The Arc of the Enterprise IV

Existing resource can be the lever for the creation of new resources, but they can also be an impediment to innovation.

The peril of a potent resource position is that success then arrives without careful ongoing strategy work.  Own the original patent on the plain-paper photocopier, or own the Hershey's brand name, or the Windows operating system franchise, or the patent on Lipitor, and there will be many years during which profits will roll in almost regardless of how you arrange your business logic.  Yes, there was inventive genius in the creation of these strategic  resources, but profits from those resources can be sustained, for a time, without genius.  

Existing resource can be the lever for the creation of new resources, but they can also be an impediment to innovation.  Well led firms must, from time to time, cast aside old resources, just as they retire obsolete machinery. Yet strategic resources are embedded deeply within the human fabric of the enterprise, and most firms find this a difficult maneuver.

ACTION POINT: Are their old resources or obsolete machinery, process or tools that are impeding innovation?