What metrics work for measuring innovation progress? It turns out the measurements are very different for small and large companies.

SHOW LINKS:

- Burn down charts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burn_down_chart

- Burn up charts: https://www.modernanalyst.com/Careers/InterviewQuestions/tabid/128/ID/3433/What-is-a-Burn-Up-Chart-and-how-does-it-differ-from-a-Burn-Down-Chart.aspx

Find us at http://jimeuchner.com/ and http://douglassquirrel.com

We take two different views of AI: first, that it's here and ready to go, and second, that we're going to need humans in the loop—"centaurs" that combine humans and computer—for a long time to come.

SHOW LINKS:

https://jimeuchner.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Little-ai-Big-AI-Good-AI-Bad-AI.pdf

Find us at http://jimeuchner.com/ and http://douglassquirrel.com

Jim and Squirrel reflect on a recent panel discussion led by Jim on how big (and small!) companies can either destroy engagement or create it through automation.

See Jim's article at https://verisei.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Automation-Manifesto-Verisei.pdf

Find us at http://jimeuchner.com/ and http://douglassquirrel.com

We observe that companies with a long time horizon—like privately held family businesses—are better able to take on the risks of innovation. And we think startups and large businesses have something to learn from these organisations.

Find us at http://jimeuchner.com/ and http://douglassquirrel.com

We reflect on Schumacher's Small is Beautiful and how it applies to startups - a small minority aim for profitable, slow growth - and large firms, who may create small autonomous units to reap the benefits of small organisations.

SHOW LINKS:

- Small is Beautiful: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Is_Beautiful

Find us at http://jimeuchner.com/ and http://douglassquirrel.com.

After considering open innovation at large companies last week, we now look at open *source* innovation, a pattern that has led to huge advances for startups, as they begin with a huge array of software infrastructure freely available to them and therefore can in most cases focus on their business idea rather than technical invention. We also note the trend toward open-source hardware which is even helping patients innovate in their own treatment.

SHOW LINKS:

- Dexcom: https://www.dexcom.com/

- MIT Innovation Lab: https://innovation.mit.edu/

- Coloplast: https://www.coloplast.co.uk/

Find us at http://jimeuchner.com/ and http://douglassquirrel.com

It turns out that "open" means very different things at big and small companies. We focus on the large ones this week, where "open" means actively gathering ideas and prototypes from people outside the company, often through explicit requests or competitions.

SHOW LINKS:

- Competition platforms: https://www.innocentive.com/ , https://www.ninesigma.com/ , https://www.yet2.com/ , https://www.kaggle.com/ , https://www.topcoder.com/

- Henry Chesbrough: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Chesbrough

- Open Innovation articles: https://jimeuchner.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/two-flavors-of-innovation.pdf and https://jimeuchner.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/limits-of-crowds.pdf

Find us at http://jimeuchner.com/ and http://douglassquirrel.com

At big companies, deciding your innovation is ready for prime time is a big deal. At small ones, often not so much—or the decision is left up to the VC market, and the startup dies if the verdict is negative.

Find us at http://jimeuchner.com/ and http://douglassquirrel.com

Startups and big companies alike can get obsessed with the latest, shiniest tech or idea, distracting them from their mission. Often innovation starts because someone sees a way to improve a system, but it's hard to stop disrupting yourself. We look at examples from SpaceX and our own experience.

- SpaceX: https://www.spacex.com/

Find us at http://jimeuchner.com/ and http://douglassquirrel.com

How many business models are there really? Jim reckons there are only 40 or 45 that actually work—plus a lot of Frankenstein models that aren't coherent. We look at a few favourites, some only available to big companies like the growth share matrix model, and some that apply to startups too, like time profit.

- Growth share matrix model: https://www.bcg.com/publications/2014/growth-share-matrix-bcg-classics-revisited

- Experience curve model: https://hbr.org/1985/03/building-strategy-on-the-experience-curve

- Time Profit model: https://artofprofitability.wordpress.com/2014/02/16/model-5-time-profit-model/

Find us at http://jimeuchner.com/ and http://douglassquirrel.com