Infor, A Company in Transition
I just returned from New Orleans last evening after attending Infor’s user conference Inforum (disclosure: Infor paid my travel expenses to the event, and is an IDC client). On the flight back I was thinking about what I saw, and what I’ve learned about Infor from my last several interactions with them, and wanted to […]
Smarter Innovation: Road Map to the Future
Last spring, we were approached by the Academic Director of Columbia University’s Graduate Information and Strategy program, Katrina Pugh. She had received word about the innovative way our Change Agents work out loud in the cloud. We were asked to contribute to a management book published recently by ARK Group, “Smarter Innovation: Using Interactive Processes to Drive […]
Additional Considerations for Corporate Incubators and Accelerators
In my last post I wrote about corporate incubation/acceleration models, presenting four distinct ones, discussed how to start one of these organizations, and how to increase the value derived from them. In this blog I provide additional details on the topic by: Presenting the criteria and guidelines a corporation should use to start an incubator […]
Using Corporate Incubators and Accelerators To Drive Disruptive Innovation
Corporations are establishing incubators, e.g., Samsung, and accelerators, e.g., Orange, in order to advance their disruptive innovation initiatives. They are doing so on their own, e.g., Samsung, Swisscom, or in partnership with independent accelerators, e.g., Disney, Microsoft, and Barclays have partnered with Techstars. Many corporate incubators and accelerators are established in Silicon Valley, but not […]
IBM-Apple Deal: Mobile Enterprise Applications
On July 15 IBM and Apple announced an exclusive partnership. There are several components to this partnership that have been addressed elsewhere (here and here) but of most interest was the commitment to develop 100 industry-specific mobile analytic applications. As I had written, the broad adoption of smartphones and tablets by employees, customers and partners, […]
Acquiring Innovation
In 2001 Apple introduced iTunes based on the IP of a company it had acquired in 2000. By 2003, after the introduction of the iPod and of the iTunes Store, iTunes had become the de facto disruptive innovator of digital music. More recently Apple itself started being disrupted by Pandora and Spotify. These streaming music […]
Ten Classic Business Books for Entrepreneurs / Startup Founders
I often get asked by technical founders what business / marketing / strategy books they should read. While there are many excellent relatively new books (e.g., The Lean Startup), the primary purpose of this post is to list a set of classic business books that most (older) business people have read — and that I think […]
Five Steps To Starting Your Digital Transformation Initiative
Cut Through The Hype and Get Started Over the past 12 months, Constellation has interviewed, researched, or assisted more than 50 market leaders and fast followers crafting a digital transformation strategy. Regardless of industry, size of company, or geography, these early adopters share five common steps to success. In each case, these steps provide […]
Software Firms Now 42% Of Venture Capital Invested In 2014
Just over $4B was invested in software deals by venture capitalists (VCs) during Q1, 2014, four times as much as biotechnology. Software deals netted out 42% of all dollars invested in the first quarter of 2014, with biotechnology receiving 11%. VCs invested $816M in IT Services or 9% of all dollars, making this the third largest […]
Measuring the Performance of Corporate Innovation Initiatives
The business models of large corporations are being disrupted faster than ever before, e.g., Netflix is disrupting the video distribution industry, while new lucrative markets being created by innovative startups, e.g., Uber, Nest, and SpaceX. As a result of these developments, corporations are starting to realize they will need to re-invent their disruptive innovation model. […]
