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Technology, Culture & Innovation: What’s Gone Wrong with Microsoft?
A fascinating article here from John Naughton in the Observer which asks whether Microsoft has lost the key competitive edge that made it so successful for so long - innovation.
Microsoft has been a giant, almost dominant player in the electronics and software industry for as long as most of us can remember (certainly the Under 40s). But Naughton points to a terrific statistic which students might be able to use to illustrate how quickly market-leading positions can be overcome:
“Apple’s iPhone now brings in more revenue than all of Microsoft’s products”.
When we say all of Microsoft’s products, just think for a minute what that means; all sales of Windows, Office, Xbox etc”.
Naughton goes on to provide the data comparison;
In the quarter ended 31 March 2012, the iPhone had sales of $22.7bn. In the same period, Microsoft earned $17.4bn from everything it sold. So a single Apple product, which didn’t exist five years ago, had higher sales than everything Microsoft has to offer.
Some great analytical points are developed in the article and there are a wide range of relevant points which students who want to research the impact of technological change on markets might note down. Above all, it is the combined speed and scale of change which is so stunning.
I like the focus of the article too on the difficulty that larger, more bureaucratic firms face when they need to remain innovative. Some great points here on the role of culture in either stiffling or encouraging innovation and
creativity.
I like this quote summarising the feedback of a recent survey of many ex-Microsoft employees;
“They told a dismal tale of opportunities missed, innovations squashed and talented people demotivated by the corporate ethos of a maturing organisation”
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Organisational Culture: Tony Hsieh on Zappos, Core Values and Culture [23 May 2013]
Would You Fit into the Organisational Culture at Ikea? [22 May 2013]
Strategy & Technological Change: Will Google Glass be as Big as the Smartphone? [16 May 2013]
Leadership & Culture: The Depends On Factors that will Determine Apple’s Future? [14 May 2013]
Organisational Culture: Six Components of a Great Corporate Culture (HBR) [9 May 2013]
Innovation: Will eBikes Power Ahead? [5 May 2013]
What does Apple plan to spend $100bn on? [24 Apr 2013]
Organisational Culture: The Business of Business is People - Says Herb [15 Apr 2013]
An Organisational Culture of Trust - Insights from John Lewis Partnership [13 Apr 2013]
Innovation: Google Glass - the Computer Your Wear [23 Mar 2013]
BUSS4 Organisational Culture: YouTube Playlist [5 Mar 2013]
A Winning Corporate Culture in the Skies - Herb and His Airline [25 Feb 2013]
Understanding corporate culture - the importance of stories & the HP Garage [14 Feb 2013]
Design Becomes Part of the Culture at Google [13 Feb 2013]
All Change at Barclays: Can Jenkins Achieve his Cultural Transformation? [13 Feb 2013]
Blackberry’s Last Hope - What it costs to make the Z10 [12 Feb 2013]
Strategic Change & Culture - Kodak and the Winds of Change [11 Feb 2013]
Nokia: Elop on Culture, Technology and the Economy [11 Feb 2013]
A Different Kind of “Shareholder” - the Corporate Culture of Walmart [11 Feb 2013]
Organisational Change: How Can the Banks Change their Culture? [11 Feb 2013]
I Love this Company! The Perfect Introduction to Corporate Culture [7 Feb 2013]
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A Sweet Corporate Culture at Mars [7 Feb 2013]
Is New Leadership Making a Difference at Yahoo? [7 Feb 2013]
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Van Houten abandons the CD [31 Jan 2013]
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Sony’s New Super Smartphone - A Premium Product, But Can It Compete with Apple & Samsung? [10 Jan 2013]
Is the iPad inspired iPotty a viable business idea? [10 Jan 2013]
Technological Change - Robots Move On From the Production Line [27 Dec 2012]
Big Data - How Product Design & Innovation Needs to Work in Harmony [27 Dec 2012]
Revision Quiz - Innovation [1 Dec 2012]
Ratings Agency sinks Sony to Junk Status. [23 Nov 2012]
Hardly Profitable HP Computers. [22 Nov 2012]
Innovation: Big Spending on R&D Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Strong Innovation [11 Nov 2012]
Innovation - the CEO’s Role in Making it Happen at Tesco [11 Nov 2012]
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Ansoff is everywhere [11 Oct 2012]
Will Apple really make £426 profit on each iPhone5? [18 Sep 2012]
Customer reactions to the new iPhone 5 - did anything change? [14 Sep 2012]
Apple’s Product Portfolio - the iPhone is now as big as Microsoft! [10 Sep 2012]
Tablet Wars - Kindle v IPad - Amazon v Apple [9 Sep 2012]
Technological Change: A Crucial Period in the Smartphone Market [2 Sep 2012]
Technological Change & Innovation - Insights and Quotes [28 Aug 2012]
Leadership at Apple - Tim Cook’s First Year [27 Aug 2012]
Apple – the biggest company ever? [21 Aug 2012]
Gold Medals, Kaizen and the Aggregation of Marginal Gains [8 Aug 2012]
Corporate Culture - Under Attack after the Barclays Scandal [14 Jul 2012]
Product placement: Sony blocks out Apple via Spiderman [14 Jul 2012]
Takeovers and Mergers - How to Destroy 99% of a Takeover’s Value [3 Jul 2012]
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Libor Isn’t Working [28 Jun 2012]
The Dragons get it Wrong [19 Jun 2012]
What is the ‘Scary Zone’? [18 Jun 2012]
Adding Value - How Much Profit is Made by the iPhone? [16 Jun 2012]
More Retrenchment at Nokia (June 2012) [14 Jun 2012]
Nokia and Strategic Change - the Essential A2 Business Case [14 Jun 2012]
Copycats and ‘Me Too’ products [25 May 2012]
Measuring the competitiveness of a business [18 May 2012]
What do we mean by “competitiveness”? [18 May 2012]
Revision Presentation - Marketing and Competitiveness [17 May 2012]
Epic fail: how to do really badly [15 May 2012]
Vodafone and Cable and Wireless Worldwide [25 Apr 2012]
A detailed look inside Apple’s Foxconn factory [24 Apr 2012]
Technological change - manufacturing and innovation [20 Apr 2012]
Strategy - How Nokia was overtaken by Apple and Samsung [17 Apr 2012]
Apple under fire for e-book deals [17 Apr 2012]
Strategy & Technological Change - Whatever Happened to BlackBerry? [14 Apr 2012]
Sony - Hirai’s Turnaround Strategy - in Video Clips [13 Apr 2012]
Organisational culture, strategy and performance in fewer than 1000 words [9 Apr 2012]
Revision Presentation - Business & the Technological Environment [9 Apr 2012]
Move over Apple, Samsung, Sony & Nokia. Here Comes China’s Huawei [7 Apr 2012]
Do Apple Customers Turn a Blind-eye to CSR in their Pursuit of Innovation? [18 Mar 2012]
Two Lesson Videos on Nokia - Will their Strategy Work? [13 Mar 2012]
Tata & Jaguar Land Rover - Culture and Strategy [11 Mar 2012]
Apple’s new CEO and a new iPad - A Change in Leadership [9 Mar 2012]
Takeover and merger integration: lessons from the experts (GE Capital) [9 Mar 2012]
Start-ups - the Wooden Smartphone? [4 Mar 2012]
Pink bricks for girls? Lego builds a new strategy [2 Mar 2012]
Video starter - Inside the iPad factory [21 Feb 2012]
Ideas not Hierarchy Makes a Business - Steve Jobs on Teamwork & Culture [13 Feb 2012]
Insights on takeovers and mergers from KPMG’s 2011 global survey [12 Feb 2012]
Innovation in Business - Perspectives from Stephen Elop (CEO of Nokia) [12 Feb 2012]
Product innovation - extending the humble cupcake [10 Feb 2012]
The history of Apple’s product innovation - in 30 seconds [10 Feb 2012]
Private equity buyouts - Sunday Times supplement [6 Feb 2012]
Success for the Daily Mail’s online strategy [30 Jan 2012]
Technological change - the “consumerisation of technology” [30 Jan 2012]
Leadership - Howard Schultz on the importance of leading an innovative culture [29 Jan 2012]
Schultz on Leadership, Love and the Competitive Advantage of Culture [29 Jan 2012]
Leadership and strategy: what decisions does the boss of Microsoft make? [29 Jan 2012]
Strategic choice: What should Apple do for its investors? [29 Jan 2012]
Technological change: 3-D printing promises a new industrial revolution [28 Jan 2012]
Technological change: now you can have your own factory! [28 Jan 2012]
Technological change - Kodak’s big strategic mistake [28 Jan 2012]
The tablet takeover? [23 Jan 2012]
External influences: the threat that is China [23 Jan 2012]
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Try some of these superb starter activities for Business Studies:
- Anagram Countdown
- Beat the Teacher
- Bellwork
- Budget Basket
- Memory Challenge
- Loop Cards
- I'm the Question
- Catchphrase - Say What You See!
- Consider All Possibilities (C.A.P)
- i-Teach
- Teacher Talkabout
- Perfect Recall
- Pass the Buck
- What would you have invented?
- These are a few of my favourite things
- Set Your Students the 15 Word Challenge
- Topic Tennis
- What Why Depends - Developing Thinking Skills
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