Hearst CTO Philip Wiser calls himself a "startup guy in a suit and tie." In this session, learn how to bring an entrepreneurial approach to a major corporation. Hint: It’s not about just about blowing everything up and doing it agile. Presenter: Philip Wiser, svp, CTO, Hearst @philwiser

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Rethinking Entrepreneurship
Digiday Innovation Summit
May 17, 2013

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Startup Guy…
In a Suit and Tie

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IT STARTED WITH A DREAM…


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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!!!!

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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.

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My last technology meeting on accelerating product development

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(At least) forty-four “reasons” not to change
That’s not my job
It’s too radical a change
We don’t have the time
Not enough help
Our 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 for
operating people
The staff will never buy it
The union will scream
We’ve never done it before
It’s against regulations
Runs up overhead
We don’t have the authority
That’s too ivory tower
Let’s get back to reality
That’s not our problem
Good thought, but impractical
Let’s give it more thought
Top management would never
go for it Let’s put it in writing
We’d lose money in
the long run
It’s never been tried before
Let’s shelve it for
the time being
Let’s form a committee
Has anyone else ever tried it?
What you’re really saying is…
It won’t pay for itself
I know a fellow who tried that
We’ve always done it this way
It’s hopelessly complex
What 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

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Hey dinosaur, get digital!
BTW, we’re all
laughing at you…

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Ask a Big 4 consultant about innovation and you get… babies?
1887
Hearst is born
2012
Hearst Must Leverage Legacy
To Compete With Digital Newborns

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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

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PRODUCT… A focus to quickly delight our customers

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CLOUD … Enabling our rapid product development
FlexibleUser-Friendly Open

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DATA … Knowledge is King
Cliff Stoll, Astronomer

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TALENT

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AGILE was with Hearst all the time

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“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.

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Matching your pace to the ability of the
organization to accept the Change
Ω Ζ
Impedance : A fancy
word for resistance Resistance
Complex
Resistance

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Holistic approach to technology
Partnerships Corporate
Strategy
Tech Talent
R&DInnovation

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Idea Now…
Budget
Plan
Execute
IT
Operations
Sales
Idea Then…
Results = Days/Weeks
Results = Several Months/Year

Cost: $1-2MM
Tech
CreativeSales
Product

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Create a New Product Culture
 Holistic Tech
o Kill the concept of traditional IT
o Integrate technology teams
 Data
o Continually optimize
o Fearless experimentation
o Objective decision making
Output
Challenges
Test/Measure

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Fallacy of “Digital” Mgmt
Behaviors 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

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STARTUP != CORPORATION
 Cash Strapped vs.
o Always starving
o Running to the next meal
 Cash Capable
o Fail Fast
o Continually optimizing

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Recipe for New Product Innovation
1. Get mgmt buy-in to a new process for this type of development
2. Get the org and talent team identified, scale expectations accordingly
3. Create clear challenges/opportunities for the org
4. Set aside an agile/lean dev fund as dedicated portion of your opex
5. If you find yourself in a detailed budgeting process, go back to Step 1
6. Identify positive output from the stew, scale and repeat