When you get results - the right time to celebrate
Doesn’t it drive you crazy when people hold big celebrations for nothing more than starting a big strategic move? Like the champagne that flows when M&A deals are announced, or the party accompanying a project launch, without any evidence that it will actually work? It has always seemed backwards to me to disproportionately focus on one piece of the process, when often the real success is taken for granted and never acknowledged at all.
It was therefore gratifying to read in the January 3 Wall Street Journal (p. C12) that the wheelers and dealers are starting to recognize the fallacy of celebrating beginnings rather than successful outcomes. They note:
“As Kohlberg Kravis Roberts boss Henry Kravis noted last year, “Any fool can buy a company. You should be congratulated when you sell.”“
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- Posted Rita McGrath on January 04, 2008
Emerging Enrager - Too Many Unwanted Catalogs and other unsolicited outreach
BusinessWeek, in its December 31 year-end issue, reported on the activities of an activist website called “Catalog Choice” which promises to help people opt out of receiving unwanted catalogs. Apparently, so many people are irritated by the sheer mass of catalogs they receive, that since the site’s launch in October, over 300,000 people have reportedly gone there to try to stop the deluge.
Things have gotten out of hand. In 2006, the article reports, 19.4 billion catalogs were mailed, versus 13.4 billion in 1996. By my reckoning that means that every American receives, on average, over 70 catalogs a year—many of them clumped together around the holiday season. Since most people live in households, that could translate into hundreds of catalogs every year. If you don’t want them, it’s a real nuisance, that only gets worse as the numbers increase.
The reaction of catalog based retailers is one of dismay. They are rather reluctant to take people off of their lists—after all, catalogs are one way of reaching elusive and desirable customers, catching them in those weak moments after they get home and start flipping through the mail.
On the other hand, one could imagine an enraged backlash leading to a significant PR problem for those companies, as consumers begin to insist on the right to be undisturbed. They’ve already come out in their millions to take telephone numbers off of “do not call” lists.
My personal peeve is not with catalogs so much as with the steady flow of pre-approved credit card offers that flood our house. Since these are a serious identity theft risk, not only are they simply a nuisance to be thrown away, but have to be taken apart and shredded, causing time-wasting busywork.
So, entrepreneurs out there—any thoughts on how to capitalize on consumers’ emerging rage over so much unsolicited incoming correspondence?
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- Posted Rita McGrath on January 04, 2008
The Innovation Value Chain - Thoughtful, useful, concept
Colleagues Morten Hansen and Julian Birkinshaw posted a really solid piece in the June 2007 Harvard Business Review (which I’ve just gotten around to reading). Essentially, they argue that companies tend to focus their attention (and absorption of best practices) with respect to innovation on one part of the process, rather than the whole value chain of innovation, which includes idea generation, conversion to ventures, and diffusion of the innovations elsewhere in the organization. The article is:
Hansen, M. T., & Birkinshaw, J. 2007. The Innovation Value Chain. Harvard Business Review, 85(6): 121-130.
You can find any HBR article such as this one at their web site.
Among the valuable concepts in the article are the notion that specific interventions can help fix a broken innovation chain. These are:
For idea generation
- improve in-house idea generation
- cross-pollination with other innovation sources
- external sourcing of innovation
For Conversion to venture status
- improve selection
- Create better development disciplines
For Diffusion and spreading of ideas and learning
- Champion the idea past its ‘tipping point’
Among the references the authors recommend is a wonderful book by Zenas Block and my co-author, Ian MacMillan, called Corporate Venturing: Creating New Businesses Within the Firm (Harvard Business School Press, 1993).
Mac and I have actually been working for some time on a similar concept of managing the whole innovation pipeline. Similarly, Thomas Keil and I last year published an article that emphasizes management of the multi-step processes of innovation. That one is:
McGrath, R. G., & Keil, T. 2007. The Value Captor’s Process: Getting the Most Out of Your New Business Ventures Harvard Business Review, 85(5).
It’s available at the same site.
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- Posted Rita McGrath on January 02, 2008
Fail Fast, Fail Cheap - Merck rewards scientists for failure
Bob Cooper, over at the Kellogg Innovation blog, draws attention to a Business Week article on Richard Clark’s efforts to turn Merck around. While the article itself is interesting, what caught my eye was the way in which he is attempting to reduce the cost of failure by having scientists stop doomed efforts earlier. Here’s the snippet I thought was interesting:
KILL FEE
Merck is rewarding scientists for failure.
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- Posted Rita McGrath on December 20, 2007
Business Development Resources for New Entrepreneurs
As a sometime professor of entrepreneurship, I'm frequently approached by would-be entrepreneurs for help in fleshing out their business plans. While I enjoy doing this, it could very easily become a full-time job! I've therefore put together a resource list for new entrepreneurs that are free or very low cost, to use during the business definition stage of their ventures and to help them get those first few critical transactions going. Here are some of the resources I point people to: Small Business Development Centers Small Business Development Centers are usually associated with universities. These offer training and consulting services, courses, and sometimes contacts and connections to venture capitalists and angel investors. The main web page, including a location locator can be found here.
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- Posted Rita McGrath on December 20, 2007
