Reference no: EM133353009

Question

Large established companies have often difficulties in adapting to technological change. Supercomputer has for a long time been an exception. With a long history of successful R&D and high-quality products, it was able to exit the market for products that were increasingly commodified, such as personal computers, laptops, and low-end servers and develop a successful business for high-end servers. It was famous for its tight focus on financial performance and making sure that it remained profitable. Even though it had a focus on financial performance, Supercomputer always devoted a large amount of resources to R&D and new products. So, there was not scarcity of funding for innovation. Furthermore, its researchers have been at the leading edge of the artificial intelligence field for a long time. Yet, Supercomputer has been slow in catching up with the developments in cloud computing. Many of its products are in competition with cloud services. Its artificial intelligence products, among the first on the market and launched with much fanfare, have failed to live up to their promise. As a result, Supercomputer is now trailing the largest players in cloud computing, and it is lagging behind leading players in artificial intelligence.

Do you believe that the reasons why companies fail at innovation explained by Christensen and Overdorf (2000) apply to this case? Why/why not?