"I have one of the best jobs in the world. I get to hang out with some of the most talented, committed people around, and together we get to play in this sandbox and build these cool products. Apple is an incredibly collaborative company. You know how many committees we have at Apple? Zero. We're structured like a start-up. We're the biggest start-up on the planet. And we all meet once a week to discuss our business," said Steve Jobs at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference.  >>>

→ Winning Corporate Culture

 Silicon Valley Firms

Silicon Valley firms have flat and participative management structures In a meeting rooms at most Silicon Valley companies, the mix of people, expertise, and ages is striking. More importantly, the degree of candor is tremendous. You don't expect to find such level of frankness in hierarchical companies.

→ Freedom To Fail

→ Noble Failure

In more direct cultures, such as Intel or Sun Microsystems, you can witness easily an intense argument between a senior executive and an entry-level engineer. Status and seniority aren't based on age or position; they're based on what you know and can deliver... More

→ Innovation-friendly Organization

 Google

"We run the company by questions, not by answers," says Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google. "You ask it as a question, rather than a pithy answer, and that stimulates conversation. Out of the conversation comes innovation. Innovation is not something that I just wake up one day and say 'I want to innovate.' I think you get a better innovative culture if you ask it as a question."... More

  → 10 Commandments of Innovation

 GE: Energizing People

→ Jack Welch's goal was to make GE "the world's most competitive enterprise." He knew that the the current business environment requires an energized, energizing leader: "You've got to be live action all day. And you've got to be able to → energize others. Your cannot be this thoughtful, in-the-corner-office guru. You cannot be a moderate, balanced, thoughtful, careful articulator of policy. You've got to be on the lunatic fringe," urged Jack Welch.

Welch urged everybody to → stretch. Stretch targets energize.  "We have found that by reaching for what appears to be the impossible, we often actually do the impossible; and even when we don't quite make it, we inevitably wind up doing much better than we would have done."... More

→ Systemic Innovation: 7 Areas

 Corning

Corning has a long heritage of inventing new technologies and creating new businesses. It presents an excellent example of harnessing the benefits of the in-company ventures and the → business systems approach to new product development and project management. Research, development, and the innovation process are the lifeblood of Corning. It is an integral part of its → culture and → values-driven tradition.

Corning is oriented around → innovation, built on → constant reinvention.  "Discovering Beyond Imagination" is a corporate → slogan that embodies literal truth... More

 Dell Inc. – Questioning Everything

"I wish it were possible for me to interact with everyone at Dell as I used to. But it's not possible to scale the number of interactions to be consistent with the growth of the company", says Michael Dell, the Founder of the Dell Inc. "We've found there are, however things you can do to bridge the distance between you and your people in a larger organization, and develop the fast-paced, flexible culture that's a source of → competitive advantage."... More

"How we manage to maintain the attitude of a challenger, even as we continue to grow at record speeds? Culture is, by far, one of the most enigmatic facets of management that I've encountered. The best way I know to establish and maintain a healthy, competitive culture is to partner with your people – through shared objectives and a common strategy."... More

"Mobilize your people around a singe goal. All of our → experimenting and questioning and learning is done in pursuit of one goal: finding the  next frontier of → value that we can create for our customers... → Make failure acceptable as long as it creates → learning opportunities. There's no risk in preserving the status quo – but there's no → profit either"... More

 P&G: Making Innovation the Norm

When asked 'What's the one thing you've done that most inspired innovation in your organization?'⁷ Craig Wynett, the General Manager of Future Growth Initiatives at P&G answered 'What we've done to encourage innovation is make it ordinary. By that I mean we don't separate it from the rest of our business. Many companies make innovation front-page news, and all that special attention has a paradoxical effect. By serving it up as something exotic, you isolate it from what's normal. You don't trumpet your ordinary business. The same has to be true of innovation. For innovation to be reliable, it needs to be addressed systematically, like any business issue in which you define the problem and then solve it."... More

→ Innovation Is Love

→ Value Innovation: Yin-Yang Strategies

→ The Jazz of Innovation    → 11 Guiding Principles

→ Loose-Tight Leadership