Conservative organizations often have big problems with accommodating failure, but innovative new Silicon Valley companies like Google are demonstrating that well-considered failure indicates a willingness to take risks and to think creatively. Why don't more companies accept and even promote well-considered failures?

1. Rapid-Fire Decisions

7. What Do These Have in Common?

8. Betas on Parade

9. But Fail Quickly
“None of us can predict
what our customers really
want. We're not setting out
to do things wrong, but we
can accept that we are
doing it wrong most of the
time. We need to find out
that it's wrong and fix it—
fast. It's amazing how smart
you'll look when you
respond to what your
customers say and do.”
--Mike Moran

10. Moore’s Law
Computers
Software
Memory
Storage
Bandwidth

11. You Can Always Change It

12. Time Compression

13. Motrin Headache

14. The “Mom Response”
 More than 15,000 tweets
 More than 400 media stories
 And 3,500 blog entries
 And then there’s YouTube…
Courtesy Digitas

15. Mass Media Pickup
Courtesy Digitas

16. Golden Rules
 Good ideas are a dime a dozen
 Intention and behavior are two different
things
 Don’t test on enthusiasts
 Seek input at every stage
 Open up interfaces

17. In Technology,
First Movers Rarely Win
First Mover Winner First Mover Winner
Apple I MS-DOS Many players iPod
Apple Newton Palm Macintosh Windows
Compuserve AOL Novell TCP/IP
Yahoo Google Napster iTunes
Compaq Dell Friendster Facebook
AT&T Nokia Beta VHS
MySpace Facebook Geocities Blogs
Visicalc Excel WordPerfect Word
Mapquest Google Maps 1-2-3 Office

18. Tribal Instincts
 If there was no technology involved, would
your idea appeal to basic tribal instincts?
 What is the analogy of your idea to the ways
in which tribal communities work?
 Does your idea solve a compelling problem
quickly and simply?
 Can your idea be described in 30 words or
less?