Corporate IT kills innovation

I probably should start by explaining what is Corportate IT:   by Corporate IT I mean engineering shops that work to support a business where the software is not the business.  An IT shop in an insurance company would be a good example.  They write and maintain software but the company is a consumer of the work product, not selling it.

Someone posted on social media that most software engineering roles these days are maintainence work instead of greenfield work.  Interesting timing, as I was just thinking about that as well.  And it fits right in with what I was thinking.  Most innovation does not come from a Corporate IT shop.   Sure, sometimes they build new or better products.  But for the most part, corporate IT shops are focused on keeping the existing system going--chase down a bug, update something performing slowly, keep software in compliance with legal and software.  That is all maintance.

Most innovations come from start up companies--at least thats been my experience.   I used to work for a company that created new software solutions for ATMs (you know those magical machines that "give out" money).   The innovation was adding interactive, live video to ATMs so customers could work directly with a bank rep right there at the ATM.  At the time, this was pretty ground breaking.  We continued to push that innovation into virtual tellers, so to speak, on mobile devices, carrying over the live video as a key differentiator in product offerings.  Eventually, this start up company was bought by a big huge corporate company good at selling and making markets for stuff.   After that, the work changed from creating new features to making sure the product could be used in enterprise (aka large banks) and so on.  No longer innovating stuff, right!

There seems to be a decline in software innovations.  Not sure why that is.  Maybe we've reached peak tech and, since its now everywhere, there just isn't anything new to create.  I do not agree with that entirely but I am wondering what happened to roar of start up companies.

I would love to hear your thoughts.