Reinventing Inventions

A friend posted an article on LinkedIn about the cool Retina Display of the much heralded, newly released iPad3 (marketed simply as iPad). I commented, Apple has redefined the very device that they themselves defined.

This article from The New Yorker spoke intelligently and persuasively on the state of affairs and the outlook for Apple, at this point in time, in the news not just for the amazing take-up among consumers of that iconic iPad, but also for their decision to pay out dividends to shareholders from massive cash coffers.

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If Steve Jobs were still alive and well, and had, say, another decade to innovate and launch insanely great products, he would have had to do things that broke his own mold. There is such an onslaught of tips from management gurus and business leaders alike, which speak to what he did to become successful and which draw lessons learned and best practices. But this is a conventional, misguided way of learning, developing and improving. The man himself probably would not have followed his own lessons and practices.

To this point, then, I ask, What does Apple have to do, in order to buck historical trends in competition and diseconomies of scale?

It is to evolve, and become something that it cannot even conceive of now. It has to morph into new states, systems, models and talents. It has to reinvent the very algorithms of invention.

The question now is, Can Apple do this? Of course, no one knows for certain, not even those at Apple. But if it can, then the answer is ‘yes’ to bucking those historical trends.

There is an even greater precedent for this that John Cassidy, with The New Yorker, didn't speak to:  the human race, and other species of life that have endured across millennia, by virtue of their ability to evolve.

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD