Corporate innovation… a poem?

Mark Twain said “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.”  What about corporate innovation?  What the heck, here goes…

The business was strong and the business was fat

how could they predict who’d accomplish their mission it was more like edict, based on group intuition “I feel it’s a winner” team leaders would say “after all I’m experienced, with a sweet MBA”

The crew was inspired, action-oriented and lean Not bureaucratic drones from the corporate machine They were, in their minds, the furious and fast They didn’t want to be tainted by grinds of the past

The next years were bleak as the ventures were scaled After thrashing around, most eventually failed Some still had promise but the costs were all soaring The few deemed as “winners” were, frankly, quite boring

Now that the money and tears have been spent and brave folks’ careers have all taken a dent, the business is growing but technically speakin’ the growth rate is slowing and executives are freakin’