Abstract: The S&P 500 isn't what it used to be: in 1930, companies on that list could expect to remain there for 75 years; today the average tenure is 15 years. In 1950, profits earned by the S&P 500 companies was 18% of US GDP; in 2000 it was only 6%. The very concept of innovation as a competitive advantage is increasingly contradicted by financial and economic metrics, not to mention a wide range customer surveys. A operational strategy identified by John Seely Brown and John Hagel in 2005 argues that the only sustainable edge is to leverage innovation /from/ the edge, a model that Red Hat has been successfully practicing since day one. This talk will explain how Red Hat operationalizes the strategy presented by Hagel and Brown, how Red Hat's outstanding financial performance is predicted by this model, and how Red Hat's basic product--IT Value--is essential to restoring the S&P 500 to economic and competitive sustainability.

Short Bio: Michael Tiemann is the co-founder of Cygnus Support, the first company to provide commercial support for open source software, and wrote the original GNU C++ compiler. Cygnus was also one of the first companies to commercially support Kerberos, a network authentication and security library designed to work in untrusted environments. Michael became an executive at Red Hat when Red Hat acquired Cygnus in January 2000. As Vice President of Open Source Affairs, Michael advises leaders in the private and public sectors about Open Source strategy and technology. Michael serves on a number of boards, including the Open Source Initiative and the GNOME Foundation, and provides financial support for the Free Software Foundation and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.