Innovate or Perish: Managing the Enduring Technology Company in the Global Market

Sustainability Requires Constant Change

The original title of this book was not Innovate or Perish; it was Adaptive Innovation. Not only must twenty-first-century CEOs adapt innovation to the globalized world, but they must continuously adapt their own internal innovation models to ever fast-changing circumstances.

CEOs of enduring technology companies must not only redesign the organizational structure to foster IP cross-pollination, they must also reengineer the business model for acquiring and productizing intellectual assets.

Polymath CEOs will have to take the pulse of each product initiative they are going to launch and make a high-level decision as to whether it will be held closely or given away to drive business to their door. These variables will have to pass through your prism before you can decide on the functional style for combining disparate operational elements on this particular subventure.

Traditional and even recently reengineered business models will not survive long; that’s just the reality of a flattened world. The time-honored practice of listening to your customers for new ideas won’t get you that leapfrog product or service because the customer doesn’t necessarily anticipate the future. The existing market won’t have the disruptive suggestion you’re searching for because they want stability, too. This is why, as Chesbrough and Christensen have cautioned, the incumbent gets surprised.

Even if you ask your major customers, they will tell you to keep giving ...