RACING WITH BLINDERS

I'm sure many pundits will be writing today about the shakeup at the top of RIM. Certainly one must always consider the fact that often those that are best suited to start-ups are not the best individuals to keep the company running in the future. With of course the exception of Steve Jobs.

Why is this? I don't believe it is necessarily a truism. As Steve Jobs demonstrated at Apple, as long as you keep innovation alive then you can run not only a successful company, but one that constantly redefines the marketplace. In fact, I believe the opposite can be true...if you remove innovators then you can lose your way.

But what causes these leading edge companies to truly lose their way? Arrogance and blinders. When you think about it, whether Nortel, Kodak or RIM, the parallels are there. Leading edge, innovation and then a "well, we're the best, so we don't really have to try anymore! We'll just make what we have a little better and because we are the first one's out of the gate, of course we will always be the leading horse in the race."

As Dr. Phil would say "How's that working for you?"

Not so much. It is actually sad to see these firms, which truly redefined our expectations to sink into the mire of misery caused by this arrogance. And if anyone thinks that by chopping off the head and replacing it with a new one means success, you are delusional. George Fisher tried to get Kodak to consider itself a "picture"company as opposed to a "film" company and he was met with resistance every step of the way. He wanted Kodak to go full speed ahead into digital, but the mid-level employees of the company stymied every step, because of course they didn't see any reason to change -- they were getting their bonuses and commission, so who is this interloper who has this "vision."

I hope that this will not be the case with RIM...as opposed to Kodak in the '90s, RIM is in serious trouble. However, innovation cannot be dictated -- "today your job is Innovation with a capital I" --

nope...that just doesn't work.

Rebuild needs to occur -- bottom-up and top-down -- but only if they are truly serious about change!

PICTURE IMPERFECT

When reading about Kodak preparing for Chapter 11 filing, I couldn't help but thing of the term innovative complacency. Here is a company that was way ahead of the curve for years and years, and in fact is the company that first came up with the concept, engineering etc of digital photography.

However, just like Hem in Who Moved My Cheese, a decision was made to protect the film business and not cannibalize nor infringe upon the mighty profits. Instead of changing the way we saw the world (which if you really think about it is what photography does), Kodak chose to ignore, foolishly so, the market trends, and in fact, missed defining the market trends. Thus the filing of Chapter 11.

I don't know if Kodak will recover. With many President's being put in place for the various business units, it is clear that there won't be one mega company, but many small ones. But the lessons are here for all enterprises who chose to protect their core business without trying to change the dynamics and lead their clients into a new world.

If you think about it we have seen many companies fall by the wayside. Nortel, BlockBuster, Borders, and although I'm not expecting it to file for bankruptcy RIM is also a company that was an innovator and then decided just to sit back and let the money roll in, while its competitors starting rolling over it.

I don't know what causes this. What lack of vision and insight there must be at the senior levels of organizations to let this happen. Maybe they just like the perks and ignore the future. In how my mind works, I can't even fathom this lack of insight.

The US car companies are another example...they were teetering on the edge and hopefully they have learned their lesson. But who knows -- after a few years where will they be. Will the cycle of complacency imbed itself once again?

What about companies that focus on printing and the distribution of paper. This train is coming a lot faster than I think any of these companies think. How about writing instruments, when I can now basically use my iPad as a notebook....makes you think.

So seeing Kodak go down is disheartening. But it is a lesson to CEOs and shareholders alike...complacency breeds bankruptcy. And that my friends is an imperfect picture for any firm!