"Knowledge flows easily within a `skunkworks`," said Brown, referring to loosely set up associations within a workplace, purpose-built to foster innovation. "But it might take `operational judo` to get it to flow to other parts of a company.
Brown points to "an inherent tension between the creation of new ideas and authorised processes. "Skunkworks have a hard time reintegrating their inventions back into the company." In other words, knowledge flow is to blame, especially in larger organisations.
Brown revealed that PARC inventions were often secretly shown to customers first, in order to learn from them. "Once we got customers behind the idea, we unleashed them on the other parts of the company. We knew an idea from a customer would have greater credibility than one that came directly from us."
Brown admits to having far more respect for marketers once he ventured beyond pure engineering. "We began to realise that these guys were bringing as much creativity to the table as we did." Interestingly, he points to industry clusters as one source of innovation. "When companies in a single industry cluster together, knowledge that gets stuck inside one company can leak out to others where it may flow more freely."
In that way, the site states, Apple was able to make very good use of Xerox PARC inventions. It`s all about knowledge flow.
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