Get Innovative or Die Trying
Innovation has long been at the heart of technology development, and recent moves by major companies have only reinforced that concept but in a very unique way. It is no longer just coming out with a new gadget that can make or break a company, but the firm's ability to continually innovate that makes or breaks the great companies.
No arena is more relevant to this point than the search wars. Watching Google shoot by Yahoo! has been a staggering event. When universities and later the masses were first introduced to search engines, Yahoo! was the dominant player in the search industry. A full, comprehensive web site and later Yahoo Mail gave Jerry Yang's creation a life greater than anyone imagined at the time.
But playing the role of Second Mover to perfection were Larry Page and Sergey Brin with Google. Not only did they improve on Yahoo's search engine technique, but they created a new company culture - where the focus is on innovation - that not only allowed the Mountain View, Calif. firm shoot past everyone in the search space but challenge Microsoft as leader of the information revolution.
Yahoo recently chose to bring back Yang but keep most of the current infrastructure in place and there are few expected changes in strategic thinking. This has many stakeholders worried that Yahoo's current course will stay stagnant despite Yang's promise of rapid adjustment back in July.
While Yahoo is focusing on how to match Google's performance in the advertising space (Google generates 40% more revenue per consumer than Yahoo, according to the Wall Street Journal), Google is taking on bigger fish. With Google Spreadsheets, Microsoft's #2 software product - Office - is now facing a direct challenge from a firm that has the might to battle, and survive, the Redmond, Wash. giant.
It is Google's drive to innovate, develop, and constantly stay ahead of the curve that has been its success. It may be easy to say that it is because of the revenue generating from its superior search interface, but that is just a blip in the grand scheme of things and provides nothing more than a short energy boost. In today's world, firms must only innovate once; it must innovate as part of its existence to thrive in this new marketing economy.
