I had a chance to attend this year’s Venture & Finance conference in Minneapolis, where I heard detailed presentations from the CEOs of sixteen early-stage firms, as well as “minute” pitches from many more. MHTA and MVCA jointly co-hosted this very well-formatted event, which I would highly recommend for investors and investment-minded entrepreneurs. This was […]
This is the first in a five post series on how to build a cross-functional team that delivers. If you have done your homework using the process we’ve discussed in previous newsletters, you are now ready to put your plans into place. The first step in this process is selecting your leader. An effective growth […]
Every growth leader is sooner or later faced with the challenge of turning a minority opinion into the majority viewpoint. Typically, the innovator will have had time to develop the innovation in a very small group environment, where it has become clear that it is an idea worthy of commitment from the larger enterprise. The enterprise […]
It’s there in every organization: the door between the ideation and planning stage of innovation and the operational portion of the firm. You’ll find this door in services firms, manufacturing companies and not for profits. In addition to being the gateway between the virtual and tangible, it’s also the door between profits and losses. Management […]
In my travels and speaking engagements, I am running across an increasing number of mid-cap organizations that are looking to become innovative – however, senior leadership feels they’ve “sold out” all their resources to support their existing businesses. To be clear, these are very successful firms – all with good market share and highly focused […]
I had a great dialogue with a colleague this week about the very deep and broad impact that big data is having on disruptive business model discovery. This applies to those businesses that are just forming, as well as innovation programs in larger enterprises. There is a massive change underway that is in the blind […]
In this blog, we frequently explore emerging organizational trends, with particular emphasis on those that fit with the meme of empowering small firms to have large results. Since 2008, one trend we’ve watched is the rise of the small firm and business unit and the huge influence it has had on both the parent company and the industry at large. […]
I am having more and more conversations with leaders of organizations who have fundamentally the same concern: “I have read all the literature on the “Lean Startup” movement, and find it superficial at best. I have a business with a large human resource and capex base (or regulatory constraint), and the idea of “pivoting” means […]
A recent article in the New Yorker by Jill Lepore that was then expanded upon by Kevin Roose in New York Magazine, has really struck a nerve in the world of business innovation. The line of “spirited” dialogue is taking place around the now common phrase of “disruption” and whether it should be considered a […]
The analysis is done, the decisions are made and your charter is clear. Now, you need to set up a strategic innovation team and move your organization toward a new product or services business model. What are your next moves? One of my favorite observations is that most major errors in a program are made […]
