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Changing Corporate and National Cultures
I was reading an article in Newsweek entitled "Not Made in Japan". The article detailed the challenges that the corporate, educational, and cultural structure(s) in Japan are facing when trying to compete in a world that is driven not by incremental improvement, but rather by innovative leaps. The article details the failure of DoCoMo to leverage it's leadership position in the Japanese market and in handset technology into the rest of the world and the loss of capitalization it has faced in this failure. It further discusses how Sony, originator of the Walkman, lost theMP3 market (even in Japan) to the Apple iPod through a lack of innovation in interfaces and design.
In reading the article I could not help but see the similarities to corporate structures that impede innovation. Stove-pipe organizational structure, hierarchical management chains and anti-rewards for risk and innovation were detailed as critical barriers in Japan, as they can be in a large enterprise.
While we continue to have some (maybe more than some at times) of these issues in Nortel, I find that there are active efforts at many levels to transform the organization and culture to enable the rapid innovative thoughts and delivery necessary to compete in the new marketplace. We are investing more in incubation, in common engineering, and in driving integration across the organizational boundaries. The oft referred to "atom" chart of the key segments Nortel has leadership in; enterprise/carrier, wireless/wired, applications/infrastructure, and common services and solutions is a way of showing that the big challenges will only be solved by breaking down our traditional barriers, both within our organization, but also in the market. 
The advent of Hyperconnectivity, driven by the arrival of Metro Ethernet, IP everywhere, 4G networks, and Unified Communications is blurring the lines in our customers minds (and devices, tools, locations, etc.), so we have to begin to think across those boundaries. John Roese has had a significant impact in breaking down the walls and driving this transformation. He really gets the challenge that innovation is different than incremental improvement (both are important, but one is transformational, both for customers and for us).
Having been involved in driving some of those transitions, I resonate with the article and it's premise that the challenge facing Japan is huge, if not monumental. Change can only happen with strong leadership and a maniacal focus to innovation and transformation. Reward has to go to risk and failure as well as success. We have to remember that as we move forward as a company to never let organization and culture get in the way of rewarding innovative thought and those who take the risk of seizing cross-organizational opportunities. While we are not yet perfect (who is?), however, the realization that change is essential is a critical first step.
