The Operations of Google, Amazon, and Apple
Might be useful for setting a background http://www.managementexchange.com/blog/whos-really-innovative Fourth are the cyborgs, companies like Google, Amazon and Apple that have been purpose-built to achieve super-human feats of innovation. You won't find much industrial age DNA in these organizations. These companies have been built around principles like freedom, meritocracy, transparency and experimentation. They are so endlessly inventive and strategically flexible they seem to have come from another solar system--one where accountants are treated as servants rather than gods.
The cyborgs don't just have innovative business models, they are filled with alien management practices--like Google's 60:1 span of control or Apple's top-to-bottom obsession with "joy-of-use." Like the tyros, many of the cyborgs are run by charismatic founders. But unlike most tyros, these visionaries--Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, Sergei Brin and Larry Page--haven't allowed themselves to become hostage to one particular strategy. They have worked hard to embed within their organizations a capacity for continuous renewal--and have mostly succeeded. Over the past few years Amazon has transformed itself from an online bookseller into a web services powerhouse. Google has spawned dozens of new online services that complement its core search business. And Apple has moved so far beyond its core computer business that it is now the world's second most valuable business.
Unlike the laureates, the cyborgs are innovative in all kinds of ways; and unlike the tyros, they're going to show up on next year's "most innovative" list or the one after that.
Problem is, with their bionic capabilities, the cyborgs can make the rest of us feel like dolts. If you work in a company that's merely human--one that's riddled with stale, conformance-inducing management practices--another chirpy anecdote about Google or Apple may make you puke. Your organization wasn't built from the ground up to be innovative. You
The cyborgs don't just have innovative business models, they are filled with alien management practices--like Google's 60:1 span of control or Apple's top-to-bottom obsession with "joy-of-use." Like the tyros, many of the cyborgs are run by charismatic founders. But unlike most tyros, these visionaries--Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, Sergei Brin and Larry Page--haven't allowed themselves to become hostage to one particular strategy. They have worked hard to embed within their organizations a capacity for continuous renewal--and have mostly succeeded. Over the past few years Amazon has transformed itself from an online bookseller into a web services powerhouse. Google has spawned dozens of new online services that complement its core search business. And Apple has moved so far beyond its core computer business that it is now the world's second most valuable business.
Unlike the laureates, the cyborgs are innovative in all kinds of ways; and unlike the tyros, they're going to show up on next year's "most innovative" list or the one after that.
Problem is, with their bionic capabilities, the cyborgs can make the rest of us feel like dolts. If you work in a company that's merely human--one that's riddled with stale, conformance-inducing management practices--another chirpy anecdote about Google or Apple may make you puke. Your organization wasn't built from the ground up to be innovative. You