Why We Think it’s Beneficial to NTT
In the US the model of innovation into large companies has been augmented
- large companies still have good internal research labs (Microsoft, Compaq, IBM, AT&T, Lucent, Xerox, etc.)
- but, they also buy many small companies
Small companies are a major source of innovation
- there is a much stronger tradition of entrepreneurial small companies in the US than in Japan or Europe
- but, it may be hard for foreign companies to absorb small US companies into their main stream
But where does the innovation come from?
- largely it is from research students coming out of the major research universities: MIT, CMU, Stanford & Berkeley
NTT gets direct access to these students and their ideas at the pre-competitive stage