Issue with startups is that because of the short-term pressures, anything that can be done in one quarter has to be highly predictable in order to make future commitments based on its results. This means there is less innovation than you may expect.
Know how to manage growth before it happens.
Alfred Sloan from General Motors (GM) discovered “the key to co-ordinated control of decentralized operations” which allows to forecast demand for products after almost ran out of cash in 1921. Start ups have a difficulty that it is impossible to produce an accurate forecast.
A modern company pursues a portfolio of smart experiments and contains the cost of failure by investing more in the ones that work, using a system of metered funding that increases as success is proved. If you are able to have distinct groups of people in your work and get a select few to focus on a clearly defined, high risk component of work they can act in a startup way.
Try to find entrepreneurs within your existing establishment. An entrepreneurs is trying things with good intent, as opposed to when renegade who is trying things for the sake of being challenging. If managing a large company and a subsection of the company are trying the high risk startup way method it important to give them a very clear budget to manage so scope creep does not occur .
Remember to focus on what your customer’s needs – in future you need their buy in!
Test leap of faith assumptions by asking the customers, these are the claims in a business plan that will have the greatest impact on its success or failure so test these. Don’t get overwhelmed by analysis paralysis.
Liked the example of a prototype with a cardboard phone to see how people would use it. Innovation Accounting (IA) is a way of evaluating progress when all the metrics typically used in an established company (revenue, customers, ROI, market share) are effectively zero. It provides a framework of chained leading indicators, each of which can help predict success.
