The topic we return to again and again -- how to stimulate Innovation in medium-sized and larger companies -- was described in many forms at the recent Innovation For Jobs (I4J) conference. Here's a YouTube video discussion conducted by Martin Wasserman with Curt Carlsen (SRI CEO) and David Nordfors, organizer of the I4J conference.
See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJpep5ZnTpQ
In this youtube video, published on Apr 26, 2013, Curt Carlson and David Nordfors discuss the purpose and objectives of the Innovation for Jobs Summit, Both make the point that it is not "a given" that innovation will create as many new jobs as it will destroy. More fundamentally, the skill levels required for new roles will inexorably rise, which for a nation with critically low math skills, etc. doesn't bode well for the future.
See what you think...
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
OUR VIEW
Our View of the World
With all the talk about innovation and its key role in solving many of our corporate and national problems, we believe there is very limited understanding of what constitutes impactful innovation and how those innovations occur. Much of our national conversation almost assumes that we can wish innovation into happening by talking about it and getting people together and urging them to unleash their creative energy.
In our view, that may be a decent start but it will hardly create the in-depth understanding necessary to achieve breakthrough innovations.
Both Chuck House and Ray Price bring industrial experience and industry analysis to the challenge of R&D effectiveness. We have worked in this space collaboratively for over 30 years. We keep returning to and evolving a set of ideas and principles for R&D management and new product leadership that we believe are needed more today than ever before. These ideas and principles are based on experience, observation, reflection, and analysis that we believe is unique in this business.
First, Chuck House is recognized widely as someone who was actually responsible for achieving several breakthrough innovations. Plus, he has demonstrated ability to reflect on what is required both during and after the innovation process. He has examined innovation from individual, project, program, corporate, and national perspectives.
Second, together we have examined in depth the innovation roots of one company (Hewlett-Packard) as described in The HP Phenomenon and are in the process of examining another iconic company (Cisco). We have both written about Serial Innovators or Intrapreneurs and believe we understand who they are and what they do, and importantly, that they are critical to future breakthrough innovations.
Third, we are committed to codifying what we have learned and putting those lessons into a form that is useful to current practitioners and the next generation.
INTRAPRENEURING MISSION
MISSION:
Our mission is to claim the rightful role of R&D and New Product Development as the primary source of competitive advantage in companies world-wide.
What that means is manifest in our Goals:
- Support R&D teams in developing the perspectives and skills to lead company strategic directions;
- Support R&D teams in ensuring outstanding execution to ensure credibility among all stakeholders;
- Engage with and develop the capacities for overall R&D reviews from broadest corporate views to detailed project views.
- Challenge corporate leadership teams on the levels of investment and the expectations associated with breakthrough initiatives;
- Identify and develop potential serial innovators or intrapreneurs;
- Participate in and frame corporate and governmental policy decisions on innovation and R&D investment.
And this is how—Our Products and Services:
- R&D strategy, culture, program, and investment reviews;
- Training Programs on: Innovator Development, R&D Strategy, Opportunity Identification; Political and Influence Skills for Innovation; and R&D Strategy in context of Business Strategy.
- Keynote speeches;
- Coaching for R&D managers and potential innovators;
- Historical Analyses—to create memory and perspectives on breakthrough innovations and how they occur;
- Policy analysis and recommendation projects for corporations as well as state and national governments;
- Creation of articles, whitepapers, and books on important issues.
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
It happens to all of 'em
It happens to everyone. It has even happened to the Sand Hill Road venture capitalists.
The problem? Most ideas start small -- half-baked, my friends call 'em. Small ideas might (emphasis on "MIGHT") become nice businesses, given proper nurturing and a little luck. Most corporations can provide nurturing when they themselves are small to medium-sized. Larger corporations, though, don't have time for 'small' -- hence, they cannot do the nurturing, and the small fresh ideas wither and die.
My talk yesterday to the National Academy crowd (this was to the UIDP branch, University-Industry Development Projects) stimulated much discussion during the evening, and then again today. GE, Corning, HP, Bell Labs, 3M, Boeing, Weyerhauser, Deere, and Motorola all were cited in various conversations, with some vehemence on occasion. An Intel fellow chimed in, along with a DuPont person and a Kimberly Clark guy, and so did a Cisco senior researcher. By the time we were done, it seemed as though no company had escaped the plague.
Think of it this way: If you have a company of $200M revenue growing 10% per year, a 'new product area' that might yield $20M in two or three years is 'suddenly' 8% of your company, and might become twice that in three more years. Nice. But if your company is $20B, the new company idea must yield proportionately $2B in three years. Hard to invent a $2B business from a standing start.
Similarly, a VC firm with $500M to deploy can actually do some $5M to $10M investments -- in fact ten or fifteen of those, with adequate second round reserves, is about all that should be invested early. Manageable. But if the fund is successful, the next 'raise' might be $5B, in which case only $50M investments can be made -- leaving plenty of room for 'angels', but not much likelihood of the VC getting involved anymore in seed rounds or even alpha rounds.
Lots easier for the big firm to 'wait and see' and then buy up the successful ones (at which time they'll starve the newbie and the kids it acquired soon leave to start yet another one). Vicious circle?
The problem? Most ideas start small -- half-baked, my friends call 'em. Small ideas might (emphasis on "MIGHT") become nice businesses, given proper nurturing and a little luck. Most corporations can provide nurturing when they themselves are small to medium-sized. Larger corporations, though, don't have time for 'small' -- hence, they cannot do the nurturing, and the small fresh ideas wither and die.
My talk yesterday to the National Academy crowd (this was to the UIDP branch, University-Industry Development Projects) stimulated much discussion during the evening, and then again today. GE, Corning, HP, Bell Labs, 3M, Boeing, Weyerhauser, Deere, and Motorola all were cited in various conversations, with some vehemence on occasion. An Intel fellow chimed in, along with a DuPont person and a Kimberly Clark guy, and so did a Cisco senior researcher. By the time we were done, it seemed as though no company had escaped the plague.
Think of it this way: If you have a company of $200M revenue growing 10% per year, a 'new product area' that might yield $20M in two or three years is 'suddenly' 8% of your company, and might become twice that in three more years. Nice. But if your company is $20B, the new company idea must yield proportionately $2B in three years. Hard to invent a $2B business from a standing start.
Similarly, a VC firm with $500M to deploy can actually do some $5M to $10M investments -- in fact ten or fifteen of those, with adequate second round reserves, is about all that should be invested early. Manageable. But if the fund is successful, the next 'raise' might be $5B, in which case only $50M investments can be made -- leaving plenty of room for 'angels', but not much likelihood of the VC getting involved anymore in seed rounds or even alpha rounds.
Lots easier for the big firm to 'wait and see' and then buy up the successful ones (at which time they'll starve the newbie and the kids it acquired soon leave to start yet another one). Vicious circle?
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
PERMISSION DENIED
Always a satisfying moment when you complete a task, and SHIP THE PRODUCT. Also scary for any engineer -- will it keep running, will people like it, will it do the job, what is it missing?
The NEW PRODUCT is called "Permission Denied: Odyssey of an Intrapreneur". It essentially is MY STORY of becoming first an INTRAPRENEUR long before that word was coined, and then being asked to teach how to expand it across a large company called Hewlett-Packard at a time that HP innovation was feared to be declining.
I assert that it worked for a long time -- HP growth continued unabated for another fifteen years, becoming the fastest growing and longest sustained growth rate company of the 2,000+ companies on the NYSE board from 1958-1998. But CEOs change, and so do practices, and just like so many other large companies, contribution and innovation lost favor by comparison with consistent quarterly results and small, incremental progress steps. Sigh...
PERMISSION DENIED is a memoir of ten years at HP developing the Logic Analyzer business, with two sets of rules that will work just as well today -- sever rules for erstwhile entrepreneurs, and seven more for their managers. We'll publish these rules and the two brief chapters about them separately.
It will be available from Amazon, searchable by Google, within about eight weeks. List price $17.95.
A better (and quicker) way is via LuluPress, available today at 15% discount (plus any coupons, which can often be another 20-30%), at the following:
http://www.lulu.com/shop/charles-h-house/permission-denied/paperback/product-20948639.html;jsessionid=B0C5C3DB9190216C9217EC70FB88DB45
If you buy it, read it. And let me know your thoughts!
The NEW PRODUCT is called "Permission Denied: Odyssey of an Intrapreneur". It essentially is MY STORY of becoming first an INTRAPRENEUR long before that word was coined, and then being asked to teach how to expand it across a large company called Hewlett-Packard at a time that HP innovation was feared to be declining.
I assert that it worked for a long time -- HP growth continued unabated for another fifteen years, becoming the fastest growing and longest sustained growth rate company of the 2,000+ companies on the NYSE board from 1958-1998. But CEOs change, and so do practices, and just like so many other large companies, contribution and innovation lost favor by comparison with consistent quarterly results and small, incremental progress steps. Sigh...
PERMISSION DENIED is a memoir of ten years at HP developing the Logic Analyzer business, with two sets of rules that will work just as well today -- sever rules for erstwhile entrepreneurs, and seven more for their managers. We'll publish these rules and the two brief chapters about them separately.
It will be available from Amazon, searchable by Google, within about eight weeks. List price $17.95.
A better (and quicker) way is via LuluPress, available today at 15% discount (plus any coupons, which can often be another 20-30%), at the following:
http://www.lulu.com/shop/charles-h-house/permission-denied/paperback/product-20948639.html;jsessionid=B0C5C3DB9190216C9217EC70FB88DB45
If you buy it, read it. And let me know your thoughts!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)