Why Business Stops Innovating?
Quite often, today's innovators become tomorrow's laggards, and many either die or just stop growing. The real question is: Why? Some of the popular and innovative companies of yesterday such as Hollywood Video, Borders, THQ, KB Toys, Frontier Airlines, Trump Entertainment Resorts, Nortel, Habitat, Polaroid are dead. Some reasons for the eventual demise and the death of innovation at these companies are: 1. Dependence on the familiar - Most companies become over-dependent on existing products for far too long, keep on adding bells and whistles and additional features that current customers keep on asking for, until they realize that these products are now bloated and obsolete. Worse yet, new customers don't want to buy the bloatware, and existing customers are also getting tired of the extra things that are not needed. 2. Change of management structure - Many times, as the company grows, the culture, leadership and management becomes more and more process oriented, and les...