A significant part of our business acumen talent development engagements involve understanding how to execute and lead strategic initiatives. We typically discuss that there are three unique different value propositions – Innovation, Customer, and Cost – and that successful companies align their resources and execute to their goals flawlessly. Our participants get to practice and learn about the dynamics of leadership and business strategy by running a simulated business for a number of years.
When we discuss the three value propositions in the United States, we ask for examples of successful companies and talk about what are the things these companies do to achieve success. The most common examples include Apple (Innovation), Nordstrom (Customer), and Wal Mart (Cost).
Over the last 12-18 months, the Advantexe consulting team has delivered many successful business acumen and business leadership engagements for clients around the world. During this time, we have observed an interesting trend of companies exploring a more innovative approach to their markets. As a result, we have re-oriented the learning, skills and tools to help create a culture of innovation and a business leadership approach to executing an innovation strategy.
One of the indices of successfully executing an innovation strategy is new patents. It is the core fuel to the innovation engine. Recently, the US Patent Office issues their 2011 list of the companies awarded the most patents. The data and analysis is quite revealing.
1. IBM – 6,180 patents
2. Samsung – 4,894 patents
3. Canon – 2,821 patents
4. Panasonic – 2,559
5. Toshiba – 2,483
Other notable organizations receiving patents in 2011 were Microsoft at #6 (2,311), and outside of the top 10 were H-P (1,308), Oracle (918), and EMC at (282) all of whom are IBM competitors.
For IBM, the 6,180 patents were the most patents ever awarded in a single year by the US patent office. IBM states that they have more than 8,000 R&D people – at an annual budget of $6 billion or 6% of revenues – working in 46 US states and 36 countries to accumulate such an impressive patent tally.
I often get questions from participants about what really drives shareholder value and the answer in reality is always a little fuzzy. However, it is very clear in this analysis that IBM leadership has created tremendous shareholder value by setting the strategy and providing the environment, skills, and tools to be successful. The current IBM market capitalization is at a 5 year high and has increased 82% during this time while the Dow Jones average has been slightly above flat at 1.5%. When integrated with a world class sales team, a world class implementation team, and a world class customer services team, it is easy to see why IBM is the best B-2-B example of an organization implementing an innovation strategy flawlessly.
