So you’ve met Zsa Zsa, the Mad Cow of innovation. (That’s her above and my illustration of her awesome face here to the left.)
The link above will tell you a bit about Zsa Zsa’s origins and why it makes sense to have a crazy pink cross between a french poodle and a cow as the mascot of this adventure into the dark heart of corporate innovation.
But there’s another animal I want to talk about right now. The ostrich.
As future posts will point out, very often when real innovation is required, when there is an existential threat to our current paradigm coming over the hill, we do nothing. The classic animal metaphor for this is the ostrich burying its head in the sand, but I think this is not apt.
When companies do nothing in the face of an existential threat, it is not typically because they did not see it coming (or like the ostrich, refused to see it). It’s worse than that. They are paralyzed, partly by years of mismanaging innovation.* They are stuck, helplessly watching the disaster slowly approach, with wild, perplexed eyes, wondering why they can’t move as they get swept under the disruption. Welcome to Kodak. It reminds me of this scene in Austin Powers. (Enjoy):
* We spend millions on “innovation programs,” distracting ourselves from the core when we should focus on growth, and then do nothing when the time comes to reinvent ourselves in the face of a game changing development.