> Which perhaps confirms that the only successful strategy for innovation
> a large company has is to buy out small successful startups ... Sorry
> about that!

Or regularly hiring new people, and mentoring them if they seem to have new ideas.

But on another viewpoint, every employee is his own company, so effectively the large company is "buying out" small companies if they hire new people.

The main problem with "Innovation" is the emphasise on the capital I...

That is seniors expect big things of innovation in one big go.

As we know there are two ways to bring about a new system you can install it or you can instill it.

The installation process is usually fraught with many hurdles not least is heal dragging / digging in, and invariably fails unless driven from the top and properly resourced with tempered expectations as to result delivery (people take time to adapt).

Instillation however is an ongoing process of small steps, adaptation time is very small, resources required minimal and likewise disruption is small and it is easy to get user buy in without feather ruffling authoritarian dictat.

We see instillation as evolutionary in general it is the way nature has done things for longer than mankind has existed thus it is "the natural" not "unnatural" way to go.

The downside no "instant fix value" or "bottom line jump" for managers as the benifits accrue with time as with any ongoing process.

Thus innovation with a little i or by instilling it is the best way to effect change from within an organisation. Innovation with a big I or by installing is the way when significant change is required by external events. The former is "process improvment" the latter is "process replacment", fine tunning -v- radical surgery.

Or look at it as the difference between flicking pebbles into a pond one by one -v- heaving in a massive rock. The former is controlled and makes predictable ripples, the latter is not likley to be controlled and creates masive unpredictable waves rebounding back and forth in a chaotic manner throwing water out of the pond.