Winning Through Innovation

CHAPTER 2

AMBIDEXTROUS ORGANIZATIONS: LEADING EVOLUTIONARY AND REVOLUTIONARY CHANGE

IN THE MID-1950S, VACUUM TUBES REPRESENTED roughly a $700 million market. Leading firms in the then state-of-the-art technology of vacuum tubes included such great technology companies as RCA, Sylvania, Raytheon, and Westinghouse. Yet from 1955 to 1982, there was almost a complete turnover in industry leadership, a remarkable shakeout brought on by the advent of the transistor. By 1965, new firms such as Motorola and Texas Instruments had become important players while Sylvania and RCA had begun to fade. Over the next 20 years still other upstart companies like Intel, Toshiba, and Hitachi had become the new leaders, and Sylvania and RCA exited the product class ...