Invention's Giants

Howard Anderson is wrong when he says big companies can't invent ("Why Big Companies Can't Invent," TR May 2004). While big companies have had to adjust to the rapidly changing rate of innovation and market dynamics, some of them are adjusting quite nicely. Take the company I recently retired from: IBM. When wireless technology emerged, a group of IBM "intrapreneurs" came together to take advantage of IBM's Research division. As a result, revenues for wireless e-business services catapulted from $300 million to $2.4 billion within two years. The group that accomplished this navigated internal barriers and was not preoccupied with compensation. They realized that failure does not necessarily lead to the demise of the company, as it can with startups. To put it in terms of Anderson's metaphor: large companies realize that attack is the best form of defense!

Perminder Bindra
Patterson, NY