Too Much Innovation

Unless the name of your CEO is Steve Jobs or Edwin Land, there IS such thing as too much innovation.  When a company tries to change too many things at the same time and is not led by a genius CEO that is deeply involved in the most minute technical and marketing details, the endeavor will almost certainly have unpleasant consequences.

Since Jobs and Land were arguably unique in the history of modern capitalism, no other company should embark in daredevil innovation pursuits.

What is the antidote to endangering a company (and even the general public) by engaging in "excessive" innovation?

Answer: reading and internalizing the book Great by Choice authored by Jim Collins.

At the end of the day, "excessive" innovation is really nothing more than excessive ego, and if there is not a real genius leading the effort, it would almost certainly end in disappointment if not something worse.

Conclusion: tame your ego and read Collins' book.

Business Leaders

I have read the biographies or auto-biographies of many business leaderes such as Jack Welch, Ray Kroc, Sam Walton, Thomas J. Watson Jr., Thomas J. Watson Sr., Alfred P. Sloan, Tony Hsieh, William C. Durant, Lee Iacocca, Robert Noyce, Chester Carlson, Gordon Bethune, Lou Gerstner, etc., etc.  From most of them I obtain tons of ideas that I many times steal shamelessly and apply in my corporate position.

However, even before begining to read Steve Job's biography I knew this time it was going to be different.  And it was.  His biography is as, or maybe even more, interesting than any of the others, BUT the takeaway is very meager because the others were outstanding business leaders but not geniuses.  Steve, on the other hand was a GENIUS like the business world had never seen and will (probably) never see again.

The only (sort of) exception I've ever encountered is precisely one of Steve's business heroes: Edwin Land.  His most comprenhensive biography is not surprisingly titled: Insisting on the Impossible.  And yes, I have to concede Land achieved the impossible one or two times but he doesn't even come close to Steve.