Oct 09 2013
“How Verizon Is Playing Nice To Get Inside Your Future Smoke Detector”
As you probably know by now, I tend to write about technology and cell phone trends – today is no different. This article caught my eye on Forbes, and I just had to add my two cents.
Now, I’m aware that, as a Canadian, my perspective of Verizon is a bit skewed – they definitely do not have a great brand name here, except for the quirky commercials showing their coverage maps. We can establish that Verizon is most definitely one of the top players of the cell phone market in the US. Another significant aspect of the US cell phone market I need to point out to the Canadian layman is that it has significantly less entry barriers; however, certain phones are only available on certain carriers, and carriers have the power to charge up to $100 more or less than their competitors. Keep this in mind. Great, now we can begin the discussion.
Quick facts:
- Verizon has been developing an ‘Innovation Centre’, targeted towards companies looking to invest in new and unique technologies, for over 2 and a half years. The goal: “augmenting Verizon’s role as a connectivity pipe for more machines.”
- Re-opened its San Fran Innovation Centre just today
- Has worked with about 300 companies and accrued costs of over $10 million
The bottom line – and Forbes words this excellently – so I will just quote the article and save us all a bit of trouble:
“Verizon is capitalizing on a trend for large companies to launch projects with the word “Innovation” in the title and end up doing wildly divergent things.”
So, why is Verizon doing this? Recently (in the past 3 years or so), there has been an overwhelming trend seen in ‘green’ corporate culture. Companies, especially publicly traded companies, are quickly realizing how an environmentally friendly AND innovative company culture appeals to consumers – yes, their employer brand DOES matter. A prime example would be Dove’s new marketing campaigns geared towards womens’ self esteem. Google strongly emphasizes the fact that employees are allocated flex hours, solely dedicated to working on their “own projects”.
Many players in the cell phone market are following suit. Earlier this year, Samsung also created an ‘Open Innovation Centre’. Companies are largely and blindly investing in start-ups, planning to buy them outright. This also fulfills their need to constantly fuel growth – how else are companies of their size meant to continue to make money for shareholders? (I’m finding there are more and more problems with this issue. But, I digress.)
At this point – I should say the title of the article is a bit misleading. Verizon is, in no way, attempting to breach the privacy of households (that would be a whole ‘nother can of worms); its plan is to swallow all start up tech companies in the hopes that their products will eventually connect to Verizon’s expansive network. The bottom line is this: Verizon is wrongly branding their planned acquisitions of start-up companies as ‘supporting innovation’.
It saddens me to see companies taking hopeful intangibles such as ‘innovation’ and ‘green culture’ and modelling a formula for reaching these goals – when the reason they are so valued by customers is that true innovation does not come out of a corporate toolbox. True innovation cannot be created.