Fire Bullets, Then Cannonballs Group 6 Justin Shamp Ryan Moeller Tate Roueche Stuart Gaston Michael Grizzle Rachel Camunez

Fanatic Discipline Level 5 Ambition Productive Paranoia Empirical Creativity “You may not find what you were looking for, but you find something else equally important.” -Robert Noyce

A Big Surprise PSA vs. Southwest Airlines Genentech vs. Amgen More important factors than innovation? “One fad behind”

Threshold Innovation Each environment has a level of threshold innovation Primary Innovation Dimension Innovation Threshold Industry New drug development, scientific discoveries, breakthroughs Biotechnology High New service features, new business models and practices Airlines Low

Creativity And Discipline Advanced Memory Systems vs. Intel Not about being first to market, but being prepared when you decide to enter “Intel Delivers” rather than “Intel Innovates” Blend creative intensity with relentless discipline

Bullets, Then Cannonballs Not putting all your gun powder into one cannonball Shoot small bullets till you hit target, then put all gunpowder into same line of sight for big hit

What Makes A Bullet? A bullet is low cost A bullet is low risk The size of the bullet grows as the enterprise grows A bullet is low risk Low risk doesn’t mean high probability of success but rather minimal consequences if the bullet goes awry or hits nothing A bullet is low distraction Meaning low distraction for the overall enterprise; it might be very high distraction for one or few individuals

Fire Bullets, Then Cannonballs Approach to principle: Fire Bullets Assess: Did your bullets hit anything? Consider: Do any of your successful bullets merit conversation to a big cannonball? Convert: Concentrate resources and fire a cannonball once calibrated Don’t fire uncalibrated cannonballs Terminate bullets that show no evidence of eventual success

Calibrated vs. Uncalibrated Calibrated bullets Has confirmation based on actual experience, empirical validation, that a big bet will likely prove successful Uncalibrated bullets A cannonball fired before you gain empirical validation Danger of firing multiple uncalibrated bullets PSA

Learning from follies Difference between 10Xers and Comparison Companies 10Xers view mistakes as expensive tuition: better get something out of it, apply the learning, and don’t repeat Underlying Principle: Empirical Validation Figure out what works in practice and do it better than everyone else

Predictive Genius or Empirical Validation? Bill Gates IBM vs. Microsoft operating systems Fired bullets at both so he would have a good outcome either way Launched cannonball at MS-DOS and made it big 10Xers aren’t visionary geniuses; they’re empiricists

Conclusion Fire bullets, then cannonball approach Failure to fire cannonballs, once calibrated, leads to mediocre results Marry relentless discipline with creativity