Whether a company’s strategy for innovation is emergent or planned, either way, clearly innovative companies like Google, GE, and Apple have the upper hand when it comes to competitive advantage.
Google is widely considered one of the most innovative companies in the world. Clearly, everyone needs information, and Google provides a product that sorts, refines, and distributes information better than most, but this in itself is not innovative. What is, however, is the idea that the world could be changed using Google! And, it is precisely this strategy that makes Google extraordinarily innovative! This how Google is able to unify “what can appear to be wildly disparate projects: mapping the world, searching the Web on a cell-phone screen, providing an early-response system for epidemics and natural disasters, developing cheap renewable energy.” The company has grown to more than 16,000 employees in the last decade, and prospective hires are regularly asked a simple but powerful question, "if you could change the world using Google's resources, what would you build?" Google looks for the people who are willing to figure out how to do something that’s never been done before; people that can think a problem through. And, it’s not about perfection either – rather, Google is looking to get ideas launched and then, refine them later. Their whole strategy is rooted in this fearless creativity. The products you see produced by Google, including things like the Street View feature of Google Maps, featuring 360-degree photos, or the Gadget Maker, which gives the outside developers the tools and the infrastructure to create programs for iGoogle, are fearlessly innovative (Salter, 2009)!
GE is another highly innovative company. In recent years, it has taken a top-down approach to innovation, and the CEO has spent a considerable amount of time and money to push GE’s innovation initiatives. It significantly increased its research and development spending and to...