Tag Archives: Innovation

Effectuation – The best theory of entrepreneurship you actually follow, whether you’ve heard of it or not

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University of Virginia Darden professor Saras Sarasvathy’s groundbreaking 2001 paper “What Makes Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurial” finally gained some widespread recognition when Vinod Khosla posted a copy on his website with some personal notes, one of which read: “First good paper I’ve seen”. Professor Sarasvathy developed the Effectuation theory of entrepreneurship after exhaustively interviewing 27 serial entrepreneurs.  Her research findings greatly advanced

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Inhibitors to Entrepreneurship behavior at large companies – Part II (Welcome to Battle School!)

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In Part I of this blog, I covered five common inhibitors to corporate entrepreneurship, namely: Lack of time Lack of connections Lack of CE skills (& context to learn them) Lack of executive visibility & resources Flawed risk/reward ratio and or misconceptions In Part II I introduce a programmatic example on how to deal with the above challenges – An

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Inhibitors to Entrepreneurship behavior at large companies (Part I)

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Companies realize that they don’t innovate – their employees innovate.  Companies are thus earnestly preaching: ‘Innovation is everyone’s job”!  While the employees themselves want to become more innovative and entrepreneurial, they face five major structural inhibitors in attempting to do so (that only the most gifted, networked and experienced corporate entrepreneurs can overcome – unfortunately, there aren’t enough of them

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Strategic Planning for New Ventures. Part III: The Strategic Choice Canvas

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Based on your assessment of the current situation facing your startup or innovation project discussed in my last blog post, the Gut Check (including a good grasp of the past and changing conditions ahead), it is time to put your core idea and inertia through the strategy ringer, or a set of decision-making criteria that should improve your prospects for

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Think Molecule, Not Atom

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When formulating a new venture, consider the bond between invention and business model discipline – aka, Innovation.  The birth of the Ford Motor Company story serves as a prime example. How many of you have ever heard of James Couzens?  Without James Couzens, you probably would not have heard of Henry Ford.   James Couzens completed Henry Ford. Ford, the visionary

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