It seems innovative talent just can’t resist the lure of a tech giant
An interesting article in The Wall Street Journal, Is Big Tech’s R&D spending actually hurting innovation in the U.S.?, echoes a recent study showing that Big Tech is increasingly coopting innovative talent at a time when its own productivity is falling sharply. The lure of joining a tech giant that collects them as if they were Pokemon cards means young innovators are less and less likely to start their own company or join small startups. And while the salaries of these employees increase by an average of 12.6% when they join one of these big tech companies, there is a fall of between 6% and 11% in their productivity, reflected in patents and other indicators of innovation.
The fact that Big Tech, an entire generation’s object of desire, is becoming a black hole for innovation is a big problem. The WSJ talked to innovators who joined large technology companies, either by signing up or after their startup was bought out, and who then found themselves hemmed in by cultures that made it very difficult for them to develop new ideas.
The study’s findings reflect what we already know about how Big Tech works: after consolidating a business model, the tech giants tend to make relatively few changes to it. As with traditional companies, as they grow, their incentives shift away from innovation and they focus…
