Judy Estrin (Author): The Four Keys of Innovation

Actually, Judy wrote a book titled “Close the Innovation Gap” but I was more taken by the four points she laid out as keys as they seemed so clear:

• Leadership
• Policy
• Culture
• Funding

I was impressed with her clarity of though on this subject.   This is no “Tim Ferris” marketing ploy1.  She did some hard research here and pulled out some very concise messages.

Details

Notable Points

Title/Link: Interview on “Close the Innovation Gap” Duration: ~35m Presenter: Judy Estrin Author Sits on Board of FedEx and Walt Disney (formerly Board member of Rockwell) Early researcher around protocols Various startups Recommend to Watch? Yes Strange, as I walked away I would of said ‘maybe’ but as I pondered what she said it moved to ‘yes’.   While not explosive, her points have staying power as you mull them over.

1. Leadership Around leadership, her point was how if the people who control the decisions to fund innovation don’t value it and understand why it stumbles we will continue to under fund it.  Case and point the US stance around innovation since 2000.  Respect for research and understanding the ecosystem it is a part of (research, development, application) is faltering.   See the next three points on why. 2. Policy Mostly she talked about Immigration here but examples of subsidies around clean energy that are occurring in Europe were also tossed around.   I recall a great TED talk that suggested a floor on gas prices that was higher than the cost of alternative fuels (to provide a stable market for R&D to target).   In addition she mentioned the locking away of federal research (stifles iterative innovation). 3. Culture Here she talked about children.   How under 5th grade there is little innovation into enabling children to tinker as we used to be able to do with our hands in the past. There are enablers (virtual CAD, etc) but we aren’t pushing that out and providing incentives to kids to grapple with those tools. 4. Funding Excellent point here.  How most of last eight years in US has shifted to short term returns.  Both for VC’s and Business R&D.  Innovation needs research for pure research sake that is tied to another ecosystem (development and application) that can pick pieces from our efforts around “learning for learning sake”.  If you focus on an outcome you only get incremental not disruptive (new concept) innovation.

So if you are in business, or responsible for an area of a business I would ponder what she has to say..

Would be curious on your thoughts … as always.

1-Side comment on Ferris, I continue to read aspects of his book and ponder.  He did have some notable insights as well … just too much marketing oil for me.

* START OF RAW SCRIBBLE TAKEN WHILE RUNNING **

• Judy Estrin Author
• 9/5/2008, 6:40 AM Start
• Author
………………○ serial entrepreneur, worked on protocol w/ Stanford, CTO Cisco for 2 years, PackageDesign,
………………○ Thinking about innovation on 2004
• Complex for a set of reasons
………………○ Incremental innovation
………………○ Disruptive
………………○ Disruptive but not breakthrough (ipod, not genetic engineering)
• Its an ecosystem
………………○ Research community – furthers understanding
………………○ Dev comm – builds
………………○ App comm – Applies
………………○ Google example – Algorithm –> Product –> Execution (innovated in all areas)
………………○ 9/5/2008, 6:45 AM Energy example
• 9/5/2008, 6:45 AM — Where are we (US)
………………○ Sits on board of FedEx and Walt Disney
………………○ Valley is more risk averse … as is large corporations … so incremental innovation focus
………………○ Talked to — Tech, Educators, Policy, Life Science, Etc
………………○ Found – - Policy problem
………………………………§ Innovation gap in last 8 years … over harvested in last 8 years
………………………………§ Most interesting things are based on disruptors that are 10-20 years old
………………………………§ Became more short term focused in the way funding worked … not funding lab work. After 2000 acute in % of spend. Respect for science. Listening to science.
………………………………§ Kids — not inspired to be science / tech
• 9/5/2008, 6:50 AM Kids
………………○ Not inspired to learn how things work
………………○ Bauer Comment – wouldn’t it be interesting to allow kids to virtually break down and assemble the pieces of things. Like CAD/CAM light.
………………○ Can’t tinker today
• 9/5/2008, 6:52 AM Can do
………………○ Virtual worlds
………………………………§ Bauer Comment – Amusing. She and I think about it
• 9/5/2008, 6:53 AM Education
………………○ US are more anti-immigrant
………………○ Lower class focus (like Mexico) to block
………………○ Harder for US Foreign Nationals to stay here (Israel)
………………○ Her response
………………………………§ Great upper ed
………………………………§ But policy of immigration got clamped down when we needed to expand
………………………………………………□ Bauer Comment – Ouch for the us nationals (supply and demand) in tech sector
………………………………§ Need to be able to: Risk, Be Open, Patience, Self Assess, Trust
………………………………§ Need a balance of the above … enough to be real …
………………………………§ Innovation is not zero sum … US vs China … no … but if US doesn’t innovate with them we are toast
………………………………§ Two things hurt innovation — Policy (immigration) and Classification of Federal Research
………………○ Google doesn’t share as much research
………………………………§ They help by open up aspects of their source
………………○ MSFT Research … give a lot of credit of becoming more open
• 9/5/2008, 6:55 What is the difference between research and Dev
………………○ Research about furthering understanding. No outcome. Applied research is constrained to a problem. Usage research with consideration of application.
………………○ Development is building something
………………○ Disruptive research is unclear … ie dustbuster came from moon program
………………○ Tendancy today is too much of “how is this used”,
………………○ 9/5/2008, 7:03 AM Solar Energy example …. Wants VC to have more patience
………………………………§ Bauer Comment – Patience will only occur with payback models they can see that are better odds or multiples than today.
………………………………§ Scoble points out market for energy in Europe
• 9/5/2008, 7:05 AM Leadership, Policy, Culture, Funding
………………○ Impacts to innovation
………………○ Same inside company and outside of company
………………………………§ Bauer Comment – Cockroach model enables innovation due to reducing financial requirements
• 9/5/2008, 7:07 AM Talk of Government Innovation
………………○ Afraid of government not google
………………○ Candidate runs on create change
………………○ Middle ground of government and free markets
………………○ Gov, Business, and Non-Profits need to address problems
………………○ Markets are too short term focused so they can’t solve this
………………………………§ Bauer Comment – Which is why floors on types of energy, as an example, are key to R&D
• 9/5/2008, 7:10 AM How people help
………………○ Create innovative environments
………………○ Think long term
………………○ Talk about longer term problems
………………○ Wrote book to escalate dialog around this
• 9/5/2008, 7:12 AM Solutions of Long Tail
………………○ Can’t procrastinate
………………○ Pick small battles that help … don’t try to win the war
………………………………§ Bauer Comment – Similar to startups, daily battles are the key … not the scoreboard on a given day.
• 9/5/2008, 7:13 AM Is there hope?
………………○ You can be fooled by the valley … they are just a part of the US innovation need
………………○ The rest of historical US isn’t holding line
………………○ However, there is hope

** END RAW SCRIBBLE TAKEN WHILE RUNNING **