Why Corporate Innovation is Harder Now

I was at Stanford in the Graduate School of Business and was interviewed by Peter Gardner of StartGrid for his On The Road podcast. I shared my current thinking about innovation in companies and government agencies.

[I had decided not to publish this piece because it was a little bit older piece of work (meaning a little longer than six months old). But, dang-it, Steve Blank always has something. So I started listening and was completely sucked into the information. I hope you love it as much as I did.] DR

It’s worth a listen.

BTW, it seems every podcast has a trick last question. This one was, “if I was on a road trip what’s the destination and what’s playing on the radio?”

Listen to the entire interview here:

Or just parts of the interview:

01:59 What drew me to entrepreneurship
03:43 What motivates me about innovation today
05:25 Entrepreneurship in the 20th century
06:30 The difference between large companies and startups
07:13 The Lean Startup Lightbulb moment
07:44 An MBA meant Master of Business Administration
08:18 Agile Development and Lean — Eric Ries
09:05 Business Model Canvas — Alexander Osterwalder
12:32 Innovation in Large Companies in the 20th Century
13:05 Startup Capital at Scale threatens large Companies
13:58 Startups operate with alacrity, agility and at times a death wish
15:06 Companies can only do things that are legal, while startups can do anything
16:00 Corporate defcon level — the wartime footing level
17:41 Innovation Theater
18:23 Did you move the top or bottom line?
19:50 Two types of 21st century corporations
20:55 Hedge funds and dual-class stock
22:28 Innovation pipeline not silos
24:25 Innovation Outposts
26:32 Why Innovators Leave Companies
27:30 We can’t afford to have our government go out of business
28:54 Why I turn on the Beach Boys