Why the Tech Industy needs Start-ups

For me the Tech industry is one of the most productive and open of all the major industries. For sure the industry can veer towards monopoly such as Microsoft and maybe Cisco but such monopolies are only temporary. This must be in part due to the fact that the Tech industry is still relatively immature but more importantly the industry is overflowing with start-up companies.

Start-ups attack the inherent stupidity generated by large company structures. Almost all major companies are bueracratic and are likely to deliberately stifle innovation. An example of this has to be HP in 1975.

Steve Wozniak worked for HP in 1975, in his spare time he developed the world’s first personal computer the Apple1. HP preferred to build calculators. Steve wasn’t underhand with HP, he informed his bosses that in his spare time he was developing a personal computer that he’d eventually like to market. They passed on his idea. When eventually HP decided they did want to build a personal computer Steve Wozniak still worked for HP yet Steve was left out of the process. Go figure, HP were developing a personal computer and employed the only man in the world that had built one and was desperate to work on the project and HP still refused.

The two Steve’s went ahead and formed Apple Computers and the rest is pretty much history. But lets not pick on HP all big tech companies are stupid and long may start-ups attack the large incumbents.

With Enterprise 2.0 the innovation cycle is starting again and Microsoft will have to buck the trend if they are to be the dominant IT company tomorrow as they are today. What will also be interesting to see if the System Integrators such as IBM, EDS, etc can also respond or will new System Integrators develop providing Enterprises’ with greater technology and reduced cost?