hearst at dis: rethinking entrepreneurship

1

MOVING. FORWARD. FASTER.

Rethinking Entrepreneurship

Digiday Innovation SummitMay 17, 2013

2


Startup Guy…

In a Suit and Tie

3


IT STARTED WITH A DREAM…

4


100+M unique users, dozens of leading media brands

My new startup was on top of the world!

Then, I looked down and saw that I was wearing a suit!!!!

5


a·gil·i·ty [uh-jil-i-tee]

1. the power of moving quickly and easily; nimbleness.

2. the ability to think and draw conclusions quickly; intellectual acuity.

6


My last technology meeting on accelerating product development

7


(At least) forty-four “reasons” not to change

That’s not my jobIt’s too radical a changeWe don’t have the time

Not enough helpOur place is too small for it

We tried that before. This place is different. It costs too much. That’s beyond our responsibility. We’re all too

busy to do that

Why change it – it’s still working ok You’re right – but…

You’re two years ahead of your time We don’t have the

personnel It isn’t in the budget

Not practical foroperating people

The staff will never buy itThe union will scream

We’ve never done it beforeIt’s against regulations

Runs up overheadWe don’t have the authority

That’s too ivory towerLet’s get back to realityThat’s not our problem

Good thought, but impracticalLet’s give it more thought

Top management would never go for it Let’s put it in writing

We’d lose money inthe long run

It’s never been tried beforeLet’s shelve it for

the time beingLet’s form a committee

Has anyone else ever tried it?What you’re really saying is…

It won’t pay for itselfI know a fellow who tried thatWe’ve always done it this way

It’s hopelessly complexWhat would the president

say?Maybe that will work

in your department, but not in mine The executive committee

will never… Don’t you think we should look into that

further before we act? Let’s all sleep on it

Copyright Todd Jick

8


Hey dinosaur, get digital!

BTW, we’re all laughing at you…

9


Ask a Big 4 consultant about innovation and you get… babies?

1887Hearst is born

2012Hearst Must Leverage Legacy

To Compete With Digital Newborns

10


Hmmm…• You can’t consult your way out

of the wrong culture

• You can’t force your current team to behave differently under the same conditions

• You CAN develop a product focused agenda and execute on that one project at a time

11


PRODUCT… A focus to quickly delight our customers

12


CLOUD … Enabling our rapid product development

FlexibleUser-Friendly Open

13


DATA … Knowledge is King

Cliff Stoll, Astronomer

14


TALENT

15


AGILE was with Hearst all the time

16


“Creativity and innovation are something you can’t flowchart out. Some things you can, and we do, and we’re very disciplined in those areas. But creativity isn’t one of those. A lot of companies have innovation departments, and this is always a sign that something is wrong when you have a VP of innovation or something. You know, put a for-sale sign on the door.”

- Tim Cook – CEO, Apple Inc.

17


Matching your pace to the ability of the organization to accept the Change

Ω ΖImpedance : A fancy word for resistance Resistanc

e

ComplexResistanc

e

18


19


Holistic approach to technology

Partnerships CorporateStrategy

Tech Talent

R&DInnovation

20


Idea Now…

Budget

Plan

Execute

IT

Operations

Sales

Idea Then…

Results = Days/Weeks

Results = Several Months/Year

Cost: $1-2MM

Tech

CreativeSales

Product

21


Create a New Product Culture Holistic Tech

o Kill the concept of traditional ITo Integrate technology teams

Datao Continually optimizeo Fearless experimentationo Objective decision making

Output

Challenges

Test/Measure

22


Fallacy of “Digital” MgmtBehaviors that Fail

o I’ll act like Steve Jobs

o I’ll just raise more money

o Create a rogue “commando team”

o Trying to act like a Lean Startup when you are a major corporation

Behaviors that Scale

o Ask honest and deep questions on the value prop

o Change your planning process to accommodate agile R&D

o Identify limited strategic changes that you are seeking

o Be persistent on goals, one project at a time

23


STARTUP != CORPORATION

Cash Strapped vs.o Always starvingo Running to the next meal

Cash Capableo Fail Fasto Continually optimizing

24


Recipe for New Product Innovation1. Get mgmt buy-in to a new process for this type of development2. Get the org and talent team identified, scale expectations accordingly3. Create clear challenges/opportunities for the org4. Set aside an agile/lean dev fund as dedicated portion of your opex5. If you find yourself in a detailed budgeting process, go back to Step 1

6. Identify positive output from the stew, scale and repeat

hearst at dis: rethinking entrepreneurship

Technology