Big Companies Have Other Abilities

"Define innovation. I think the broad term innovation hamstrings this question. Large med device companies innovate in different ways than small companies. They innovate in terms of systems, acquisition, and market consolidation. In this sense it's not difficult for them to innovate."

"Why is it so hard to innovate at big medical device companies? I'm an entrepreneur. A small business guy. I can't afford to take your question or any situation at face value. 1) You are assuming that it IS HARD. Is that the case? Hard? Or Rare? Or Unsuccessful? Or Innovate vs. Improve? 2) Is it just big medical device companies or any or all big companies? 3) Is it any harder for a big company than a small company? Or are there many more small companies than large companies? 4) Is innovation defined as new ideas? Or as major projects? I mean, if it is a small project that creates what is called innovation, then a large company has no advantages (due to their bigness) that small companies don't. (If a song can be composed on an electronic keyboard or a guitar, then a composer can 'write a song' without being part of a full or established orchestra. And orchestras, think big companies, have very professional performers, not composers. But a one man band can create a tune, even orchestrate it for a larger group, and play it as that one man band. But the full commercialization of that tune does require a bigger view. Maybe more instruments, a better voice, and those a big company has. But it also requires producers, marketers and everything else a big company has.) So a big company may have zero or very few innovators or positions for innovators as a percentage of their total bigness. That is: a small company has a much higher ratio of innovators to employees than big companies. And by the time you get enough small companies to equal the number of employees of a big company's payroll, you don't get the same ratio of innovators to employees. 5) And then a big company that initiates one HUGE projects that only a large company has the resources to attempt is not an option for one or multiple small companies combined. So big companies are involved in the big work that small companies can't do. 6) As a small guy, I often use the analogy of being going saltwater fishing in a little boat with one or two guys. Chances are I can always catch fish. If there are no tuna, I'll jig for mackerel; if the water is rough, I can maneuver in around the rocks. I can change my bait, my location, my approach. But a 'big boat' either a commercial fisher with nets or a 'cattle boat' with a couple of dozen guys who paid good money to catch tuna, don't have the option to change their focus and have to work hard to satisfy the initial goals of the trip. Goals that were established long ago and agreed upon."

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[Image by Klaus - Flickr: Wild Platypus 4, CC BY-SA 2.0]