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Editor's Note
Long Live Innovation
Innovation is dead, says conventional wisdom—no new gadgets are coming to us from the technogeeks, no big ideas that will shift the way we live and work in the same way the internet or the cell phone did, just to name a couple. So we're facing a time when mature companies in mature industries have no recourse other than to gobble up competitors, both large and small. But what if it's our definition of innovation that is at fault? What if it's not necessarily about the next big thing, or the newest toy? Perhaps it's time for innovation to be redefined, simplified, and expanded so that we're focusing on what companies really need from technology and how they can use technology to move closer to their customers, better respond to customer needs, and resolve customer problems more quickly.
Geoffrey Moore, a best-selling author and business-strategy consultant, in an interview with Profit, talks about the many types of innovation companies can drive throughout their organizations—and only one of these looks like the popular notion of innovation: the guy in the lab jacket, surrounded by computer screens and electronic components. As Moore asks, what if customers can be even better served by innovative processes—what if, for example, a company looks at the steps a customer must take to complete a transaction and figures out how to do it better, how to make it easier for the customer and more profitable for itself? Isn't that a kind of innovation—and a kind that can have a quicker impact on many more customers than the typical, old-style technical innovation?
Charles DiBona, a senior analyst at Sanford Bernstein who spoke recently at Oracle's CIO Summit, in Orlando, Florida, also made an excellent point about innovation. He noted that it's critical that companies in every industry know when not to innovate. You don't gain competitive advantage by hiring someone in a different way, or by paying someone uniquely. Tried-and-true processes exist for many of the basic tasks every company needs to perform; trying to overlay custom processes is a waste and a distraction. But when it comes to the core of your business—what you offer your customers and how you treat them—it is innovation that differentiates you from your competitors, and it is the dialog you establish between the business and IT sides of your enterprise that will truly create an environment for innovation.
On another note, the annual Oracle OpenWorld conference is scheduled for September 17-22 at San Francisco's Moscone Center. With the recent combination of OracleWorld and AppsWorld, and the introduction of new tracks for PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, and Retek customers, this promises to be our biggest show ever. I hope you'll be able to attend to learn more about what the future holds for all our applications customers. Find out more about the show at oracle.com/openworld.
Margaret Terry Lindquist
margaret.lindquist@oracle.com
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