13. Organizational Structure: Products to Solutions

Unfortunately, there is no innovation magic wand. You can’t simply buy the right wand and wave it over an existing company, product, or market and . . . voila! . . . have an innovation. Many companies in the hardware, software, and communication industries are trying to evolve themselves from product manufacturers/providers into solution providers. They wave the management, structure, and budget wands, but all too often fail to deliver new innovative solutions. Why do they so often fail?

Products versus Solutions

Back in the long-ago days of the sixties through the nineties, companies such as IBM, Wang, Amdahl, and others would sell a combination of three primary things:

• Hardware

• Operating ...

Get Innovate the Future: A Radical New Approach to IT Innovation now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.