1. InnoVits Workshop
Business Model Canvas and Disciplined Experimentation.
Some thoughts on why Big companies are starting to apply start up
strategies and tools
19 Feb 2013
Stefano Mizio

2. Who am I? Stefano Mizio
• Co-Founder of startup (LBS)
• Spent a period in Silicon Valley as Technology
scout (exploration)
• 15 years in Vodafone Italy (4 years as Head of
Mobile Internet technology – nimble/agile - group).
• A famous startup Omnitel: since 1995 Head of
technology departments.
• MBA Thesis on Organizational Design (Innovation
inside established organization/Ambidexerity
framework)
Stefano Mizio

3. Agenda for today
• Large companies&startups cultures
– Performance Engine vs Innovation initiatives
• Run disciplined Experiments
• Business Model Canvas and more
Stefano Mizio

4. Performance Engine
Performance engine strives to make every task, every process as repeatable and
predictable as possible .
Innovation is neither repeatable nor predictable; it’s exactly the opposite:
nonroutine and uncertain
V. Govindarajan –C. Trimble – The other side of innovation Stefano Mizio

5. Ambidexterity
how organizations survive in the face of change?
Exploitation is about efficiency, increasing productivity, control, certainty.
Exploration is about search, discovery, autonomy, innovation and
embracing variation.
Ambidexterity is about doing both
M.Tushman – C. A. O’Reilly III– Ambidextrous organizations Stefano Mizio

6. Exploration and…
The raison d’etre for the
ambidextrous form as
opposed to a spin out is
to allow an organization
to experiment and to
leverage organizational
assets and capabilities
that would not be
available if the business
were operating
indipendently.
Stefano Mizio

7. A new trend…
Large companies are
embrancing open
innovation and less
hierarchical
management and are
integrating
entrepreneurial
behaviors with their
exisisting capabilities
Scott D. Anthony – The new corporate garage
Stefano Mizio

8. Modern Day (management)
Neologisms
CORPORATE ENTREPRENURSHIP
ENTREPRENEURIAL ORIENTATION
INTRAPRENEURSHIP
LEAN ENTERPRISE
INTERNAL CORPORATE VENTURING
Stefano Mizio

9. Intrapreneurship/Corporate
Entrepreneuship
Intrapreneurship can be defined as
using entrepreneurial skills without
taking on the risks or accountability
associated with starting your own
business. Instead, intrapreneurs are
employees in larger organizations,
who act as entrepreneurs while
having the resources and
capabilities of the larger firm to
draw upon
Corporate Entrepreneurship: is the
process by which individuals inside
organizations pursue opportunities
without regard to the resources they
currently control (Stevenson)
Stefano Mizio

10. Big companies are starting to
apply start up strategies
Four Eras of Innovation
• Lone Inventors (Edison, Wright brothers)
• Corporate Labs (DuPont,, P&G)
• VC-backed Start-ups
• Corporate Catalysts
Scott D. Anthony – The new corporate garage Stefano Mizio

11. Run disciplined exp.
Companies need to
be learning-
focused and failure
tolerant.
Building a culture
of
experimentation
Or better … disciplined experimentation
Innovations as experiments
Stefano Mizio

12. Run Disciplined Experiment
Learning :
the process
of turning
speculative
predictions
into reliable
predictions
V. Govindarajan –C. Trimble – The other side of innovation
Stefano Mizio

13. Innovation initiatives are deliberate
departures from the past
Ongoing operation (90%
data, 10% unknowns):
central focus is to execute
the plan.
Innovation initiative (10%
data, 90% unknown): the
plan is a hypothesis.
Shifting attention from
data to assumptions
Stefano Mizio

14. key activities value customer
proposition relationships
key customer
partners segments
Product/Market fit
cost revenue
structure key streams
resources channels
Business Model Canvas 14
Stefano Mizio
images by JAM

15. 9 Guesses
Guess
Guess Guess
Guess
Guess
Guess Guess
Guess Guess
Stefano Mizio

16. Customer Development Model or
How we search for the business Model
Search Execution
Pivot
Learning and Discovering
Design experiments, start listening
“…finding the right customers and market is unpredictable, and we will
screw it up several times before we get it right.” S. Blank
testing your hypotheses outside the building
Steve Blank – Customer Development Manifesto
Stefano Mizio

17. Discovery
• How big is the market?
• Who’s the customer?
– What’s their problem/need
• What’s the product/service/need?
– Does it solve the customers
problem?
• How do you create demand?
• How do you deliver the product?
• How do you make money?
Steve Blank – Customer Development Manifesto
Stefano Mizio

18. Pivoting
“Pivoting” is when you
change a fundamental
part of the business
model.
A structured course
correction designed to
test a new fundamental
hypothesis about the
product, strategy and
engine of growth. E. Ries
Eric Ries – The Lean Startup
Stefano Mizio

19. An example: Canvas Updated
•Technology
Design
•Marketing •Demo, demo,
•Mid/Large
•Demo and and demo!!
Organic Farmers
customer •Proximity is
•Cost •Agricultural
•Research Labs feedback paramount
Reduction corporations
•Equipment
•Remove labor •Weeding Service
Manufacturers
force pains Providers
•Distribution
Network
•Service •IP – Patents •Mid/Large
Providers •Robust •Direct Service Conventional
Technology •Indirect Service Farmers
• … then Dealers
•Direct Service with
equipment rental
Value-Driven •($1,500/d; 120d/yr )
•Low density: $1,500/d
•High density: $6,000/d
S. Blank – New Rules for the new bubble Stefano Mizio

20. So…
• If you are an MBA student and you like
startup culture/openness/ innovation
attitude  a growing number of
“incumbents” are going to hire
intrapreneurs (I’m not sure in Italy but the
world is your battlefield  ).
• If you are a startupper: several
methodologies are in place to help your
job  so, pivot and persevere and… Good
Luck!
Stefano Mizio

21. S.MIZIO@ALUMNIMIP.IT
Innovitamins on Linkedin