Heck, IBM is actually given as prime example for why big companies fail, with their past failure in the micro-computer market. Actually, IBM's PC business was

Heck, IBM is actually given as prime example for why big companies fail, with their past failure in the micro-computer market. Actually, IBM's PC business was one of the few case studies in "Innovator's Dilemma" where the big incumbent got it right. [1] They spun off an autonomous division to create the PC, and put as much distance between it and the existing org as they could -- both physically (down in Florida, with IBM HQ in New York) and organizationally. Not to malign your overall point though. I agree, not only does the IBM of today fail to engage in offensive product disruption like the PC, they don't even seem interested in defending against disruption anymore. Their strategy with the Thinkpad line, and now their x86 servers, seems to be to sell before the disruption fully kicks in and there's nothing left. Defending against disruption is really expensive, maybe that's the lesson here. [1] http://books.google.com/books?id=SIexi_qgq2gC&lpg=PA43&ots=AiALfHJ5Dq&dq=innovator's%20dilemma%20ibm%20pc&pg=PA110#v=onepage&q=innovator's%20dilemma%20ibm%20pc&f=false http://books.google.com/books?id=SIexi_qgq2gC&lpg=PA43&ots=A...