Ninja Innovation by Gary Shapiro

Author:Gary Shapiro
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2012-11-26T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Innovate or Die

THE NINJA GOES INTO battle with few weapons and few resources. He cannot rely on greater numbers or superior firepower because the enemy will have him beat in spades on both counts. He holds no hope for rescue or mercy if things go wrong and he is captured. Of all the rules that governed the use of ninjas in feudal Japan, one was paramount: Spies would not be tolerated. Each operation had only two outcomes: you either completed it or you died in the effort.

But the ninja was not without advantages. In a one-on-one fight, the ninja had the edge with superior training. If trapped, the ninja had the skills and the tools to escape. Above all, the ninja was a master of his surroundings. Only in very rare circumstances would a ninja find himself in a hopeless situation. He had the cunning, creativity, training, and tools to use anything and everything to his advantage. The ninja might make mistakes, but he would not be defeated by them. The ninja had no choice but to live by the words innovate or die.

Following the 2008 financial meltdown, “innovate or die” was the same simple message I had for my members. As an industry, we could either be dragged down with the rest of the economy or we could do what no industry does better: We could innovate. If we didn’t, then we would have accepted that the situation was hopeless. I’m proud to say that almost all CEA members innovated, and, as I pointed out in the introduction, the U.S. economy in many ways has been propped up by the consumer electronics industry.

Admittedly, to observe that an industry like consumer electronics must innovate is a bit like saying the oil industry needs to produce gasoline. It’s what we do. Our customers expect remarkable new products and ideas from us—and at a pace that few other industries can rival. We tend to forget, but only in the last twenty years or so has innovation in the CE industry proceeded at such a hectic pace. The VHS platform had a run of about thirty years before the mass adoption of the DVD player. That’s nothing compared to the seventy years that the vinyl record dominated the music industry until the coming of the CD in the 1980s. As for printed books, well, I doubt they’ll ever disappear—certainly not like the VHS tape—but Amazon’s announcement in 2011 that its e-book sales had surpassed printed-book sales was surely a turning point.1 Meanwhile, our lives are dominated by new technologies—smart phones, social networks, mobile apps—that did not even exist ten years ago.

But now, no one would place a bet that DVDs will last as long as the VHS tape. Indeed, DVD sales have declined for seven consecutive years, as consumers turn more to streaming platforms like Netflix.2 The CD is already in a museum, and the product that helped put it there might soon be too. After peaking in 2008 with 22.7 million in sales, Apple’s iPod has been on a downward trajectory.

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