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March 15, 2006 11:34 AM PST
IBM: The 'next big thing' no longer exists
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Nicholas Donofrio, Big Blue's executive vice president of innovation and technology, made the declaration on Tuesday in an interview with ZDNet Asia. He was in Singapore for the first gathering of the Infocomm International Advisory Panel, organized by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore.
Nicholas Donofrio
"The fact is that innovation was a little different in the 20th century. It's not easy (now) to come up with greater and different things," Donofrio said.
"If you're looking for the next big thing, stop looking. There's no such thing as the next big thing," he added.
That is not to say that the 21st century does not also require invention, creation and discovery, he said. But these days, people are looking for value that arises from a creation and not just looking at technology for its sake, he explained.
When it comes to innovation, there is a need to think collaboratively and in a multifaceted manner, as this determines who wins and who loses, he said.
Donofrio added that innovation today is more about services, process, business models or cultural innovation than just product innovation.
"People all around the world are telling us the same thing," Donofrio said. "IBM did a survey of 750 (chief information officers), and all of them listed innovation as a top priority. This is what I spend my time on, what I worry about."
Room to think
To foster a culture of innovation in the company, IBM set up ThinkPlace, an online community for its employees, nine months ago. At ThinkPlace, participants are encouraged to put up ideas, which are evaluated and then rewarded or redirected accordingly.
"In the late 1980s, IBM got into trouble and did away with suggestions," Donofrio said, referring to the corporate turmoil that IBM underwent as it headed into the 1990s. The company reported a $4.97 billion loss in 1992 which, at that time, was the largest single-year corporate loss in the history of the United States. After Lou Gerstner was named CEO in 1993, he helped turn IBM around.
According to Donofrio, IBM employees have contributed close to 5,000 ideas to date, and about 100 of those are being evaluated. The ideas cover products, processes and services.
IBM seeks to cultivate the spirit of innovation outside the company too, Donofrio pointed out. There is even a group at the company "looking hard at collaborating with other people" on future technology. A key example is IBM's alliance with Sony and Toshiba on the Cell chip.
60 years of IBM innovation
In addition, IBM organized the Global Innovation Outlook. The GIO series of discussions, which took place in 2004 and 2005, brought together IBM workers and thought leaders, and participants from academia and industry around the world.
For GIO 2.0 last year, more than 180 IBM ecosystem partners from around the world participated in 15 daylong sessions held in China, India, Brazil, Switzerland and the United States, discussing the future of the enterprise, transportation and the environment.
And in April of last year, IBM launched the Genographic Project together with the National Geographic Society. The project is a five-year research partnership that aims to map how the Earth was populated using sophisticated laboratory and computer analysis of human DNA, contributed by hundreds of thousands of people.
Just this week, IBM announced that it will give qualified partners access to its renowned research organization.
Jeanne Lim of ZDNet Asia reported from Singapore.
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out after the turn of the century? Come on, this is coming from a
person that is SUPPOSE to be creating the innovation! Just because
his company failed in the home market and hasn't made a hit
product in years, doesn't mean innovation is dead, just his
company. This would be like Steve Jobs coming out and saying,
well you know what, I guess we can stop making new products
because we are all stupid uncreative idiots and just keep upgrading
our existing ones. What a fool.
out after the turn of the century? Come on, this is coming from a
person that is SUPPOSE to be creating the innovation! Just because
his company failed in the home market and hasn't made a hit
product in years, doesn't mean innovation is dead, just his
company. This would be like Steve Jobs coming out and saying,
well you know what, I guess we can stop making new products
because we are all stupid uncreative idiots and just keep upgrading
our existing ones. What a fool.
Embarrasing and pitiful..Nick, go work for Microsoft or Gateway dude.
Embarrasing and pitiful..Nick, go work for Microsoft or Gateway dude.
There will always be improvements to what computers can do, but what is there that we do without computers that we should do WITH computers?
Streaming special TV and radio channels were big. Using the computer as a phone was pretty big. MP3s, and the subesquent MP3 players, were enormous. But I can't think of anything new that a computer will do that it can't do already. Maybe we can use it to watch regular TV. I know people who use their CPU as a Tivo/DVR. And we can do video chat a lot easier and cheaper than video phones. But what's next? I think until someone comes up with a matter-energy transference machine, we're sort of tapped out with anything NEW a computer can do.
Just my three cents,
Erik Deckers
There will always be improvements to what computers can do, but what is there that we do without computers that we should do WITH computers?
Streaming special TV and radio channels were big. Using the computer as a phone was pretty big. MP3s, and the subesquent MP3 players, were enormous. But I can't think of anything new that a computer will do that it can't do already. Maybe we can use it to watch regular TV. I know people who use their CPU as a Tivo/DVR. And we can do video chat a lot easier and cheaper than video phones. But what's next? I think until someone comes up with a matter-energy transference machine, we're sort of tapped out with anything NEW a computer can do.
Just my three cents,
Erik Deckers
The spirit of innovation is alive and well - just maybe not at IBM.
The spirit of innovation is alive and well - just maybe not at IBM.
What is true about what he has said is that collaboration and multifaceted approaches are and will continue to be critical to the success of innovations.
The irony is that the most dramatic innovations (the "big things") will be created by mavericks who are willing to take a risk in not thinking like everyone else. This is in contrast to most incremental improvements which happen best in larger organizations.
I can think of several emerging technologies which will create new "big things" - that is, innovations that have large societal impact.
What is true about what he has said is that collaboration and multifaceted approaches are and will continue to be critical to the success of innovations.
The irony is that the most dramatic innovations (the "big things") will be created by mavericks who are willing to take a risk in not thinking like everyone else. This is in contrast to most incremental improvements which happen best in larger organizations.
I can think of several emerging technologies which will create new "big things" - that is, innovations that have large societal impact.
world. People are beings of invention. I don't forsee any change
soon.
world. People are beings of invention. I don't forsee any change
soon.
Doug
- IBM is good at Predicting the future!!
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by dwledet
March 15, 2006 3:16 PM PST
- This is the same company that in the 1980s passed up the option to buy MS-DOS from Bill Gates and chose to license it instead because IBM predicted that the total PC sales per year would NEVER be more than a few thousand.
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See all 92 Comments >>Doug