Steve Blank on Innovation

Steve Blank talks about innovation at ESADE’s Business School Commencement Speech. Worth reading if you are interested in innovation and how to innovate inside companies.

An excerpt:

So how does a company act like a startup in search of new business models while still continuing to successfully execute. First, management must understand that innovation happens not by exception but is integral to all parts of the firm. If they don’t, then the management team has simply become caretakers of the founders’ legacy. This never ends well. Second and maybe the most difficult is the recognition that innovation is chaotic, messy and uncertain. Not everything will work out, but failure in innovation is not cause for firing but for learning. Managers need radically different tools to control and measure innovation. A company needs innovation policies, innovation processes and innovation incentives to match those it already has for execution. These will enable firms to embrace innovation by design not by exception. Third, smart companies manage an innovation portfolio where they can pursue potential disruption in a variety of ways.

A video of the speech is also available.

[slideshare id=34049061&doc=esadecommencementspeech-140428214454-phpapp01-video]