Taking small risks and moving on

How the Ivy League Is Killing Innovation

Process-driven companies that trust professors to teach innovation are missing out, at least in part, on the real deal

By G. Michael Maddock and Raphael Louis Vitón

Bloomberg BusinessWeek, April 12, 2011

“Constant experimentation is the key to innovation success. Get the product out there. Learn from the market reaction. Adjust as necessary. As we wrote about before, you may look at your innovation team and notice that nothing revolutionary is hitting the market. If so, chances are they feel afraid of failing. After all, if nothing is launched, nothing can fail, and therefore they can’t be blamed. From a personal survival point of view, within a corporation it is better to kill an idea than to launch it. Likely they are hiding behind the academic process that is supposed to fix the problems. You must demand small, controlled launches that allow your teams to learn, build courage, and taste success.”