Technology Watch: In Portfolio magazine, Andy Grove uses the example of Apple and the iPod to espouse the unique ability of large companies to innovate in areas that resist innovation. He encourages WalMart to reshape the Health Care industry with in-store clinics and General Electric to produce an electric car and the infrastructure to support it.
It makes sense. Tech companies have gotten much smarter about adapting to a changing competitve and technological landscape. Witness how Apple, Microsoft, Intel, Oracle, Cisco and IBM have evolved over the last 10 years vs. the Novells, Wangs and Digitals that led the tech sector in the 1970s and 1980s. They may not be preventing the rise of every Google that comes along, but they also aren't getting put out of business by them, either.
