Description
Lean Start-Up is a new process for product development that replaces the stage gate process for developing products when there is high uncertainty in the market and/or technology – characteristics which typically occur in transformational and disruptive innovations. The lean start-up methodology had its beginnings in small companies (Eric Reis, The Lean Start-Up, Crown Publishing, 2011; Steve Blank, What the Lean Start-Up Changes Everything, HBR, May 2013). Large companies such as GE, Goodyear and Intuit have begun to adopt the process. As large companies are fundamentally different than start-ups, the methodology, practices, pitfalls, and lessons from small start-ups will have limited applicability to large companies. Accordingly, the purpose of this ROR has been to learn how lean start-up is actually used in large companies, which industries it might easily be applied to, and which industries need to modify and adopt the process. The team will report on the implementation methodology, best practices and lessons learned.
Contributors
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James Euchner, VP, Global Innovation, Goodyear Tire and Rubber
Jim is responsible for business model innovation and for incubating new businesses. Prior to joining Goodyear, he held senior innovation, strategy, R&D and IT roles at Pitney Bowes and Bell Atlantic (now Verizon). Jim is a co-founder of the MIT Innovation Laboratory, a consortium of companies founded in 1994 to help nurture innovation in organizations. He is also Editor in Chief of Research-Technology-Management, a journal for practitioners of innovation and technology management. Jim received his master’s degree from Princeton University, where he was a Guggenheim Fellow, and his bachelor’s degree from Cornell University, both in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. He holds an MBA from Southern Methodist University.
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Norm Golm, Director of Innovation, Regal Beloit Corporation
Norm has 29 years of experience in the motor industry starting his career at GE Motors where he held roles in Electronic Packaging, Product Design, Application Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, NPD Project Leader and Six Sigma Black Belt. Norm has spent the most of the last 17 years of his career at Regal focusing on Innovation and NPD leadership. Norm is a member of IRI’s KLT (Knowledge Leadership Team) and Purdue’s Herrick Lab IAC (Industry Advisory Council). Regal has been a member of IRI since 1965.
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Peter Koen, Associate Professor, School of Technology Management, Stevens Institute of Technology
Peter Koen is a tenured Associate Professor in the Wesley J. Howe School of Technology Management with over 19 years of industrial experience including new product development responsibility at both large and small companies. Dr. Koen holds a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from NYU and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Drexel University. Dr. Koen has also extensively published articles which appear in the Product Development Handbook (published in 2005 and 2012 by Wiley) and the Product Development Toolbooks (published by Wiley in 2002, 2004 and 2007).
Dr. Koen is currently the director of the Consortium for Corporate Entrepreneurship (CCE), which he founded in 1998, and whose mission is to significantly increase the number, speed and success probability of highly profitable products and services at the "Front End of Innovation" - which is the discovery portion of the innovation process. Additionally, he teaches courses in Stevens Executive Masters of Technology Management program in both Corporate Entrepreneuring and Technology Management. Peter was chosen in 2007 as the best graduate school instructor by both the Howe School of Technology Management and Stevens Institute.