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Background
Pinnacol Assurance
- $600 million in revenue
- 600 employees
- 100+ years old
My role
- CIO/CSO for 20 years
Assurance $600 million in revenue 600 employees 100+ years old My - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Assurance $600 million in revenue 600 employees 100+ years old My - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Background Highly Respected Pinnacol Insurance Carrier Assurance $600 million in revenue 600 employees 100+ years old My role CIO/CSO for 20 years 2 Background Need for Rapid Things We Tried Innovation Kaizen Book
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Background
Need for Rapid Innovation
- Protect market share
- Improve customer
experience
- Increase efficiency
- Ensure long-term viability
- Kaizen
- Idea mills
- Partnerships
- Field trips
Things We Tried
- Book clubs
- Consultants
- New roles
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Author: wonderlane - https://www.flickr.com/photos/wonderlane/ Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/wonderlane/10715908056 License: CC BY 2.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Changes made: Cropped photo
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Background
Cake Insure
- Startup digital insurer
- Launched after 9 months
- Focused on Colorado
small businesses
- Expanding nationally
- Becoming independent
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Background
Best of Both Worlds
Startup Big Company Agility Blank slate Narrow focus Risk tolerance Creative talent Resources Built-in market Expertise Data Corporate support
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Innovation theater Stuck in the past Perfectionism Stifled creativity Wrong leadership
Background
Barriers to Innovation
Photo Author: Uwe Kils (iceberg) and Wiska Bodo (sky) via Wikimedia Commons License: GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AIceberg.jpg
Risk aversion Lack of resources Other priorities Legacy systems Departmental silos
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Avoiding Innovation Theater
Compelling and Clear Vision
Author: NASA / Bill Anders via Wikimedia Commons License: Public domain Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ANASA-Apollo8-Dec24-Earthrise.jpg
- Specific breakthrough
- Measurable results
- Clear time frame
- Solution agnostic
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Avoiding Innovation Theater
Product Development
- ”Fuzzy front end”
- Primary and secondary
research
- Prototyping
- Surveys
- Focus groups
- Interviews
- Competitive analysis
- Historical data
Research Methods
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Avoiding Innovation Theater
Product & Business Clarity
Osterwalder, Alexander and Yves Pigneur. Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers. Hoboken: Wiley, 2010.
Vaporware Business Model Canvas
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Avoiding Innovation Theater
Parent as VC Investor
- Return on investment
- Market opportunity
- Go-to-market strategy
- Risks and mitigation
- Regular status updates
Pitch book, PPM, or CIM Progress Dashboard
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Avoiding Innovation Theater
Isolating the Team
- Distant location
- Basic team needs
- Flexibility and growth
- Secret location
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Letting Go of the Past
Burning Ships
- Nothing to protect
- Motivation to succeed
- Smart risk taking
- Careful spending
- Fulltime employment,
not a project assignment
- Old positions backfilled
- No promises
Staffing from Parent
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Letting Go of the Past
Starting with a Blank Slate
Suzuki, Shunryu. Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice. Shambhala, 2011.
“In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.”
- Technologies
- People and partners
- Business processes
- Value proposition
- Customer
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Letting Go of the Past
Seeing Things for Ourselves
Liker, Jeffrey. The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World’s Greatest Manufacturer. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004.
- Go to the source of truth
- Get hands dirty
- Trust experts but verify
- Engrain into culture
- Talk to customers
- Observe the work
- Try out the competition
- Analyze raw data
- Study statutes
Examples
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Embracing Imperfection
What Really Matters
- Validated learning
- True MVP
- Narrow scope
- Experimentation
The 80/20 Rule
Viable Product Exceptions Trivial Many Vital Few
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Encouraging Creativity in Action
Culture
- Positivity
- Curiosity
- Transparency
- Inclusiveness
- Gratitude
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Encouraging Creativity in Action
No Tyranny
- f Consensus
- Empowerment
- Careful hiring
- Clear goals and roles
- Forced transparency
- Accountability
- Narrow scope
- Experimentation
- Validated learning
- Future involvement
- Results talk!
Flying Solo is OK
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Encouraging Creativity in Action
Need for External Secrecy
Spares the team from: Gives parent employees:
- Tyranny of consensus
- Premature criticism
- Resentment of former
colleagues
- Freedom from worry
- Thoughtful
communications
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Fostering the Right Leadership
Our First Leadership Roles
CTO CEO
- Sr. Product
Manager Chief
- f Staff
Startup Team Product & Business Voice of Customer Parent & Capital
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Fostering the Right Leadership
The Engineer Is In Charge
Ward, Allen, and Durward Sobek. Lean product and process development. Cambridge, MA: Lean Enterprise Institute, 2014.
- Business and technology
- Development process
- Key decisions
- Problem solving
- Guidance and coaching
Entrepreneurial Systems Designer
Business product inspired by engineering imagination Create a technical product informed by business judgment The combination is critical
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Fostering the Right Leadership
Strong CEO Sponsorship
- Cooperation from parent
- Roadblock removal
- Board relations
- Advice and support
- Fear, uncertainty, doubt
- Resistance
- Resentment
- Other priorities
Challenges in the Parent
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Where to Start
Commit Yourself
- Identify a challenge
- Find a fellow explorer
- Start planning the journey
- Begin talking about it
- Abandon shelter