Nortel and the megavendor innovation myth

摘要

In early post-mortems of Nortel Networks, the criticism that the company failed to "innovate" misapprehends the current role of the world's top telecom equipment vendors. These days, major telecom suppliers survive and grow in large part not by themselves inventing new technologies, but by capitalizing on the innovations of others.rnIncreasingly, it's what their biggest customers want: The largest vendors should act as integrators and project partners, acquiring or teaming up with smaller, more innovative firms for key technologies. Nortel's strategy, and its financial problems, made it a poor fit for either role.