ve away from (in some cases even abandon) their original core business and into a business area which offered greater opportunity.
However, the fact that so few companies are able to do this successfully suggests that there are considerable obstacles which existing companies must overcome; these obstacles do not confront new organizations. Markides identifies four such obstacles: the inertia of success, identifying a viable opportunity, fear of failure in the new venture, and communicating the new strategy to all employees (1998, p. 33).
The inertia of success is a seductive obstacle because companies are lured into a sense of security based on success. Revenue streams can be impressive and markets (and profitability) may even be expanding. It is difficult for managers at such organizations to be comfortable considering other strategies when the current one is working so well. Markides argues that such complacency results in crisis management when changes do occur in the market, and instead suggests that companies create their own "positive" crises to stimulate controlled change rather than forcing the company to react to changes in the market (1998, p.ß34).
When determining the direction that the innovation must take, companies need to return to the who-what-how questions that all companies address. By looking at these questions in new ways, perhaps even with new managers, companies can bring an entrepreneurial spirit to bear that would otherwise be lacking (Markides, 1998, p. 35).
No strategy is guaranteed to produce positive results, and managers in existing companies may be paralyzed by the fear that a new strategy will not succeed. Many new companies which intended to provide brilliant new strategies to the market fail, and the costs can be higher for existing companies with their many shareholders. From this standpoint, companies must rely on their expertise and on the evaluation of innovations as they are pre...