Andrew Hargadon

Tolstoy on innovation

Ideas are overrated. I've said this before, but I just ran across this quote from Isaiah Berlin, describing Leo Tolstoy's approach to understanding war and history. If we take his meaning to heart, we could all be better students of innovation.

Where innovation comes from...

A recent Kauffman report offers new and valuable insights into where venture-driven growth comes from. Literally. Not from what attributes of social media founders or which San Francisco coffee shops, but rather which sectors of the economy and which regions of the country. The findings are surprising and important for entrepreneurs thinking of starting a business, and policymakers thinking of helping them.

Careful what you wish for: Entrepreneurial policies and startups

WSJ had a nice section recently on understanding entrepreneurs, Why Washington Has It Wrong on Small Business. In it, Professor Aaron Chatterji from Duke talks about how job growth comes from high-growth, not low-growth startups (companies younger than 5 years old). This insight mistakes hindsight for foresight but, more importantly, it puts the entrepreneurial cart before the horse.

Five words that kill innovation

I submit for your consideration, five words that I'm beginning to think kill innovation in organizations. Use them at your own peril.

Target Panic

Target Panic.

What a great diagnosis. As soon as a read the term, I knew I'd suffered from it. Have you? Looking back, I can now see it in the would-be entrepreneurs and innovators I've worked with who, despite promising ideas and heroic efforts, never made much progress.

Reprising W+K's 10 lessons for young designers

I recently ran across this list while reading about the challenges faced by John Maeda as he moved from software engineer and computer scientist to President of the Rhode Island School of Design. It reminded me that not all of design, in education and in work, can be neatly packaged and served to managers in a sound bite like 'design thinking.' I'm reprising here the list written by Wieden+Kennedy’s Executive Creative Director, John C. Jay of 10 lessons for young designers:

HR 3606, jobs, capital, and policy's folly

Two stories crossed my desk this morning. My gut reacted the the first one even before I could make sense of it, the second explained why. They had to do with entrepreneurs, venture capital (lower case), and jobs policies.

Reid Hoffman on social networks

Reid Hoffman, Founder of LinkedIn wrote a wonderful article on The real way to build a social network that is a must read for anyone who recognizes the value of networks for innovation.

What are we teaching when we teach business?

A very interesting article came out in the NYT about the general (and relatively accepted) lack of practical preparation of those graduating from law schools.  It begs the question: what are we teaching when we teach business? 

Facebook friends...

As the NYT reported, scientists at Facebook and the University of Milan (report posted here) have found that the average number of links connecting one arbitrarily selected person to another was 4.74 (in the U.S., it was just 4.37).  So what's news?