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"Startups"
This is a repost of Steve Faktor’s original Forbes article
My business is helping companies speed up innovation – often by partnering with tech startups. A wilder ride compared to my days leading innovation at Fortune 100 companies. But lately, I’ve experienced enough déjà vu to get a platinum medical marijuana card. Maybe you’ve heard of “multiple discovery”. The theory says that similar inventions happen simultaneously because of converging technologies and common problems. Among mobile payments and loyalty startups, easy money is fueling what I call “marginal discovery” – slight variations on similar ideas. For every truly outstanding startup, five or six have a faulty premise, fail to solve a problem, or choose “cool” over simple. To protect the innocent, I’ve turned my list of frustrations into a set of “rules” to help budding entrepreneurs and experienced executives steer clear of the weed dispensary…
This is a re-post of Steve Faktor’s original article on Linkedin Today (via LinkedIn’s INfluencer program)
Lately, several executives and aspiring entrepreneurs have asked me the same terrifying question: “What should I do next?” I’m not sure how I became Dr. Phil for anxious professionals, but suddenly I’m fighting the urge to grow a bushy, un-ironic mustache. Maybe writing a book about the future of US innovation makes people assume you have all kinds of answers… But everyone seeks a slightly different answer. Some aspire to build the next Facebook. Others are deciding what product to launch. A few just want to break free from their desks – and possibly, set them on fire. Today, I’d like to share the advice I gave them – minus the smudged napkin drawings and fire safety lecture.
This is a repost of Steve Faktor’s original Forbes article
I’ll be first to admit that I’m a reforming “innovation” trollop. I’ve thrown the word around too lightly, at any old sailor. I need a hot shower and a Brillo pad… What’s so bad about “innovation”? It doesn’t mean much…and maybe never did. Today, we use it to describe an iPhone newsreader app and the reinvention of space travel by SpaceX. That’s more range than Meryl Streep. My business is about creating great products and services, so I look for great tech partners. Some are startups led by brilliant entrepreneurs, bursting with optimism and 5-Hour Energy. As they describe their app, game, or web service, their words scream Johnny Depp, but the reality is a bit more Judah Friedlander. No shame in that, but I sometimes wonder how we could get these brilliant minds to work on meatier problems. My concern isn’t for them, but for us. The US needs jobs and as I wrote in Econovation, the big numbers still come from physical, capital-intensive businesses. Here are three ways we can help make brilliant minds deliver bigger results.
Just because I’m an “innovation guy”, doesn’t mean that I can: 1) wear red underwear over blue tights like Superman or 2) try to reinvent everything. The art of innovation is also knowing when and how to use what already exists. I was recently advising a startup founder with a grand vision for a new kind of tech education for corporate employees. I agreed that he was onto something…but he was trying to slice strawberries with a chainsaw. (I prefer an axe.) His efforts were stalling as he wooed major players in the category for support. Having worked with lots of large companies, I know getting one company to buy in can be slower than tweezing Alec Baldwin smooth; getting multiples is like re-implanting each follicle. So this entrepreneur was stuck with a big idea that might take forever to coordinate and millions to build. He also lacked a clear plan for getting customers…whose demand for the product was far from guaranteed. Yes, he had it all. There was a better way – and it meant thinking small.
Here are a few things I suggested to him (at least the ones I can share):
This is an abridged version of the original article I wrote for Business Insider.
In a forgotten corner of the White House sits a huge, Parthenon-shaped cake. Nearby, Ben Bernanke and Timothy Geithner are dancing like Zorba and dripping with hummus. Why all the glee? It’s because Europe just gave the U.S. an amazing gift – the gift of greater incompetence. I call this glitch in time ‘America’s Last Stimulus’. It may be our last chance to stimulate growth, kick-start our export engine, and make sure every European gets a big, wet kiss at the airport.
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This week’s episode of Ideafaktory Radio is the first of a three part series with Forbes contributor and Social Enterprise guru Mark Fidelman. This wasn’t even meant to be recorded! Mark deviously taped our private conversation on his iPhone and captured the two of us brawling over the future of apps, among other issues that keep geeks up at night. In this episode, you’ll learn:
- Why you don’t need to motivate people who work at MTV
- Why only rich, hot people should go into journalism
- How successful apps get pimped
- Why Twitter and Facebook might be #JumpingTheShark #LOL #OMG
- Why I don’t care that apps are dying as Mark nurses app developers back to health, like Mother Theresa.
- How competition cleanses everything except financial services
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast here and visit ideafaktory for more daring ideas for innovators.
Coming soon: Gregory Essau, a home builder turned sustainable economy missionary.
Now that I’m mired in the startup world, I thought I’d have a little fun with pictures.
So what do you think?
Hyper-connected tech blogger Robert Scoble, recently wrote about treating startups more critically. Robert found himself meeting with lots of crappy, over-funded, digital startups that desperately need more time in the oven, an intervention by Dr. Drew, or more likely, Dr. Kevorkian. (My words, not Robert’s.) Not only am I seeing the same things, but I’d take it a step further. I believe this current crop of entrepreneurs might actually be hurting America - and perverting the very idea of innovation in the same way Beyonce’s Run The World is like kicking Aretha Franklin in the ribs…repeatedly. All is not lost. There are ways to take advantage of this situation, though it’s way too late to save this song:
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