Apple is the world’s most innovative company, according to BusinessWeek. A stunning 24.84 per cent of 940 senior business executives from across the planet who voted chose to recognise Apple as the world’s most innovative company.
Apple is the world’s most innovative company, according to BusinessWeek. A stunning 24.84 per cent of 940 senior business executives from across the planet who voted chose to recognise Apple as the world’s most innovative company.
I’d be curious to know what Walmart and Ebay are doing on that on that list? What the hell are they thinking?
Simple really, someone mistook having a great PR dept. with being innovators.
Simple really, someone mistook having a great PR dept. with being innovators.
No. Apples PR-department does a Good Job (TM). Apple thrives on being a company with hot new products, and if people think that they are the most innovative company, they’ve succeeded.
I’d be curious to know what Walmart and Ebay are doing on that on that list? What the hell are they thinking?
Ebay isn’t very innovative, but Walmart is very innovative in its playing field. First, Sam Walton had the brilliant idea of having all transactions in the store be electronically recorded and sent to the Walmart shipping centers and the headquarters, allowing the big kahunas to know which Walmarts were doing well, what was selling well, and automating storewide restocking (the shipments, not the stocking employees). Walmart was the first to do this, and it paid off very well, with all other super-duper-mega-shopping places copying their ideas. Also, don’t forget all of the other stuff Walmart did: Banks in their stores, combining the shopping center with the food center, optometry in-store, and they even have their own gas stations. I’m not sure that all of that is Walmart’s innovation, but I’d bet that most of it is.
I’m curious to know what Dell is doing in there.
This shouldn’t have been modded down. Dell doesn’t innovate. Successful? Yes.
Dell is actually a great innovator, just not in computer technology. Dell’s innovation is in distribution and manufacturing. The reason that they’re the only large-scale PC maker that’s making money is that they figured out how to bypass the greedy middlemen and make semi-custom mail-order computers quickly and profitably.
IBM deserves to be up there. The whole new Cell Processor is fascinating from the architecture point of view, while Apple is making white cases. Hmm…
You know, they also write software…
You know, they also write software…
They write some software by copying open-source software and they also make disposable hardware.
You know Apple also designs hardware and software, designs interfaces and creates an incredible operating system and also combines each of these beautifully?
But then, you knew that and were just trolling weren’t you.
“…creates an incredible operating system”
yeah, sure. and they invented the internet too.
Incredible operating system? Incredible bloated?
Screen-space wasting user-interfaces, they are really good at that.
Leaving the user less choice, they are experts in that.
btw, I use mac nonetheless.
I am failing to find the original article on BusinessWeek no matter what keywords I use to search the site. Does anyone have the URL?
IBM deserves to be up there. The whole new Cell Processor is fascinating from the architecture point of view, while Apple is making white cases. Hmm…
Yup, that’s all they do, white cases. Where’s the rolling eyes emoticon when you need it?
😛 I was doing the usual anti-apple troll. I need to start using [sarcasm][/sarcasm] tags again.
> Where’s the rolling eyes emoticon when you need it?
Hopefully in the Abyss; where all Internet emoticons belong.
Take that, pharmaceuticals; you’re way less important and innovative than the iPod. How the Hell is Microsoft above Intel and IBM? What is Starbucks even doing there (on top of the above questions)? No, I take that back; I have no idea how most of the items on that list are justified.
“Increasingly, the new core competence for executives is creativity-the right-brain stuff that smart companies are now harnessing to generate top-line revenue growth. The game has changed. It isn’t just about maths and science anymore. It’s about creativity, imagination, and, above all, innovation.”
It’s about creating new ways to justify your elevated position within society, apparently.
This just tells me that the executives surveyed don’t know all that much about the world in which they live, and that they just picked companies that they liked or recognized. As a prize, I hope filling out the survey came with a free dictionary so that people in the business world can finally learn what the word innovation means.
They also make this thing…you may have heard of it…it’s called an iPod…it’s actually a white, sometimes black, rectangular box, but it’s only “kinda” successful, you’ve probably never seen one since nobody buys them… :rollseyes:
Commercial success != innovation.
ssshhh, you’ll scare the bureaucrats, er I mean executives…
…but you are correct it seems that net results tend to heavily influence what the bureaucrats consider innovation.
As to other posters, yes I can see where I would hardly call Apple or many of these companies innovators any longer. Frankly most innovation comes from smaller companies and startups, but perhaps, they are trying to modify the definition of innovation…
Building an MP3 player that comes in pretty colors is not innovative. Building an MP3 player tied to your online store that sells songs in a proprietary format, is.
The difference between iTMS and every other attempt to sell music online is that Apple managed to obtain rights from the record labels and thus avoided being sued into oblivion. They did this by taking a standard format (LC-AAC), placing it in a standard container (MP4), and implementing a DRM scheme.
If the recording industry had been interested in cooperating sooner, other portable manufacturers would have loved the opportunity to have online stores for their products. Apple’s greatest accomplishment was actually convincing the recording industry to play with the Internet. That’s not innovative, but it was a good business move and it’s made the lives of Internet users more convenient.
For idiots …
Seriously, Apple above IBM ? What a load of hogwash ! I’m an Apple user, but only a total fool would claim Apple as the world’s most innovative company.
Computers have not evolved in any significant manner in the past 20 years or more, so the bar is not set very high.
The Walkman was certainly innovative and so is the iPod. I can see why Apple gets an award. The Mac mini also adds to Apple’s recent accomplishments.
However, I would put Verizon at the top of the list for FIOS. It is by far the most interesting thing happening in telecom these days. America will have affordable fiber broadband because Verizon is out there digging up the streets and putting in fiber to the home. What Verizon is doing is driving the cable companies to improve their services, so there is a major ripple effect.
Bravo to Verizon for giving Americans decent broadband.
Huh? Verizon deserves an #1 for doing what large parts of the world is already doing? Where the f*ck is the innovation in that?
Yes, Verizon deserves an award for doing building fiber to the home *in the United States*.
As the US is the most corrupt first world nation, Verizon’s accomplishment is far greater than building a little audio player. It takes major savvy to get through the maze of federal, state, and local government to get anything done. And to fight againt the moribund incumbents like SBC and Charter the entire time. That Verizon is building the best home fiber network in the nation, that tells you what a huge step this is.
Without fiber to the home, the US is dead in the water when it comes to the future of the Internet. This is true innovation, not marketing.
Also, I would much rather the “innovation” award go to a company that makes something other than entertainment products (Apple/iPod) or simply uses its raw size and power to crush small competitors (Walbucks, Coffeemart).
I don’t think so and I use Macs at home and at work.
Apple may well be the most innovative in making technology easy to use.
I think innovative goes to IBM.
The top products from Apple arn’t really innovations, but technology that no one’s pushed that got popularized by Apple execs. Putting together an integer cpu, flash memory chip and some basic firmware OS to run some custom mp3 codec is nothing new. Using a BSD as a base system is nothing new either.
But the things Apple makes themselves you never really hear about in the mainstream. Their high quality codecs and graphics libs are on the sidelines when compared to the iPods and such. Apple is an odd company indeed, not that I don’t like them.
I am a Mac user, and I love the innovation that Apple brings to personal computing. However, the fact that Dell is even on this list, and above Google, completely discredits the list in my mind.
Any faith I had in this survey was quickly killed when I saw ebay and Starbucks on the list! How could anyone consider Starbucks to be innovative?! Do they make their food using nanotech?! Well considering what it tastes like, perhaps I’m onto something….
The consulting group should have explained the meaning of innovation on the survey!
You’re such an old left-brain economy dinosaur. They’re out there thinking up new paradigms to shift, and creating new core-competencies. Your left-brain understanding of innovation has no place in this new right-brain economy. Starbucks is a market leader in determining what people want even before you tell them. They’re paving the way for new industries that will keep the U.S. competitive with foreign markets in this brave new world.
Innovative or unorthodox?
What is Starbucks even doing there (on top of the above questions)?
Every single day, all over the world, they dupe people into spending $4 for something that costs them 50 cents.
That’s pretty innovative. =)
Hehehahaha… yup, that sure the hell is innovative. ROFL!
We call it not “innovation” but “robbery” in my country.
But here is not Starbucks at all… 
I think Apple just “looks like” a company which makes innovative prodocts. And it just means that their marketing machine works very well. It doesn’t mean nothing else.
Here’s Starbucks.
1.) Find local coffee shop
2.) Open across the street
3.) Have a failing store for two years
4.) Independent coffee shop gone. Everyone use starbucks.
5.) Profit
That sure is innovative. I am a victim of it. Fuck Starbucks. Who’s writing the top 100 most evil companies in the world?
“1.) Find local coffee shop
2.) Open across the street
3.) Have a failing store for two years
4.) Independent coffee shop gone. Everyone use starbucks.
5.) Profit”
Has it occured to you that Starbucks might win because it offers a better product and better service *most* of the time?
In my hometown of Portland, Oregon, we have more than our share of Starbucks shops, and we also have thriving local coffee shops.
The local coffee shops that died were the ones that simply weren’t as good, and there were plenty.
There’s one, however, called Stumptown, which totally kicks Starbucks ass, and it’s still around (and growing, I might add).
Starbucks won on the larger scale because it was better than *most* other coffee shops.
It’s stupid to hate companies for being better.
I agree about starbucks (though they are expensive, I can do without coffee myself.)
Half my family won’t even try other coffee shops. We were going for a drive up the Columbia River Gorge (I live in Battle Ground, and we’ve got two Starbucks in the same parking lot! (3 altogether just in town)) and only Hood River had a Starbucks. I was shocked!
But I know what you mean, they are better. My only problem with places like Wal-Mart, Starbucks, Microsoft is when they get that big they have a certain amount of power, and they use this to do pretty nasty things sometimes.
It’s up to the consumer in the end I suppose, but I’m getting off-topic here.
Charbucks, sorry Starbucks are reknowned for the dubious practice mentioned buy the OP. Here in the UK I’ve seen them leverage their huge resources to saturate the high streets of small towns with multiple stores in prime locations, operating at a loss until they’ve put the opposition out of business, whereupon they close all but one store which can continue at a profit without competition.
I can see plenty of reasons for former coffee shop owners to hate them. I don’t hate them, but I do roast coffee and can tell you their over-roasted, ‘coffee’ flavoured milk beverages most certainly aren’t “better” coffee, but the marketing power of such a large coporation is sufficient to pull the majority of undiscerning customers in.
And sure Stumptown survived – but they have a global reputation as a craft roastery and also sell their blends to coffee connoisseurs by mail order so they’re not even competing in the same market place.
A company may operate at a loss in order to offer lower prices then the competition.
However, one can hardly accuse Starbucks of doing that.
maybe they don’t just look at technological innovations but business models/practices as well… perhaps even something we don’t even know about yet.
for the record, even if apple doesn’t “create new, widely used technologies,” they have done a hell of a job streamlining existing ones. they also have a consistency in stellar UI design
Amen.
Nintendo? Nope, no innovation there.
It’s just good PR.
The only difference between Bill Gates and Steve Jobs is that when Gate’s says “you want this” or “it’s innovative” people look at it with even more suspicion.
Whereas when Jobs says “you want this,” everyone goes out and buys the bloody thing.
Point-in-case: iPod Shuffle. A royal load of horse crap, and yet with a little bit of snazzy industrial design, and a good lay-on-the-bling show it sells like hot cakes. Forget the fact that you can get the same thing for loads cheaper elsewhere, with a screen.
Sure, people began to catch on…even I wanted one when they came out. But if MS, or rather nearly any company tried pulling the same stunt people everywhere would cry foul.
(not that apple, or MS aren’t innovative, sometimes they are, sometimes they aren’t. But to say that Apple is “the most innovative” just isn’t true)
Keep in mind that just because the product that a company sells isn’t innovative doesn’t mean that that company isn’t innovative. Dell & Wal-Mart both have extremely innovative & efficient business processes (distribution systems, manufacturing systems, etc.) that they continue to improve, driving down the prices for things that used to be expensive, but are now commodity items (imagine how great it would be if car companies did this).
In contrast, Apple continues to make a pretty MP3 player, but still refuses to add an fm tuner or the ability to play video to it, and finally swiches to the processor architecture everyone else has been using since the early 80’s and they are praised for being the #1 most innovative.
You’re right about the Dell and Wall Mart argument, however when you went to troll about apple you missed it.
Looks like you forgot the part that says that the next iPod will come with video support
http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=454
Generally I don’t believe gossip about specific products but with apple, most if not all gossip proved to become reality so I learned to trust when these things come out from good sources. I’ll rest my case on the rumors about Mactels that were oficially anounced recently. As for the processor, there is no way to compare an early intel processor to the Dual Core Intel that Mactels will get.
As for myself, I still use linux most of the time but I can reckon when something comes right about apple (and sometimes, even M$)
they asked before the switch to intel.
Seriously, Apple above IBM ? What a load of hogwash ! I’m an Apple user, but only a total fool would claim Apple as the world’s most innovative company.
The total fools who claimed Apple as the world’s most innovative company are company execs.
Which says it all.
One argument to support the claim could be that although other companies do what they do, there is a suspicious amount of precedent where you saw other companies having a brainwave, about 3 months after Apple came up with a cool gizmo.
There’s just too many people trying to do what Apple do. And they can’t. On the surface it’s all so self-evident and easy that you cant’ claim it’s innovative, on the other hand: nobody does it.
How lame is the idea of having a list of songs that you can play, and a button that takes you to an electronic repository of more songs, that you can buy with one click, and it costs a buck [give or take?]. Can you be more simplistic?
Yet, the music industry, whose core business it is, couldn’t find a way to implement it. Nobody, except the black hat crew, had a profitable paradigm for making music distribution work over the internet.
Along comes Apple, who makes this store a simple feature of their beautiful and clever jukebox software, and they also combine it with a custom device that will store thousands of your songs.
Anybody could have done that at any time. But they didn’t. After Apple shows them how it’s done, look at the competition stepping up to the plate with new and innovative products and services… that do what Apple does, minus several levels of coolness.
So you don’t believer that it made a difference. The iPod is a cult-object, it’s the most stolen mp3 player. People want them [planning on getting one myself], they even create a cultural phenomenon [admittedly, that’s not Apple’s doing, but as a product manager you ABSOLUTELY CANNOT buy that kind of mindshare. People WANT to use your product in a way that frees them.], the iPod enables users to express themselves in ways they hadn’t even thought possible.. It doesn’t figure much in your mindset, but Apple’s stock went through the roof over this very phenomenon [the iPod, not podcasting]. They introduced a new word into the language, it’s going to make it into the dictionary. The president of the united states has his own podcast [kind of].
If Apple is not innovative, they’re certainly very chipper about being a mere niche player, I can tell you that.
Do other companies deserve the accolade? Probably. But Apple does something to people and they like it.
>>While many traditional “Knowledge Economy” jobs are outsourced oversease, the report states:
>>
Hahaha, American spin can get out of hands sometimes! So the “knowledge economy” is now “traditional”? Just three years ago, the knowledge economy was the “new economy”!
>> “US companies are evolving to the next
>> level of economic activity.
“Next level”, er? Its no longer about “maths” and “science”, according to the article. That’s the same kind of aritifical thinking that created the dot com bubble. It would be so laughable if it wasn’t such an serious issue. This massive outsourcing of jobs/importation of consumer items is not good for the American economy, and the notion that we can all survive by selling coffee and doing each other’s laundry is nuts.
The list was created/voted by senior business execs.. like they know what the hells going on…
USA having a wank about USA….
Apples just another OEM company…
Hmmm, lessee innovations from Europe since WWII: care to fill in this gaping chasm for us? That is anything other than mass socialism and subpar socialized health care.
dotcom bubble = greedy investment bankers seeing what happened with Netscape then seeing how far they could push it, as they tend to dump all their holdings at the IPO. (Of course this was wittingly or unwittingly supported by others who saw a chance for a quick buck, but this is not to say that there was zero innovation in that time period…)
BTW: the ipod/mac mini are hardly innovative. They are at best evolutionary and not the first in either category in any event.
Hey! They forgot to include geometric growth of lawsuits in the innovations, as surely some of those big legal firms should fit right into their definition, or activist supreme court justices, or etc.
All Walmart did was improve upon Kmart and other department stores’ example. That’s smart business, but it’s not “innovation”. Amazon is more creative than Ebay. And as for Starbucks, again smart business, but they’re not doing anything special that other coffehouses aren’t except for opening a hell of a lot more stores.
… that is according to a bunch of executives… which see only $$$ in their eyes.
How about the rest of the user base?
The diverse portfolio of companies and technical advances tells me that these individuals participating in the survey aren’t broadly well-versed in these corporations.
The question isn’t really whether any of these businesses engage in any innovation at all, but rather that many of them don’t rank anywhere near the top 20 in importance. Utilizing OR (which is applied math) has nothing to do with the cited “right-brain” fluffiness alluded to in the article, either.
My coffee shop ran out of business even without starbucks opening across the street lol. i own a computer shop now! fuck starbucks!
have look at Sony.
The PS2 is still the most used console today. The PS3 will be the most advanced and inovative entertainment system ever created.
The HD Walkman is much better then the iPod or any other mp3 player, and don’t forget that sony invented the mobile music player.
The sony televisions have the best picture qulity.
The Sony notebooks, especially the business series with the stunning HD displays with the full resolution of 1920×1440 are far better then any powerbook or any other laptop.
The PSP is the most advanced mobile gaming device,…
If there is a (big) company which deserves the title, It’s a Sony
So you like Sony, eh?
(v) introduce, innovate (bring something new to an environment)
So what here is new in the sense that the definition means, as in not seen/used/etc. before?
Sony, like all Japanese companies, are VERY good at refining EXISTING technologies, but not at creating NEW technologies.
(Yes, some of their products are nice, BUT, I have noticed that in the last 10 years or so that their manufacturing quality(when not actually made in Japan) is pretty lousy. i.e. best bet is to buy brand new models from them before they ship production to a third world country…)
Walmart inventory system: nothing new about it, other than they did it on a larger/tighter scale than others.
Dell mfg: nothing new here either other than they did it on a larger/tighter scale to keep their costs low such that they could afford to undercut all other manufacturers.
Think about it! First of all, they invented the personal computer as we know it. You might consider that a fairly important innovation. Then they went on to introduce the mouse (actually invented by Xerox but certainly popularized by Mac), a folders, windows and destop metaphor for the GUI, full-color graphical display, fonts, USB (again not invented but introduced to personal computing), anti-aliasing, wireless networking, the list goes on and on and on! So many things that we take for granted — using ANY platform — were in fact *innovated* by Apple. White boxes indeed!
Replace innovated with productized and I’ll agree wholeheartedly.
‘Invented the personal computer as we know it’?
Not quite. Most of the work came out of Xerox PARC – not just the mouse, but the bones of the interface. Having not invented said mouse, Apple can hardly be said to have innovated it since.
Full-colour display? I thought the original Macintosh was monochrome, and not cutting-edge in that regard?
Inventing wireless networking isn’t something I’ve ever heard about them either.
Their products are generally pretty slick compared to much of the competition, but they tend to improve things rather than innovate.
So in that case, do you think Xerox should be considered most innovative? Honestly — love ’em or hate ’em — Apple really has brought a lot of the major technologies we use to the desktop. As for wireless networking, the original iBook was the first personal computer to ever ship with wireless networking (802.11b). Again, they didn’t invent it — but they discovered it, then said “hey, we can make this work!”, then they offered it. Then of course, a year or so later, everyone offers it. This happens time and time again throughout the course of Apple’s history — from the mouse to fonts to USB, etc.
Hate their interfaces, hate iPods, hate white plastics, whatever! But give them credit where credit is due! They really have made massive strides in leading development in personal computers even with such low market-share!
if we are talking about innovative computers,…
The Amiga got today exactly 20 years old.
Happy Birthday Amiga
Nintendo far suprasses Apple in the creativity field. The only thing an Apple is, is a PPC in a fancy case with limited software support.
Sure, Nintendo had is feild day as the more innovative console gaming company, and later introduced hand-held gaming with the Game Boy; however, I do not see why they any longer deserve the title “most innovative company.” They have not created anything trully innovative in a while (unless you call touch screen gaming innovative, but others would have introduced that long ago if there were any practical use for it). That, and the only thing Nintendo does is gaming consoles and handhelds. IBM makes processors for so many different kinds of devices (computers to Nintendo’s consoles); Apple is a master marketer and has a solid OS, mp3 player, etc.; Toyota markets hybrid gas/electric cars; [sarcasm]Wallmart is constanly finding new ways to put everyone else out of business[/sarcasm]. Not intending the start a flame war, I still believe that Nintendo doesn’t deserve the title by any strech of the imagination.
advanced tech != innovation for all you drooling kiddies out.
Microsoft and Sony’s next-gen consoles rub me the wrong way all I think of when I read about them is “Gee look how fast our consoles will be!” So fast = good games?
Don’t get me wrong they each have some good ideas, I like the Xbox360 over the PS3…
And then there’s Nintendo. Their motto is we are a Game company, our hardware enables us to create great games. They’ve designed their nextgen console to enable new kinds of games that we have never played before! That is innovation.
Hmm, I’ll just put on my flame retardant suit as I walk into the lava pit called consoles.
>The sony notebooks, especially the business series
>with the stunning HD displays with the full
>resolution of 1920×1440 are far better then any
>powerbook or any other laptop.
BS
Refer to
http://www.discountlaptops.com/index.php?section=catagory&include_t…
for yet another 1920×1440 capable laptop.
Refer to
http://www.gen-x-pc.com/laptopmanu.htm
In the laptop space, Sony is only OEM NOT ODM i.e. the credit goes to Quanta, Mitac, GVC, Inventec, Mitech, Kapok, Clevo, ECS, FIC, Twinhead, and Uniwill and ‘etc’.
As a company, their main innovation over the last ten years has been brilliant new methods of losing market share in the PC market. This has been a casebook of how not to do it. It is true, they have then shown that after losing share in one market, you can brilliantly innovate in another irrelevant one. But how much better to just keep and grow what you had. You cannot really be the most innovative company when your share has gone from – what – 20% to 2% without passing Go.
I love apple, but senior business executives aren’t just my meter for innovation
yeah, but they’re shiny….
Where’s nintendo?
The article talks about creativity and innovation not technology.
Taking a commonly technology (or coffee!) and then marketing and selling that in a creative way also counts as innovation.
Dells is one of the most innovative companies in supply chain management and sales. I can’t stand them myself, but that’s beside the point.
so AMD has not been innovative?
Hey fellow posters, the article’s header clearly said that the question was asked to “business executives,” not savy technical experts like you. 🙂
?? Why ?
They made a MP3 player, big deal others had made it before, they stuff in useless functionality (address book) but don’t even have a editable equalizer.
You can put music on the ipod as a normal mass storage drive.
The put a computer in a sardine can, so what ? still not new.
Their new OS might be fancy looking, but still lag software.
They are just like Microsoft, let other people invent then steal it put their label on it and tell everyone they invented it.
People really need to work on their reading comprehension skills here. Go beyond the sensationalist bullshit and read : “apple is _perceived_ to be the most innovative company by _senior execs_”
Now why this is news : if you’re perceived as being innovative it makes your company sexy : people will want to buy you’re products and invest in you. The fact that the survey was among company decision-makers makes it all the more significant.
They only put the 1st usable affordable computers to market in 1976, invented a usable graphical interface (if you think the macs OS was a copy of what Xerox made, then you dom’t know much about what Xerox made), they only, together with Adobe, made the 1st affordable laserprinter with PostScript, they only made the first real notebook of the formfactor we now know, only developed the 1st movie technology for personal computers called QuickTime (in 1991, there was nothing like it), only invented FireWire, only introduced the 1st digital camera to market (quicktake 100), only invented the PDA we know now with a touch screen with pen and form factor now used by all PDA’s, only made a Unix quite unlike anyother that the trolls love to call a copied BSD with a bloathed graphical layer, only started a whole wave of new plastics use with their translucent cases like in the original iMac, only invented a simple, easy and small mp3 player with new interface, only actually innovate in software and GUI to make new things possible instead of copying and calling it to be inventive like a big company based in Seattle does, only were by far the first to offer wireless networking, only were the first to use USB as standard… and that are just the obvious things they pioneered and invented. No,trolls, you are right. Apple does not innovate and never has, all they make is an mp3 player like 100’s of companies and white boxes.
Over what time span is this article talking about? If it’s since the beginning of the company – Apple is certainly very (I’m not sure if “the most” since there is many very old companies) innovative. Without Apple, there would not be the PC (forget graphical user interfaces, computers would take up rooms and you wouldn’t have one at home).
If the article is talking about short-term however (more likely), let’s assume 5 years. Apple has: a) created a real market for iPods and iPod-like MP3 players (sorry, the bulky giant Nomads before it didn’t count), b) created an online music distribution system with millions of song downloads c) made OS X – that is: a successful *nix system with a graphical user interface that rivals/surpasses the market leader c) brought powerful technologies to the masses with the iApps (editing videos and burning your own home-made video DVDs for your Average Joe), – the list goes on and is pretty impressive. Is it earth-shattering? No. But name something that is!
To a business rag, success is innovation. If you can bring a company back from the brink of financial disaster and create a community of sorts around it, while taking existing technology and making it “pretty” it counts as innovation.
To me innovation would be cheap, safe, and clean transportation. But, I still like Apple and their products.
Apple will be an after-thought by the end of 2008. The Mactel will open people’s eyes to Apple’s price ‘despair-ity’, and iRiver and Sony will take over the music space. Video on the iPod will be a spectacular failure. Jobs will retire to Orlando, so he can save on taxes and spend more time at amusement parks.
Everything, including you, is transient. It is easy to denigrate any company or person.
For e.g., what have you done so far in your life that is worthwhile?
WM, Starbucks and Dell were pretty innovative on the business side concerning Supply Chain Management.
Also Microsoft is doing a bunch of R&D so, eventhough I don’t belive in them as a company i guess they deserve their slot.
The word “innovative” is a bit of a misnomer then if we are going to consider *improvements* in supply chain management as innovation.
These companies — Walmart, Starbucks, and Dell — did not invent supply chain management. Their “innovation” would be doing it better than other companies. Dell, for instance, did not invent “just in time” inventory, but applied it well in their field.
Microsoft R&D is mostly a chop shop. It steals innovations from other companies and then reforms them as “Microsoft Research” and hands it off to “Microsoft Patents”. It is just a bunch of criminals. You can see this as the only things that appear to be genuine “Microsoft Research” — Clippy & Bob — have been spectacular failures.
It is my claim that “innovation” must be something new and it must be something that powerfully effects a large number of people — in a good way.
This is why I think building a fiber network — against all odds — in the US is a big thing. Maybe it is not the cure for cancer, but it is an important element of a healthy economy.
That was me
Also, I’m wondering why DuPont is not on the list. From a business point of view they invented some interesting stuff. Their Scorecard and some Project Management System I can’t think of right now come to mind..
Ok, this is ages old now but I’d be interested to know if you’d consider Lean Production innovative then (because by your definition it’s “invention” wouldn’t qualify as innovative) ?