In this episode of ‘Grody & UnPrOfEsSiOnAL’, Justin McMenamy kicks off a seven-episode mini-series focused on his experiences as a curator of a market disruptive technology division housed within a Fortune 500 company.  Each episode in the series is built from the framework of Kelly Johnson’s 14 Rules of Management.  This list, authored in 1954, is the cultural charter document for Skunk Works, the Advanced Development Programs division of Lockheed Martin and the designers of products like the SR71 Blackbird, the U2 spy plane, and the F-35 Lightning.  

In the first episode of the series, McMenamy recounts early career disillusionment with corporate bureaucracy which led him to join Precision Planting, a start-up minded company with an anti-bureaucratic ethos.  In light of Precision Planting being acquired by Monsanto in 2012 and later by AGCO in 2017, McMenemy explores the challenges of maintaining a startup culture within a large corporation. Building from Kelly Johnson's 1st rule of management, McMenamy highlights the significance of executive support for organizational autonomy from the broader company.    

Across the arc of this series, McMenamy focuses on the complexities of sustaining an innovative culture within incumbent companies, along with proven techniques an organization can employ to forestall the logical and rational march into bureaucracy.