) and in the fine print of the contract it said that Microsoft had the right to sell the operating system to other companies, which would soon include a roster of IBM-compatibles. This was the start of IBM devolving from one of the most culturally significant firms of the 20th century to just another big tech firm.
Turnabout is fair play - 15 years later Microsoft was slow to embrace the internet because they were worried it might impact their operating systems and office applications business. They also underestimated the internet's potential. Soon after they were competing against the forces of FANG (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Google), all billion dollar startups. As well as Apple, the company Microsoft helped revive with a loan.
Blackberry. Many Canadians get a little misty eyed over this one. Blackberry always saw their smartphone as a serious business device. They never embraced the consumer/entertainment aspects of the phone. This allowed Apple to deliver a first round knockout with the launch of the iPhone.
In retrospect, all these blunders might seem obvious, but at the time the landscape was not so clear. Can change management solve the Innovator's dilemma? No, but it certainly can help with creating a culture that supports innovation, and is open to new solutions that might even cannibalize the very products that made your company great in the first place. After all, as Hemingway said, it's hard to "kill your darlings".
Ken Tucker is the lead consultant at Connaught Ealing Solutions (CES). CES offers fractional CIO services as well as digital transformation consulting and a structured approach to choosing enterprise solutions like ERP and CRM.
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