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Experiment more often and more cheaply

“The next big opportunity never looks that way at the outset. Big opportunities grow out of successive rounds of experimentation.”

To evolve more rapidly, organizations must experiment more frequently. Management processes that seek to arrive at the “one best strategy” through top-down, analytical methods must give way to models based on the biological principles of variety (generate lots of options), selection (find low-cost ways to test critical assumptions), and retention (ramp up spending once a strategy has started to gain traction). In the future, top management won’t “make” strategy but will create an environment in which there is lots of fast-paced, strategic experimentation.

42 Stories
62 Hacks
5 Barriers

Experiment more often and more cheaply

“The next big opportunity never looks that way at the outset. Big opportunities grow out of successive rounds of experimentation.”

To evolve more rapidly, organizations must experiment more frequently. Management processes that seek to arrive at the “one best strategy” through top-down, analytical methods must give way to models based on the biological principles of variety (generate lots of options), selection (find low-cost ways to test critical assumptions), and retention (ramp up spending once a strategy has started to gain traction). In the future, top management won’t “make” strategy but will create an environment in which there is lots of fast-paced, strategic experimentation.

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What would our sector look like if we gave our value proposition a little twist? What would the results be like?
Hack by Luc Galoppin on July 16, 2011
"Lock in" of talent may squelch passion, demoralize employees and of course lead to worse fit of talent to problems.  Top down delegation of tasks utilizes fewer minds thinking about what pr
Hack by Gisela Jönsson on July 5, 2011
I think a generally underappreciated (even when it's explicitly discussed), but highly influential factor in any workplace is the power of metrics.
Hack by Sean Schofield on May 31, 2011
Management is an invention. So too are managers.
Hack by Sean Schofield on May 30, 2011
Real innovation is not built with greater isolation and introspection but is powered by smarter connections.
Hack by Andrew Armour on April 12, 2011
The time has come when Mahatma Gandhi said "We cannot possibly keep on encrouching mother nature and whatever we do even in business enterprise has to be sustainable in every respect".
Hack by Tarun Kumar Mann on March 20, 2011
Setting up an organisational system that enables a market-like scenario for supporting and funding innovative ideas.
Hack by Mathew J Varghese on March 20, 2011
To be innovative, a company needs to understand how it can take what it already does and do that better.
Hack by Ryan Thorpe on March 11, 2011
Organisational flexibility is a much discussed topic.The purposes of this “hack” are:Providing a model which is designed to enhance organisational flexibility;Ensuring involvement of employees;Making
Hack by Fan Zhang on March 1, 2011
This hack considers how organisational capability might be unleashed by increasing the level of trust between employer and employee, borrowing from some of the concepts of Tikanga Maori and simply doi
Hack by Alister McCaw on February 25, 2011

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