Publisher to businesses, schools and government: Innovate or die

The speed of change in markets and technology has accelerated so much over the past 20 years that companies, schools and even government entities are now in danger of going the way of the dinosaur if they don’t embrace constant innovation, says Business Report Publisher Rolfe McCollister. “Have you heard of a 131-year-old company named Kodak, which just filed for bankruptcy last week?” McCollister writes in his latest column. “Or what about Encyclopedia Britannica, more than 200 years old, which has fallen hard after reporting record sales of $650 million in 1990.” The hard lessons learned by these innovation-averse companies and others, McCollister says, are perhaps best summed up in the United Kingdom’s Daily Mail, which quotes Mark Zupan, dean of the University of Rochester’s business school, regarding the Kodak news: “If you’re not willing to cannibalise yourself, others will do it for you. Technology is changing ever more rapidly, the world’s becoming more globalised, so to stay at the top of your game is getting increasingly harder.” McCollister says this should serve as “a warning to all in business, but it also must apply to our institutions, including government, nonprofits, universities, and public and private schools.” Read the full column here. Send your comments to editors@businessreport.com.