Sustainable Innovation II
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Light bulbs make an interesting case study on innovation. Incandescents are about to be replaced in the marketplace by florescents. Walmart is in the game as are the big manufacturers like GE.
So why is GE introducing a new, high efficiency incandescent light bulb (Aston)? Let's just blame in on "transitionary periods" (Aston) between the adoption of a new technology and the full demise of an old one. GE is able to incorporate some portions of the new technology into its old light bulb and keep the ancient production lines humming for a while longer. It makes sense - up to a point. The instant GE thinks they are winning the battle against the new technologies is the same instant that they may lose the war. Usually completely new technologies are introduced by a new company while the traditional manufacturers continue to innovate a little bit at a time - "sustainably" (Mixner) - while "new idea" manufacturers leapfrog their processes with new innovations that have a very good chance of stealing the whole market.
My suspicion is that the bulb wars aren't over yet and that a new player, say P&G, will enter the fray. They'll figure out how to market the new technology and to profitably manufacture it in a way that GE never considered. GE thinks incremental technological changes lead. Maybe marketing prowess combined with new marketing leads, actually.
We'll get to watch and see. Our family switched all our bulbs to florescents and, wouldn't you know, our entire electric bill is down by twenty per cent. In this instance, we're early adopters. As florescents move farther into general use, it will be interesting to see who sells the most of the new bulbs. GE has a chance, but so do other companies.
Aston, Adam. Last-Gasp Goods. BusinessWeek. 18 February 2008. 15.
Mixner, Jack. Winning at Innovation. http://mixnerstrategy.com/blog/2007/11/winning_at_innovation.html