Innovation among Japanese telecoms in the Internet era : a comparison based on analysis of successful U.S. companies

The worldwide telephone industry is in transition-from traditional telecom service provider to broadband service provider. NTT, Japan's leading telecom company, must establish a new source of revenue that will compensate for declining income from fixed-phone service. The company needs to implement innovation in the organization in order to create a competitive breakthrough service while it struggles to be more efficient in the existing telecom service. In the U.S., several companies have successfully implemented innovations. I analyzed IBM, GE, 3M, and Procter & Gamble (P&G), mainly from an organizational perspective. IBM, a multinational computer technology and consulting company, is a good example of a company that successfully changed its business model from a traditional mainframe computer maker to an IT solutions provider. GE, 3M, and P&G also have produced satisfactory financial results by implementing an innovative culture into their large organizations. The key success factors of those three companies should provide some important suggestions for NTT. I also surveyed successful innovative companies from a process perspective. IDEO is a good example. Taking advantage of the strong leadership of its founder, IDEO produces many innovative designs for products and services. The company has a strong platform and culture that encourages innovation. After surveying these successful U.S. companies, I discuss how NTT could implement some of the innovative elements of those successful companies. Finally, I discuss several issues that are unique to the telecom industry: among them, regulation, bureaucracy, and restructuring. It is my hope that this thesis will help those who are in large organizations and struggling to bring innovation to the company.

Department dc:contributor.department

Sloan School of Management.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• Takei, Nobukatsu

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Michael A. Cusumano.

• Sloan School of Management.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/44436

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/44436