Innovation Management:

Discovery

Experimentation

The Key To Discovery

Balanced Organization: 5 Basic Elements

Empowered Employees (Metal):

• Innovators have freedom to experiment, fail, and begin again more intelligently... More

Experimentation Defined

Experimentation means trying something new and unproven – and acknowledging that you cannot reliably predict the outcome.

Experimentation: The Key to Discovery

Discovering what works requires that you understand the casual links between inputs and outputs. When it comes to searching for cause-effect relationships, perhaps the most suitable model that emerges is the method of experimentation that allows the most efficient scientific progress, the scientific method as a model for discovery.¹

The process could begin with a brainstorming session, listing potential experimental activities.

Developing Tolerance for Mistakes

The first time you swim, you don't jump in the deep end.

Experimentation by definition is a trial-and-error process, and no one is going to be willing to undertake a trial if the risk associated with making an error is too great.

A tolerance to mistakes inevitably associated with trying anything new and freedom-to-fail environment is the key to eventual success. Behind most great companies there is a long history of mistakes and failures.² Hewlett-Packard had what must have seemed like an unending stream of product failures before finally selling a set of audio oscillators to a struggling young animator named Walt Disney to use on a harebrained movie entitled Fantasia. Sony's first product, a rice cooker, never worked properly, and its first major innovation, a tape recorder, was a complete flop in the market. (The company managed to survive its early years by stitching wires to cloth to make crude heating pads.) The first Wal-Mart store opened by Sam Walton, Wal-Mart's founder, ended nightmarishly, because of several bad business arrangements. Today, Wal-Mart is the strongest retailer in the world.

Developing The Fast-Paced Flexible Culture

By: Michael Dell, Founder of Dell Inc.

• Encourage people to take risk. Do your best to make sure that people aren't afraid of the possibility of failure, do a lot of experiments and learn from failures... More

Experimental Approach to Venture Management

References::

1. "Strategic Management", Third Edition, Alex Miller

2. "Sometimes a Great Notion", James C. Collins, Inc.

3. "Experimentation Is Easy, Learning Is Not," Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble

4. "Strategy, Execution, Innovation," Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble

5. "The Knowing-Doing Gap," Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton

6. Relentless Growth, Christopher Meyer

7. "Don't Shout, Listen," Fara Warner

8. Direct from Dell, Michael Dell with Catherine Fredman