Dollinger index

118 ENTREPRENEURSHIP

petitors are susceptible to a new venture’s creative imitation: those with weak spots and

those with blind spots. Firms with weak spots may have the same resources as others but

not employ them well. The new venture, without different assets but knowing how to

use the assets it does have, has an advantage. Some entrepreneurs also have blind spots—

things they do not see about the market, the competition, or themselves—that make

them vulnerable to creative imitation. Examples include:

• The “not invented here” syndrome. Firms are sometimes slow to adapt innovations or
  are reluctant to change because they did not initiate an idea themselves. This syn-
  drome makes the firms easy to target for the new venture that is quick to
  adopt the new standard. For example, the Polaroid corporation and Kodak waited
  much too long to adopt digital photography as their core technology. Polaroid is
  gone and Kodak is much diminished as a result.


• The “skim-the-market” blind spot. Here, firms that charge high prices and attempt to
  capture only the most profitable business are vulnerable. Other firms can

454 Life Sciences*

Optimyst Systems Inc.

Solar Integrated

Technologies, Inc.

MIT team (nonprofit)

Ecological Coatings

Riverbed Technology Inc.

ObjectVideo Inc.

Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd.

Alien Technology

Agitar Software Inc

QinetiQ (UK)

Freescale

Semiconductor Inc.

Biotech-Medical

Medical devices

Energy and Power

Environment

Materials

Network/Broadband

Internet

Security facilities

Security network

Semiconductors

Software

Transportation

Wireless

Low-cost gene-splicing method

New device for applying eye medicines

Solar roof system designed for large

commercial and industrial buildings

Low-cost water filtration system for

developing countries

Non-toxic, easy-to-use finishes and

coatings

Steelhead network appliances that

reduce delay between remote

offices and servers

Software that monitors multiple-

security camera feeds

Network that reads the veins in the

palms of hands as alternative to

fingerprints

Low-cost method for RFID production

Software that automatically tests

programs for bugs and flaws

Tarsier high-resolution radar system

Wireless technology for consumer

products that use “ultra wide band”

TABLE 4.2 Innovative New Product Ideas
The Wall Street Journal’s 2005 Technology Innovation Award Winners

*Grand Prize Winner

Company Name Industry Winning Product Description

SOURCE: M. Totty, “A Better Idea,” The Wall Street Journal Report: Technology, October 24, 2005. Retrieved from the Web
February 21, 2006. Http://online.wsj.com/article/SB112975757605373586.html.