How fixing cities and corporate innovation are similar
Lately I’ve reflected on two areas of personal and professional interest; transforming American cities and towns from auto-centric to be people-centric, and corporate innovation. Urban transformation means re-configuring streets and re-prioritizing traffic for more efficient vehicles, like bicycles and buses. Corporate innovation involves dominant industries and companies managing disruption by nimble startups.
Companies either miss the signs of disruption (Kodak) or fail to innovate fast enough (Blockbuster). Cities fail during routine road resurfacing projects, when legacy staff re-build the same auto-centric designs. In both cases, incumbent players do the same thing they’ve always done. Successful companies and cities build separate innovation processes that prototype and prove new models, then build, buy, or acquire new ways of working.
