Innovation Inc.: Introducing a new newsletter from Business Insider that goes inside the digital transformations at the world’s largest companies
Business Insider launched Innovation Inc. in January, a newsroom-wide effort to catalog the digital transformations under way at the world’s largest and most prominent companies.
While we have been planning this series for a while, it took on a whole new, urgent dimension as the coronavirus pandemic spread across America and disrupted how business is done.
The middle of a global pandemic may seem like an odd time to launch a newsletter. But remarkable stories of innovation are increasingly apparent underneath all the chaos. And what was a topic some companies simply paid lip service to is now critical to the survival of most organizations.
So welcome to the Innovation Inc. newsletter! To stay informed on all of the disruption ahead, here’s what you need to know:
- Have a tip to or feedback to share? You can reach me at [email protected].
My colleagues and I have long been following corporate America’s digital transformation efforts — from how Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella turned the tech giant of yesteryear into a $1 trillion software behemoth to how energy titan Shell has shifted to place its bets on start-ups.
For the past few weeks, however, I’ve seen my beat take on an entirely new meaning because of the coronavirus — perhaps the greatest disruption to the world economy in a century.
Now, innovation is a matter of survival. Digital investments, for example, are required to ensure networks remain operational during the unprecedented shift to remote work as a last-ditch attempt to halt the spread of the virus.
That’s an advantage to those already farther along in their transformations.
Organizations that were already knee deep in their own digital overhauls are realizing the importance of those efforts and are doubling down on those initiatives. And those who haven’t been as quick to invest could find themselves falling farther behind — a potentially difficult turnaround given that many IT budgets are getting slashed.
This wedge between the “digitally affluent” and the laggards may have ramifications that last for a long time afterward — and a storyline we will definitely be following.
A great example of that is my interview with Honeywell CEO Darius Adamczyk, who went into detail on the steps the 114-year-old company took to pivot from an industrial giant known for, say, thermostats, to a software powerhouse that is challenging the likes of Google and IBM.
The coronavirus outbreak is not only driving disrupting all of our regular lives. It is also going to deepen the chasm between the firms that are serious about their digital overhauls and those just getting started, as Jonathan Lang, an analyst with global research firm IDC, told me last week.
This pandemic is unprecedented in modern times, and so is the innovation required to stay ahead of it. We hope you’ll join us as the story unfolds.
And to send you off this week, here are some of my favorite stories over the past month: