Innovation Scorecard and playbook
January 26, 2010
Bill Warner, A technology entrepreneur in Boston posted the following Scorecard and play book for building an innovation economy. Bill is in Boston but this simple methodology is applicable elsewhere including Kentucky. We need plays and metrics with which to judge the success of efforts to boost a technology cluster. Our politicians often tout the work they are doing in these areas but use outdated or no methodology at all to judge their impact and many of the tactics are outdated or ineffective. This might give us a common language.
Scorecard
Single
Any growing company that is selling a successful product.
This would mean any company that successfully reaches the market and serves a growing need.
Essentially, you’re on base once you show that more and more people need and obtain your product.
Double
Any growing company with sales over $10M.
Triple
Any growing company with sales over $100M
Home Run
>1B market cap
Grand Slam
>10B market cap
“Home Run Candidate” - This means a local company that could go pubic, and reach over a billion in market cap. Constant Contact and iRobot are examples.
“Grand Slam Candidate” This is a company that is probably already public, and could become an unchallenged global leader with over $10B in sales.
Exstream software was a home run and you might count Lexmark as a grand slam though it was a spinout.
Playbook
1. Fund First Timers
- The great breakthroughs come from people doing it for the first time
- Stop focusing so much on experience.
2. More Mixing
- Encourage job movement. It’s good for the economy
- Move the talent around. Stealing talent is healthy. Changing jobs spreads the talent wealth.
- Voluntarily avoid non-competes. Create social pressure not to have non-competes.
3. Awesome Angels
- We must dramatically improve our angel environment.
- More angels that can do $25K-50K investments quickly
- Recruit some local “Super Angels” similar to Ron Conway and others from California.
4. New Blood
- We need new blood, new talent, to rebuild our region
- Aggressively recruit from outside, especially California.
5. Push Each Other
- Create pressure to Play Big, to avoid moves that diminish us locally.
- Expect higher performance from your peers, from your superiors, and from your team.
6. Execute, Execute
- Get tough with getting things done right.
- No company can become a global leader if its ideas are great, but it’s execution is spotty
- We need to build our expertise in operations, in sales, and in marketing. (how?)
7. Spread Success
- Make sure people know what’s working. Get the word out.
- Share real stories in small groups. Have the winners teach others how to win.
