Steven Snyder's Blog

Over the past several decades, lean management techniques such as value stream mapping and root cause analysis have yielded untold billions of dollars of savings, helping businesses run more smoothly and efficiently. Still, these approaches center mainly on optimizing existing operations and provide little guidance for those who wish to introduce radical innovation in their organizations, like introducing a new product line or entering a new market.

Fortunately, a new set of tools—inspired by...

Over the past several decades, lean management techniques such as value stream mapping and root cause analysis have yielded untold billions of dollars of savings, helping businesses run more smoothly and efficiently. Still, these approaches center mainly on optimizing existing operations and provide little guidance for those who wish to introduce radical innovation in their organizations, like introducing a new product line or entering a new market.

Fortunately, a new set of tools—inspired by...

Sometimes when you get a first glimmer of something radically new, you just know it will change everything. VISICALC, the Mac, the Netscape Navigator, and of course the iPhone, all come to mind. Last night, I had a similar feeling at the Mayo Clinic. Something big has arrived, allowing large organizations to dramatically accelerate their innovation pipeline.

What’s new is a mixture of software and process stemming from Steve Blank’s work on the lean startup. Blank observed that startups waste...

I first learned about the Cubic Centimeter of Opportunity from my friend, Stan Halle, in 1983. I was contemplating two job offers, and had sought Stan’s advice which to take. One offer came from a well-known consulting company in Boston, where I was living at the time. It was the safer of the two offers—the other was from a virtually unknown company near Seattle. I had just come from a start-up experience that didn’t go well, and was leaning toward the more predictable path.

It was then that S...

In the 1980′s, when I worked for Microsoft, you could feel the buzz. We were only 250 employees back then, but each one brought enormous drive and energy. The company worked together as one—the whole greater than the sum of the parts.

Microsoft still has some of the most talented employees in the world, now numbering over 100,000. They’ve fallen behind because they’ve not been able to fully channel those capabilities to meet changing market needs.

The appointment of Satya Nadella, a Microsoft v...

I had the privilege of getting to know GM’s new CEO Mary Barra last summer,when we both attended Leading a Global Enterprise, an Executive EducationProgram at the Harvard Business School.

Barra embodies the very essence of a 21st century global leader, and she isa leader whom I have come to truly admire. Here are some of the lessons wecan learn from her steady thirty-three year rise at one of the world’slargest corporations: