????做一個小測試：不論你現在用的是哪種品牌的智能手機或數碼相機，你知道數碼相機的絕大多數技術都是由哪家公司發明的嗎？早在1975年，這家公司的科學家就發明了數碼相機，而且還相繼生產出超過1,000種數字創新產品，包括第一款超過140萬像素的百萬像素傳感器、第一個彩色濾鏡座，以及第一種將圖像按JPEG標準進行壓縮的方法。它是哪家公司？

????索尼（Sony）、三星（Samsung）、蘋果（Apple）、諾基亞（Nokia）、動態研究公司（Research in Motion，也就是如今的黑莓），還是當今的其他科技巨頭？如果這是你的答案，再猜一猜。猜不到了吧？答案是柯達公司（Kodak）。柯達一度占有美國膠片市場90%的份額，但由于不愿意侵蝕自己的傳統產品，結果其它規模更小的數字攝影創新公司在日益壯大和搶占份額的時候，柯達卻依然置之不理。結果，僅僅十年時間，柯達的價值便損失了87%，并于去年宣布破產。

????南加州大學馬歇爾商學院（University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business ）的管理學教授及全球創新中心（Center for Global Innovation）負責人杰勒德?J?泰利斯發現：“公司處于成功巔峰的時候，往往也是最危險的時候，極有可能由此由盛轉衰。市場支配地位就像一個魔咒，會讓公司迷失方向，看不到即將到來的重大創新。”

????泰利斯的新書《創新無止境》（Unrelenting Innovation）對造成這種情況的原因進行了研究。他與同事研究了15個國家的770家公司，其中許多公司的艱難歷程經常登上媒體頭條，比如惠普（Hewlett-Packard）、索尼（Sony）和通用汽車（General Motors）等。研究人員發現，從長遠來看，成功與規模、擁有專利的數量或者用于研發的資金多少無關。要想始終保持領先，需要建立一種“創新的文化”，包括對風險的偏好，對獎勵新思路的熱忱，以及對未來、而非過往的專注。

????當然，說起來容易做起來難。泰利斯詳細研究了所有障礙。最終書中解釋了一個道理，為什么創建一種文化、最終侵蝕掉目前成功的產品才是唯一的道路。想要通過收購來引入這種文化的任何嘗試通常都不會成功，因為當一家公司決定進行戰略收購時，收購目標“要么已經估值過高，要么已經過了巔峰期，或者與公司的差異太過巨大，無法進行有益地整合，”泰利斯解釋說。

????泰利斯和他的研究團隊仔細研究了收購方的股價。以eBay為例。2005年，eBay以26億美元收購了Skype。結果很不幸，兩年后，Skype貶值14億美元。而且，研究人員發現，“為了獲得創新技術而（收購）公司，會導致收購方的股價持續下跌。”而那些在內部培養創新的公司，股價情況則恰恰相反：“市場對內部的有機創新會給予回報，而對于外部收購則會施加懲罰。”

????《創新無止境》一書吸引人的地方在于泰利斯在書中穿插的數十個短小、生動的案例。以其中一則為例：在柯達全盛時期，“‘停滯文化’為可怕的官僚主義的滋生提供了土壤，官僚主義在柯達已經根深蒂固，就像一個政府部門……公司強調任何事情都必須遵照公司的規則……開會之前，總要事先召開會議討論問題，以避免沖突，因為他們認為沖突不符合柯達的形象。”

????根據泰利斯所說，如果你也在經歷著同樣的事情，說明你的公司已經有麻煩了——尤其是在一切都非常順利的時候。(財富中文網)

????譯者：劉進龍/汪皓

????Here's a quick quiz: No matter whose brand name is on the smartphone or digital camera you're using now, do you know who invented almost all of the technology in it? This outfit's scientists came up with digital cameras way back in 1975, and then went on to produce more than 1,000 digital innovations, including the first megapixel sensor of more than 1.4 million pixels, the first color filter tray, and the first method of image compression up to JPEG standards. What company was it?

????If you said Sony (SNE), Samsung, Apple (AAPL), Nokia (NOK), Research in Motion (now known as BlackBerry), or any other present-day tech giant, guess again. Give up? It was Kodak. Reluctant to cannibalize its traditional products (at one point, Kodak had a lock on 90% of the U.S. film market), the company sat on its hands while smaller digital-photography innovators zoomed in and ate its lunch. As a result, Kodak lost 87% of its value in just over a decade and declared bankruptcy last year.

????"Organizations are in greatest danger of failing when they're at the peak of their success," observes Gerard J. Tellis, who teaches management at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business and directs the Center for Global Innovation there. "Market dominance can be a curse that blinds companies to the next big innovation on the horizon."

????His new book, Unrelenting Innovation, looks at exactly how that happens. Tellis and his colleagues studied 770 companies across 15 countries, including many -- like Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Sony, and General Motors (GM) -- whose struggles have made headlines. The researchers found that success over the long haul isn't a matter of size, number of patents, or the dollar amount of R&D investments. Instead, staying on top requires a "culture of innovation," including an appetite for risk, an eagerness to reward fresh thinking, and a focus on the future, not the past.

????That's easier said than done, of course, and Tellis examines all the obstacles in detail. But the book makes clear why creating a culture designed to cannibalize currently successful products is the only way to go. Trying to buy that kind of culture usually doesn't work because by the time a company decides on a strategic acquisition, the target is "either overpriced, past its peak, or too different to integrate profitably," Tellis notes.

????Tellis and his team of researchers scrutinized the share prices of acquirers -- like eBay (EBAY), for example, whose ill-fated $2.6 billion acquisition of Skype in 2005 led to a $1.4 billion write-down two years later -- and discovered that "[buying] firms for their innovations leads to a consistently negative spike in the stock price of the acquiring firm," while the opposite was true for shares of companies that grew their own innovations in-house: "The market rewards internal organic innovation and punishes external acquisitions."

????What makes Unrelenting Innovation a fascinating read is the dozens of short, vivid case studies Tellis has woven into his book. To take just one example among many: The "culture of stagnation" at Kodak in its heyday "fueled the growth of a nightmarish bureaucracy so entrenched it could have passed for a government agency…. There was an emphasis on doing everything by the company rulebooks…. Meetings were held prior to meetings to discuss issues and avoid confrontations, which were considered un-Kodaklike."

????By Tellis' lights, if that sounds at all familiar, your company is already in trouble -- even, or especially, if everything's going great right now.