I would recommend "The Innovator's Dilemma", explains really well why this happens.
In a nutshell, the argument is that successful companies fail to enter new markets because they have good management, not bad one.
In Ford's or IBM's case, a sane manager would not go invest in an unproven market, they rather maximize profits and growth on the market they are most effective at; however, this comes at a cost of missing new opportunities, which makes this a dilemma.
Successful companies could try to create little startups inside the big corporation; however, this rarely works out since you really need the entrepreneural spirit, align compensation to success and freedom without the restrictions of the parent company. The best alternative might be to create a VC arm that can serve later on as merger as acquisitions, but even then, is not guaranteed the startup would want to merge to the parent company nor that it would be the best decision.
In a nutshell, the argument is that successful companies fail to enter new markets because they have good management, not bad one.
In Ford's or IBM's case, a sane manager would not go invest in an unproven market, they rather maximize profits and growth on the market they are most effective at; however, this comes at a cost of missing new opportunities, which makes this a dilemma.
Successful companies could try to create little startups inside the big corporation; however, this rarely works out since you really need the entrepreneural spirit, align compensation to success and freedom without the restrictions of the parent company. The best alternative might be to create a VC arm that can serve later on as merger as acquisitions, but even then, is not guaranteed the startup would want to merge to the parent company nor that it would be the best decision.