"Thomas says that combination has sharpened his understanding of why many large companies fail to innovate. "It comes down to one word," he says. "Iteration." Thomas explains that most large organizations are wired for scale, not speed. Their instinct is to map out multi-year roadmaps and place bold, high-stakes bets-an approach that runs counter to the quick experimentation and continuous feedback loops that true iteration requires. In most big companies, he says, that kind of flexible, trial-and-error mindset simply isn't part of the culture."
"Thomas says IBM is trying to break that pattern by embracing a "build a little, test a little, learn a lot" mentality, which prioritizes feedback loops over grand plans. It's a shift inspired in part by Jet Saxena, the founder of Netezza, a data-warehousing company IBM acquired in 2010. Thomas recalls that when Saxena began investing in startups, he made a point of meeting with founders every month to ask a single question: What are customers telling you?"
When Rob Thomas took the dual role of senior vice president of software and chief commercial officer at IBM, he faced aligning long-term product innovation with short-term commercial performance. He identifies iteration as the core issue behind many companies' failure to innovate. Large organizations are optimized for scale rather than speed and tend to commit to multi-year roadmaps and high-stakes bets instead of rapid experimentation. IBM is shifting toward a 'build a little, test a little, learn a lot' approach, emphasizing frequent customer feedback and small tests. The change draws on practices such as monthly founder check-ins asking, 'What are customers telling you?' Transforming culture requires elevating internal voices that challenge convention.
Read at Fortune
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]