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Truth #1
You’ve Got The Wrong People Working On It
Truth #1: You’ve Got The Wrong People Working On It
Identifying and deploying the right people — internally and externally — will make or break your innovation
efforts. Do you have the right people working on your innovation team? Are you sure? Would you be willing to bet
your future on it?
It shouldn’t be a perk or a rotating post or someone’s 20%-part-time job.
Truth #1: You’ve Got The Wrong People Working On It
Truth #1: You’ve Got The Wrong People Working On ItLook for the employees you’ve seen
taking calculated risks and who aren’t afraid to experiment.
If you’ve hired well, you’ll find these game-changers at all levels of your
organization. They are inquisitive, pick up new skills quickly and aren’t afraid
to rock the boat.
Truth #2
You’re Stuck In Your Own Bubble
Truth #2: You’re Stuck In Your Own BubbleYou have to shake up the gene pool and bring in smart people from the outside.
To do this you need to drink a little “startup juice.” These startup outsiders don’t have baggage, don’t know what’s
been tried before, will see your blind spots and aren’t beholden to the status
quo. They’ll come with fresh perspectives and observations that never would have
occurred to you.
Another misstep is soliciting outside expertise from within the bubble of the
same industry. Many corporations’ networks are weak and industry-dependent. Smart
problem-solvers from a completely different field can bring valuable insight.
If your company is open to this but doesn’t know where to look, a matchmaker can find
startups to partner with you.
Truth #2: You’re Stuck In Your Own Bubble
Truth #3
You’re Moving Too Slowly
Truth #3: You’re Moving Too Slowly
A lot of corporations do a great job collecting new ideas from employees or
other sources, but move too slowly, lacking the ability to experiment, iterate and
execute quickly. There are many reasons for this, such as the complexity of running a
huge company, but even large companies can imitate the rhythm of a startup.
Many corporate executives say things just can’t move very fast in their
organization, mostly because of the need for consensus. If you’re in this boat, the way decisions are made at
your company needs to change.
Truth #3: You’re Moving Too Slowly
Truth #4
You’re Incentivizing People All Wrong
Truth #4: You’re Incentivizing People All Wrong
The larger and more public the company, the more it’s probably focused on short-term or quarterly results. Executives and other leaders are expected to deliver on these cycles and press their employees
to do the same. Thus compensation tends to be based on what best serves
that rhythm.
The problem is that short-term incentives lead to short-term thinking and short-
term risk taking.
Truth #4: You’re Incentivizing People All Wrong
Source
Truth #4: You’re Incentivizing People All Wrong
Innovation, on the other hand, requires longer-term patience — and a lot of risk and failure. Innovations will not return a profit
next quarter, next year or maybe ever, but when they do hit, it can be game changing.
Companies have found a couple of ways to deal with this challenge.
Carve off their innovation teams and protect them from short-term
business cycles.1
Companies have created internal venture capital arms, buying or
partnering with startups instead of spending money on their own R&D.
2
Truth #5
You’re Using The Wrong Tools
Truth #5: You’re Using The Wrong ToolsHow do you experiment quickly, when
it takes forever to build the technology? The answer: Don’t build all the
technology yourself (or don’t build technology at all — test and iterate with
a minimal viable product process).
Look for the tools that offer fast ways to launch and learn quickly and worry
about the technology scaling only after you’ve determined the parts you really
need to scale.
Truth #5: You’re Using The Wrong Tools
Many corporations are hesitant to play with hacked-together, off-the-shelf-
software, opting instead to stop and build internal proprietary systems or wait until all of the features are “just right” before launching. In the time it takes to do that,
a thousand startups will have bought, built, or hacked together software,
launched, experimented, and repeated the cycle with real customers in the real
market.
Know which measurements matter at which stage of your project.
Truth #6
You’re Expecting A Silver Bullet. By Next Quarter.
Truth #6: You’re Expecting A Silver Bullet. By Next QuarterWhile corporations can be as slow to
turn as the Titanic, in other ways they are impatient, probably due to those
quarterly financial demands (see above). There is unfortunately no
silver bullet.
It’s not enough to only hold innovation training and expect everyone to suddenly become
“Intrapreneurs” with instant results. It’s not enough to try a single solution
and give up when it doesn’t work.
Truth #6: You’re Expecting A Silver Bullet.By Next Quarter
Corporations need to get into the habit of long-term thinking with short-term execution. It takes time and patience to launch, measure, iterate, launch, measure, iterate. Over and over and over. This “slow down to move fast”
methodology requires time, patience, and the talent to execute.
Truth #7
Your Company’s Proud Legacy Is A Blessing And A Curse
Truth #7: Your Company’s Proud Legacy Is A Blessing And A Curse
Your decades-old company may have enjoyed incredible success. It may have
defined a generation, monopolized a lucrative industry — changed the world
even. That’s the blessing part.
The dark side of legacy is when it becomes baggage, and baggage is something start-ups do not have.
Truth #7: Your Company’s Proud Legacy Is A Blessing And A Curse
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Truth #7: Your Company’s Proud Legacy Is A Blessing And A Curse
Disrupting what you’ve been so good at for so many years can be
extremely hard to do. Setting out to transform it may seem sacrilegious,
but a necessity. Use your size, resources, and relationships to act
quickly and execute.
In the end, the path to disruptive innovation can be scary, but it’s
even scarier when you’re unprepared or slow to respond.
Don’t let those ravenous, rule-breaking startups make you
another statistic in the long line of those who acted a little too late.
The choice is yours.Read More About The 7 Truths Here
Thanks for reading — We’re Econic and we give companies the spaces, skills and strategies to
accelerate innovation.
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