Judy Estrin's presentation to the Ohio 2.0 meeting on October 10, 2008

1. Sustainable Innovation
Judy Estrin
Ohio 2.0
October, 2008
COPYRIGHT © JLABS, LLC 2008 Copyright © Judy Estrin 2008 1

2. Innovation Matters More Than Ever
• Innovation drives economic growth,
quality of life and is the only hope of
addressing the major challenges
that we face
• Innovation doesn’t just happen, it
needs to be nurtured
• We have become shortsighted,
creating a national innovation deficit
which will have a significant impact
on future generations
www.theinnovationgap.com
COPYRIGHT © JLABS, LLC 2008 Copyright © Judy Estrin 2008

3. Fundamentals of Innovation
• Multiple types of innovation:
breakthrough, incremental and
orthogonal
• Innovation is iterative (and messy)
• You need to be willing to invest
without knowing the outcome
• Talent matters - skill, aptitude, passion, drive
• Diverse perspectives are critical to innovation
COPYRIGHT © JLABS, LLC 2008 Copyright © Judy Estrin 2008

4. Innovation Builds on Innovation
Sustainable innovation requires a healthy
well-balanced “Innovation Ecosystem”
Ecosystem: A dynamic interaction
between living organisms and their
environment.
Balance is required to sustain life.
COPYRIGHT © JLABS, LLC 2008 Copyright © Judy Estrin 2008

5. Innovation Communities
• Basic
• Use-inspired
• Applied
• Advanced technology
• Product concept/definition
• Implementation
• Customer facing
• Internal processes
• New applications
• Businesses, Non-profit,
Individuals
Copyright © Judy Estrin 2008
COPYRIGHT © JLABS, LLC 2008

6. Environmental Factors are Critical
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7. Core Values = Capacity for Change
Questioning
Curiosity, critical evaluation, self-assessment, non-judgmental,
free flowing
Risk
Vulnerability, attitude toward failure, fail early, learn from failure
Openness
To imagination, to new data, to sharing, to surprise, to other
opinions, to change
Patience
Tenacity, patient capital
Trust
In oneself, in others
Values need to be in balance.
COPYRIGHT © JLABS, LLC 2008

8. Green Thumb Leadership
• Innovation is like gardening
• The right soil is required
• Not all seeds grow into plants,
some need more nurturing
• Everything starts small
• Don’t allow seedlings to be killed off early by
larger plants that usurp resources
• Proactive “pruning and thinning” is required
• Productive gardens require planning
• Transplanting is key to deriving business benefit
Leading innovation requires a “green thumb” -
vision, judgment, instinct, dealing with ambiguity
and patience.
COPYRIGHT © JLABS, LLC 2008 Copyright © Judy Estrin 2008

9. Innovation at Scale
• Large companies are like factory farms -
metrics, efficiency are critical to success,
surprises are not welcome
• Leading innovation is often the opposite of
“management best practice”
• Innovation at scale can work for process
innovation and incremental innovation
For other breakthrough innovation need to create
gardens or greenhouses (internal or external) that
are loosely connected to mainstream business
COPYRIGHT © JLABS, LLC 2008 Copyright © Judy Estrin 2008

10. National Innovation Ecosystem in Decline
1950s & 1970s &
1960s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010
Innovation
in research
Innovation
in startups
Innovation
in large
corporations
Environmental
factors
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11. Next Generation Leaders
• Threats (business or national) should be turned
into challenges which inspire involvement, so that
fear does not create helplessness
• Especially important in hard economic times
• Be smart in where you cut and where
investment is critical (business and personal)
• Involve employees in the process
• Leaders need to be inspirational,collaborative,
inclusive, open to input from experts, willing to self-
assess and adapt
• Reigniting the spark of innovation nationally will take new type of
leadership and collaboration in public and private sectors, at all
levels of society
• Challenges such as energy dependence, climate change, healthcare,
security should all be turned into opportunities for innovation that can
drive the economy
COPYRIGHT © JLABS, LLC 2008

12. Next Generation Innovators
• Our education system and culture are currently working
against innovation
• 21st century talent needs to embody core values
• Collaborative
• Adaptive
• Interdisciplinary
• Best of Baby Boomers and Gen X/Y
• Scientific and technologic literacy
• New requirements - “green”, infrastructure, education
COPYRIGHT © JLABS, LLC 2008 Copyright © Judy Estrin 2008

13. We each have a role to play!
Courage, commitment,
collaboration, core values…..
jestrin@jlabsllc.com
www.theinnovationgap.com
COPYRIGHT © JLABS, LLC 2008