Making innovation work in large businesses

Interesting Forbes article on the problems Microsoft faces. It is making good money, but is failing to grow. Why? It is failing to execute on innovation. The solution? A better working relationship between the innovators and those running the traditional business:

As with any partnership, its success can only be built on mutual respect. Innovation leaders must recognize, first of all, that they need the performance engine. Almost all innovations inside established companies build on existing assets. Second, they must realize that conflict in the partnership is normal. It is not the result of laziness or instinctive resistance to change; it is the result of good people doing good work, trying to make the performance engine run as effectively as possible. Leaders of the performance engine, meanwhile, must recognize that no performance engine grows–or even survives–indefinitely. Therefore each side depends on the other.

Lessons for traditional publishing companies here, I feel…