Customer Reviews

The Slingshot Syndrome: Why America's Leading Technology Firms Fail at Innovation

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Unlike business books that simply preach to corporations to change their cultural ways, Reid Watts proves why the culture of a startup is not transplantable to an established corporation. With the author's diversified background in corporate positions covering 25 years as well as his current role in venture capital, he gives his insights and prescriptions from the vantage point of a experienced practitioner rather than that of the consultants or professors who usually write this type of book. He shows convincingly why the inability to innovate and commercialize new technologies has caused corporations such as Lucent and Xerox to disappoint investors and degenerate enormously in value. Instead of the usual culture-changing approach, which does not work, Watts proposes structural changes that effectively combine the strengths of the startup, with its agility and speed, and the strengths of the established corporation. By doing that, the author argues that the current creative destruction cycle in the high tech can be tamed, with everyone obtaining the benefits of rapid trechnological innovation without the current turmoil we are experiencing. The large corporation may be afraid of what the startup can do in terms of commercializing new technologies with speed that it cannot match, but the truth is, they both need each other to survive. A must-read business book for anyone from the CEO level to the first year business student who is interested in the future of the high tech industry.

This book is an eye-opener. Watts presents a plausible and well-supported analysis of why mature established companies find themselves unable to create and develop disruptive technology innovations, and why startups often succeed. He goes on to propose approaches and models for effectively managing these dynamics.

I strongly recommend Clayton Christensen's "The Innovator's Dilemma" as required preparatory reading. Without that background, readers may not fully understand the critical importance and significance of the problems that Watts is describing.

"The Slingshot Syndrome" presents powerful and thought-provoking analysis and ideas, and I strongly recommend it. It is unfortunate, therefore, that the book's presentation leaves much to be desired, and I personally found that shortcoming very distracting. The book would have benefitted greatly from the involvement of a ghostwriter or collaborator. The work has a disorganized feel and the material is repetitious. The author tries to illustrate his points with a couple of lengthy fictional stories, and although it seems like a good idea it frankly doesn't work. The stories have a corny flavor and the illustrative intent is too diffuse.

Much of the prose is lumpy and awkward, and much of the rest pedestrian at best. Indeed, the copy-edit process seems to have been skipped entirely, allowing frequent malapropisms ranging from the common (for example, "principal" for "principle," "council" for "counsel") through the creative (such as "precedence" for "precedents") to the almost comical (such as "duel" for "dual," "roll" for "role").

However, presentation problems aside, the book is well worth the effort.

I probably would not have given this book a chance at its cover price of $15.95. I did not know who Reid McRae Watts was and the title seemed cryptic to me at first. I never really thought of "America's Leading Technology Firms" as truly failing at innovation. I did not hold them deeply responsible for stock collapses during the "dot-com collapse," assuming that it was a bad period for all investors and companies.

This book indirectly paints a different picture of the media's coverage of the "dot-com collapse" although the author strays away from discussing the bubble burst. For good reason, of course: Reid McRae Watts is a venture capitalist and venture capitalism is synonymous with the dot-com failures. I don't want to give away the plot and potentially discourage someone from buying the book. However, what Watts essentially says is that mature corporations with world-wide sales forces and world-wide distribution channels destroyed themselves by protecting their main products in favor of newer technologies. He proposes an interesting solution and something I will probably account for when I think about investing in stocks. I won't tell you his solution here.

You should want to know that Watts position is supported by many footnotes referencing other publications from famous authors as well as anecdotes from his early career experiences working in Research & Development for Bell Labs. The part of the book I enjoyed most was Watts reflecting on his youth at Bell Labs without getting off-topic.

The first five chapters of the book probably make buying the book worth it for folks who like to hear about the 1970s and 1980s of the computer industry.

The book probably could be a lot more shorter, but Watts has a "Summary" section at the end of each chapter which makes refreshing what you learned -- even well after you read the chapter -- easy.