"Innovation Centers" - An Oxymoron?

This sign of the end - Innovation Centers....

You know when the end is near for the venture capital world when oxymoronic corporate "innovation centers" spring up in the Valley like weeds.  Haven't they learned from past experience like Xerox PARC that big corporations don't innovate?  That's for scrappy entrepreneurs who leave big companies to invent something truly revolutionary or college drop-outs (ie. Jobs, Gates or Zuckerberg)?  

We are near the apocalypse when you see quotes like these...

Silicon Valley conjures images of feisty entrepreneurs in garages and tech titans on gleaming campuses. Now traditional companies are setting up shop in the land of disruption, according to  a new study of 200 large non-tech companies that shows more than a third have established corporate innovation centers — outposts for tinkering with mobile platforms, big data and smart devices.

Today we have automotive companies like BMW, VM, GM, Ford all have innovation centers in the Valley.  AT&T, SK Telecom have centers.  Dupont, Caterpillar, Amazon, Samsung also have centers.  

What's scary - is there that much really innovation out there to be had?  Or are large corporations afraid of being usurped by the Apple's, Google's, Facebook's of the world.    

My read - in another 18 months we will all bemoan the fallacy of these "innovation centers" and they like the unicorn valuations of some VC deals and acquisitions will be fodder for Harvard Business Review case studies of poor business judgement.  

Innovation Centers do not Equal Innovation

See WSJ Digits: New Study Looks at Non-Tech 'Innovation Centers'