I just spent a day working with Bob, the Chief Innovation Officer of a very smart large company I’ll call Acme Widgets.
Bob summarized Acme’s impediments to innovation. “At our company we have a culture that fears failure. A failed project is considered a negative to a corporate career. As a result, few people want to start a project that might not succeed. And worse, even if someone does manage to start something new, our management structure has so many financial, legal and HR hurdles that every initiative needs to match our existing business financial metrics, processes and procedures. So we end up in “paralysis by analysis” – moving slowly to ensure we don’t make mistakes and that everyone signs off on every idea (so we can spread the collective blame if it fails). And when we do make bets, they’re small bets on incremental products or acquisitions that simply add to the bottom line.” https://steveblank.com/2015/03/11/fear-of-failure-and-lack-of-speed-in-a-large-corporation/
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I’ve been working with Roberto, the Chief Innovation Officer of a diversified company I’ll call Sprocket Industries.
I hadn’t heard from Roberto in awhile and when we caught up, it was clear his initial optimism had faded. I listened as Roberto listed the obstacles to the new innovation program at Sprocket, “We’ve created innovation teams in both the business units and in corporate. Our CEO is behind the program. The division general managers have given us their support. But the teams still run into what feel like immovable obstacles in every part of the company. Finance, HR, Branding, Legal, you name it, everyone in a division or corporate staff has an excuse for why we can’t do something, and everyone has the power to say no and no urgency to make a change.” https://steveblank.com/2015/03/17/getting-to-yes-for-corporate-innovation/ I am always surprised when critics complain that the Lean Startup’s Build, Measure, Learn approach is nothing more than “throwing incomplete products out of the building to see if they work.”
Unfortunately the Build, Measure, Learn diagram is the cause of that confusion. At first glance it seems like a fire-ready-aim process. It’s time to update Build, Measure, Learn to what we now know is the best way to build Lean startups. Here’s how. https://steveblank.com/2015/05/06/build-measure-learn-throw-things-against-the-wall-and-see-if-they-work/ Startups focus on speed since they are burning cash every day as they search for product/market fit. But over time code/hardware written/built to validate hypotheses and find early customers can become unwieldy, difficult to maintain and incapable of scaling. These shortcuts add up and become what is called technical debt. And the size of the problem increases with the success of the company.
https://steveblank.com/2015/05/19/organizational-debt-is-like-technical-debt-but-worse/ I’ve spent this year working with corporations and government agencies trying to adapt and adopt Lean Methodologies. In doing so I’ve learned a ton from lots of people. I’ve summarized my learnings in this blog post, and here and here and here and put it all together in the presentation below.
https://steveblank.com/2015/08/21/innovation-50x-in-companies-and-government-agencies/ I’ve spent this year working with corporations and government agencies that are adopting and adapting Lean Methodologies. The biggest surprise for me was getting schooled on how extremely difficult it is to be an innovator inside a company of executors. https://steveblank.com/2015/08/25/why-corporate-entrepreneurs-are-extraordinary-the-rebel-alliance/ I’ve spent this year working with corporations and government agencies that are adopting and adapting Lean Methodologies. I’ve summarized my learnings in this blog post, and here, here and here and here and put it together in the presentation here.
https://steveblank.com/2015/09/09/hacking-a-corporate-culture-stories-heroes-and-rituals-in-startups-and-companies/ Implementing the Lean Startup in any company is hard. All the culture and incentives are designed for execution. Innovation at times seems like you’re swimming up hill. Now compound that level of effort with trying to put a Lean Startup culture in place in Japan.
https://steveblank.com/2015/11/17/lean-startup-in-japanese-companies/ This is the second in a series about the changing models of corporate innovation co-authored with Evangelos Simoudis. Evangelos and I are working on what we hope will become a book about the new model for corporate entrepreneurship. Read part one on the Evolution of Corporate R&D. https://steveblank.com/2015/12/01/innovation-outposts-in-silicon-valley/ How to Avoid Innovation Theater: The Six Decisions To Make Before Establishing an Innovation Outpost5/10/2016 This is the third in a series about the changing models of corporate innovation co-authored with Evangelos Simoudis. Evangelos and I are working on what we hope will become a book about the new model for corporate entrepreneurship. Read part one onthe Evolution of Corporate R&D and part two on Innovation Outposts in Silicon Valley.
https://steveblank.com/2015/12/08/the-six-critical-decisions-to-make-before-establishing-an-innovation-outpost/ |
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