"Innovation has lost all meaning"

I am always scanning during my travels, in my web searches, in my reading, at my clients for stories for my innovation blog and I set them up as future posts on the blog. Many of my friends also send me suggestions. Last week Dennis Howlett sent me a suggestion and I realized I had a backlog of posts 3 weeks out - on some days 2-3 posts a day. As my recent article says, this must be what Florence felt like during the Renaissance. Revival and new ideas in so many disciplines.

So I am staggered to hear an exec from SAP respond to Tom Foremski - in a panel focused on innovation no less - that innovation has "lost all meaning". I see my friend Josh Greenbaum tell the NY Times "There is flat-out envy on SAP’s part (about Oracle and its margins)".

In backdrop is the Intel Developer Forum, where Larry Dignan reports its wide range of innovations and R&D investments.

I read Irving Wladasky-Berger of IBM write about "Indifference, Hostility, Isolation and other Obstacles to a healthy innovation environment". IBM used to be Intel - now with majority of revenues coming from software and services, there is a far lower relative investment in R&D.  Lack of a decent R&D budget is definitely what Irving would classify as one of the "other Obstacles" to innovation.

I am hoping to stop at SAP's TechEd in Vegas on September 9 and see what Craig Cmehil and his band of innovators have cooked up this year. It will allow me to gauge better if SAP has completely turned the IBM and Oracle direction or there is at least a piece of Intel left in its soul.

Comments

[Jeff Word]

Vinnie, you might want to research Ike a bit more before you jump to conclusions about a soundbyte from a panel discussion. He actually has an incredible amount of credibility to speak on the status of innovation in the Valley and knows more about the history of innovation in technology than anyone I've ever met. In addition to being they guy who lead the Mac OS team for many years, he also created the iPhone, which he later sold to Cisco, etc. He was the head of SAP Research for quite a while and now runs SAP's internal innovation-to-market group. Plus, he's one of the founders of the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley. The guy knows about innovation.

[Dennis Howlett]

Ahem - you know our - by which I mean the folks I'm involved in - are showing a bit of something.

[vinnie mirchandani]

Jeff, it was not meant to be a personal swipe..and he is certainly well credentialed...and you are right I did pick on a single statement he made. But I hear that in slightly different ways from too many at SAP.

For the $ 60 billion customers annually pay SAP, Oracle and IBM (more to IBM for outsourcing) they are seeing very little innovation... For 4 years I have cataloged on the other blog innvoative products, CIOs and occasionally even SAP, Oracle and IBM. For $ 60 billion, I just expect a bucket load more...not statements about innovation is not happening