How to drive innovation within large organizations

Better Innovation is back with season six! Our first guest of the season is Jim Euchner, Author of Lean Startup in Large Organizations. He has over 25 years of experience in the field of intelligent systems. Jim is a co-founder of the MIT Innovation Laboratory and was previously the vice president of Global Innovation at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company.

Before that, he held roles as vice president at Pitney Bowes and Bell Atlantic (now Verizon). Jim was at the forefront of digital transformation at these large enterprises, driving innovation during periods of immense technological change — most notably in the telecommunications industry during the 80s and 90s amid the rise of the internet.

In this episode, Jim discusses his new book, which explores a systematic approach for implementing “the lean startup” in large organizations, and reflects on the experiences that provided him with the courage, curiosity and vision to drive innovation and break barriers throughout his career.

Key takeaways:

• The key to driving innovation includes gaining a deep understanding of the user, aligning with organizational priorities and addressing the natural resistance to change.
• Enterprise scale and resources available are the advantages of innovating in a large company.
• The advantages of a startup include the freedom to drive change and the passionate energy behind the mission.
• “Lean learning loops” can lead to internal fears of an unmanaged innovation process.
• It is important to innovate with a customer-centric approach and address resistance to change with empathy.
• We should strive to be independent but not isolated.

For your convenience, full text transcript of this podcast is also available. Read the transcript.