Thomas Edison did not invent the light bulb, nor did he act alone in improving it. Lone geniuses laboring in the basement laboratory won’t invent the future. Networks of people connected to each other and to new ideas produce innovation in our world.
Organizations must remember Edison’s electric light sent the existing gas companies scrambling to find their place in the new environment, in the same way that the PC reshaped the typewriter and mainframe industries. What is your organization doing to get outside ideas and avoid becoming like the typewriter companies?