Lean entrepreneurship: innovation in the modern enterprise.

Abstract

“Forget it!” “It’s just not worth it!” Phrases like this have long replaced “Eureka!” in established organizations. We have all heard the legends of two garage-dwelling masterminds who had an amazing idea that started with “Eureka!” and became an “overnight success”. If a small team, with almost no resources, experience, capital—not much of anything—can deliver such compelling value, why do we hear so often that innovation in established organizations is impossible? Mature organizations should have an enormous advantage. They have access to capital, experience, skills, channels, network, lawyers, marketers… it makes no sense that they cannot outperform those tiny teams. The truth is that both positions are inaccurate. Innovation in established organizations is not impossible, and innovation in small teams is not always easy. Thomas Edison said, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” Who would know better than he? Edison had been working on his battery technology for 16 or more hours every day, seven days a week, for five straight months when his friend, W.S. Mallory, visited his laboratory. When Mallory learned Edison had made over 9,000 attempts at the battery without a single result that showed promise, he asked, “Isn’t it a shame that with the tremendous amount of work you have done, you haven’t been able to get any results?” With a smile, Edison shot out a reply that delivers great insight into the mind of a successful inventor and innovator, “Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results! I know several thousand things that won’t work.”1 With more than 1,000 patents to his name, Edison taught the world a lot about innovation. He eventually produced his battery after more than 10,000 attempts. Some say it was tens of thousands of attempts in total before he perfected it.