A matter of perspective

Let´s go back in time a few years. A little shiny device was introduced. Nobody thought at this time that device would create a market, that it would own a market a few years in future. The device is called iPod. It revolutionized our view to music.
Let´s go back in time a few years more. A series of questionable quality aired and owned the market a few years and made Haim Saban to a rich man. The series was called “Power Rangers” and … hmmm … it was extremly sucessful.
Let´s go back in time a century. A german inventor develop a new mobility device. He will sacrify his live for his invention and progress not much later. The man was Otto Lilienthal, the first human who was able to fly (besides from flying out of a pub)
Let´s go back two years in the past. Sun Microsystem canceled some processor project, because we understood that server processor development as it was known at this time will eventually hit a dead end real soon now. The bet isn´t closed. Successful ? Maybe. Disruptive ? Certainly.
Working in a global technology company for almost five years now and being a close observer of the world around me, i´ve learned two things: The next big thing will happen, and when it happens, perhaps it will not happen in the company you work for.
I´m sure, that somewhere out there in a small or huge company a programmer, technologist or the guy from the post office will have an idea with an disruptive potential.The next iPod, the next Power Ranger, the next Tamagotchi, the next airplane.
Huge company have a problem with “next big thing”-scale of innovation. Business Processes. Risk mitigation processes, innovation processes, potential analysis, innovation review comitees. All elements to control and to steer a company. But at the same time, the allow you only small steps of innovation. Because any bigger innovation is a fight against you own company, like against windmills.
Seldomly even a huge company have the balls to make a giant leap. Sun Microsystems for example with CMT .But this is a product of the culture of your company. Or a CEO who thinks: “Heck, with me-toos we will not get more profitable. We need some game changers. No risk, no fun”.
And this the real story behing “There will no big thing”: There will be no big thing in the near future from IBM. At the end it summarize to one sentence that summarize a capability for disruptive innovation, a capablity that is almost absent in companies with the size and the revenue of a small county: To think different.