The Low Budget Airline Jetstar Asia Airways Tourism Essay Essay Example

The Low Budget Airline Jetstar Asia Airways Tourism Essay Paper Jetstar Asia Airways is a low-priced budget air hose operating in the Southeast Asiatic part. It is founded by its female parent company Australia s Qantas Airways in 2003. Unlike Jetstar in Australia, Jetstar Asia is bulk Singapore in which a Singapore investing company, Temasek Holdings Limited holds 19 per cent of portions, two Singaporean business communities possess 32 per centum, and the staying 49 per cent of portions belongs to Qantas Group. The company is known as an air hose to offer low menus, all twenty-four hours and every twenty-four hours to South East Asia clients. It has received several valuable awards, such as Best Brand Experience for Low Cost Carrier ( 2006 ) , Best Low Cost Airline, Southeast Asia and Asia ( 2006, 2008 ) , Top 10 Airlines by Passenger Carriage ( 2006, 2007 ) , Best Asiatic Low-Cost Carrier ( 2006, 2007 ) . The first Jetstar Asia Airways flight took off for Hong Kong on December 13, 2004. Jetstar Asia and Valuair Airways Limited were me rged on July 22, 2005 ( Jetstar, neodymium ) . We will write a custom essay sample on The Low Budget Airline Jetstar Asia Airways Tourism Essay specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The Low Budget Airline Jetstar Asia Airways Tourism Essay specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The Low Budget Airline Jetstar Asia Airways Tourism Essay specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer With a fleet of seven A320 aircrafts, Jetstar Asia now offers up to 126 hebdomadal flights from Singapore to 17 finishs in 10 Asiatic states. It is be aftering to increase capacity by more three A320 aircrafts by early following twelvemonth and add finishs in India and China. This selling survey aims to supply the Jetstar Asia Airways current selling environment. It will analyze SWOT every bit good as PESTEL to do clearly internal and external selling environment. The study besides discuss about the current market program of Jetstar Asia Airways. From the audit procedure, recommendations will come out for bettering Jetstar Asia Airways selling public presentation in bing competitory air power environment. II. Background Today, planetary air power industry has been divided into three major classs ( Lelieur, 2003 ) . The first class consists of big web bearers, such as United Airlines, American Airlines, and Delta in the United States ; Air France, British Airway, Lufthansa in Europe. The 2nd 1 is the in-between size bearers such as KLM and SAS in Europe. The concluding class is the low cost bearers, such as Jet Blue, Westjet in North America ; Virgin Blue and Australian Airlines in Australia ; Ryanair, EasyJet, and Air Berlin in Europe ; Air Asia, Oasis Hong Kong Airline, Jetsatr Asia Airway, and Tiger Airway in Asia Pacific. Harmonizing to Weiss ( 2008, p.84 ) , Low-cost bearers, besides known as a no frills or price reduction air hoses, offers low menus in exchange for extinguishing many traditional riders services. These air hoses have a lower cost constructions than rivals. They frequently operate a individual rider category and fleet, cut downing preparation and service costs . In recent old ages, the low-priced bearers ( LLCs ) phenomenon has become more popular in air power industry. The low cost air hose concern has experienced surprising growing in term of riders carried and aircraft ordered. LLCs are likely to maintain their monetary value down exhaustively on-line engagement every bit good as supplying the minimal degree of onboard services. They can be seen as a new large success in the universe air hose industry. Harmonizing to OAG s Quarterly Airline Traffic Statistics ( 2007 ) , low cost international flights have increased 20 % twelvemonth by twelvemonth. Asia Pacific witnessed a dramatic growing in low cost sector, with an addition from 3,900 flights and 600,000 seats in 2001 to 61,000 flights and 9.2 million seats in 2007 ( Abacus, 2008 ) . The Asia Pacific low cost market now has accounted for 12 % of all flights and all seats. Many Asiatic states such as Singapore, Malaysia, India has opened up LCCs to attractive a big figure of riders. As an avowal about Jetstar Airways chance, Geoff Dixon, CEO of Qantas Airways Ltd said: We re really confident about the timing of the launch of this air hose. I do nt cognize where other air hoses will stop up but I can guarantee you Jetstar Asia will be about in four old ages clip and will be profitable, so Temasek and our other investors can be confident. ( 2004 ) . Jetstar Asia has announced its gross increases 20 % for the twelvemonth ended 31 March 2008 ( Jetstar, neodymium ) . These proves that low menus has become attract more travelers. The outlook of Jetstar Asia Airways about the universe s largest possible air power market is coming true. 2.2 PEST analysis Plague analysis is a common tool for analyzing an administration s macro-environment to place those factors that might increase the possible for crisis. ( Elliott, Swartz and Herbane, 2002 ) . These include political, economic, societal and technological factors and the analysis examines the impact of each of them on the concern. 2.2.1 Political factors On the August 09, 1965, Singapore left Malaysia Federation and became crowned head, democratic and independent state. In 1967, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand established the Association of Southeast Asiatic Nations ( Asnic, neodymium ) . From 1970 Singapore is considered as a political stableness state. It has become the comfortable state with a widespread web of trading links. So far, Singapore political stableness has leaded to a high rate of economic growing. As one of Asia most stable economic sciences, many Singapore companies have developed good. Singapore economic has been developing services industries such as wealth direction and touristry, air power industry. Singaporean air hose industry plays a cardinal function in Singaporean economic system. It now includes mainstream Singapore Airlines and two low cost air hoses Tiger Airways and Jetstar Asia Airways. However, September 11th terrorist onslaught event in United States caused important fal ling in going. Besides, the political instability in South East Asia part, such as Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia influenced negatively on air power industry in Asia countries. 2.2.2 Economic factors The economic environment consists of factors that affect consumer buying power and disbursement forms . ( Kotler and Armstrong, 2009, p103 ) . These undermentioned analyses will demo how economic factors have an consequence on air power industry. In recent old ages, planetary economic crisis has pushed the trade-service dependent states into worst recession. The universe travel market has besides been affected in this crisis. Harmonizing to International Air Transport Association, due to economic recession, the planetary rider traffic will diminish by 3 % in 2009 and non turning above 4 % until 2011 ( IATA, 2008 ) . Another major factor effects strongly on air hose market, particularly budget air hoses, that is the addition in fuel monetary value. From 2004, the oil monetary value rush was a consequence of three chief factors: increased demand, a little planetary surplus of production capableness, and the fright of supply break. The fuel cost addition caused of 36 % rise of air hose operating costs in 2008. The deathly combination of falling demand and high oil monetary values made a dip of air power industry s profitableness, about losingss of US $ 10.4 billion in 2008. At the same twelvemonth, Asia Pacific air hose industry incurred losingss US $ 300 million ( IATA, 2009 ) . 2.2.3 Social factors Tendencies in societal factors are important constituent of the PEST analysis for air hose industry. Firstly, some factors such as advanced medical commissariats and low ratio at birth have allowed people to populate longer. The mean age of the population has been increasing steadily. Therefore, the merchandises that air hoses offer refering to older and handicapped riders who need aid at airdromes. Besides, traditional household construction has been altering in today modern society. The addition of divorce rate every bit good as figure of one-parent household has become modern-day tendency that travel industry has to make to suit. They can be promotional and merchandise planning policies, which offer to those who are singles or one-parent household. Furthermore, the alterations in the occupation market have impacts for air hose selling policies. Due to work force per unit areas, executives frequently have to do a day-return trip alternatively of two yearss. This has become more of import for short-haul markets. 2.2.4 Technology factors As an advanced engineering, Internet now plays an of import function in air hoses industry. All air hoses have web sites that allow clients to book air ticket online. In doing reserve, clients can besides choose their place. Use of cyberspace in air power industry brings benefits for both air hoses and riders based on cost economy. The application of Simplifying the Business ( StB ) undertaking in about air hoses brings non merely convenience to consumers but besides lower costs to air hoses industry. The undertaking includes electronic-ticketing, Common-Use Self-Service booths, and bar-coded embarkation base on ballss ( BCBP ) . BCBP can be accessed through web sites, booth, and a check-in desk. It will extinguish magnetic-stripe embarkation base on ballss in close hereafter. With PEST analysis as above, selling environment of Jetstar Asia Airways has merely evaluated to see how the company operates in the today altering environment. III. External analysis 1. Micro-environment ( app 1,200 words ) Description of the market Rivals analysis Market size, location, growing and chances Government engagement in the market place 2. Macro-environment 2.1 SWOT analysis A SWOT analysis is an in-depth scrutiny of cardinal factors that are internal ( strengths and failings ) and external ( chances and menaces ) to a concern ( Pinson, 2008, p.33 ) . Strengths are internal capablenesss that may assist a company make its objects. Failings are internal restrictions that may interfere with a company s ability to accomplish its objects. Opportunities are external factors that the company may be able to work to its advantages. Menaces are current external factors that may dispute the company s public presentation. ( Kotler and Armstrong, 2009, p.78 ) . SWOT analysis helps a concern to concentrate on those countries that present the greatest chances and those competences in which it is strongest. That concern look into ways to decrease its failings, develop schemes to get the better of menaces. The undermentioned analysis focuses on Jetstar Asia s SWOT. SWOT ANALYSIS OF JETSTAR ASIA AIRWAYS Internal Strengths Failings Flexible ticket monetary value construction Growth in market portion One type of aircraft Performance Narrow flight finishs. Limited fleet. External Opportunities Menaces Strengthen competitory capableness. Addition in short-haul traveling. Growth in Singapore touristry Addition of fuel monetary value Unpredictable catastrophe factors Swine grippe spread Customers belief. 2.1.1 Strengths Flexible ticket monetary value construction: Jetstar Asia Airways has applied flexible ticket monetary value construction that allows clients can take any sort of ticket, depending on clients demand. Customers can buy which ticket with or without baggage. By this application, Jetstar Asia Airways desires to run into clients diversified demands. Growth in market portion: The Company is traveling to establish its first service into China on December 16, 2009 ( BusinessWeek, 2009 ) . After that, it will offer new finish in India. Furthermore, with 3 extra A320 aircrafts, it will spread out its current capacity by 46 per cent by establishing twice daily services on the Singapore-Phuket path. One type of aircraft: Thankss to working one type of aircraft Airbus A320- Jetstar Asia Airways can salvage cost of fuel ingestion, cost of keeping other aircrafts and cut down cost of staff preparation, taking to take down operation cost. As a consequence, Jetstar Asia Airways can do up competitory advantage to entice more clients by offering low ticket monetary value. Performance: One of the most of import factors impacting clients pick in air hose industry is on-time public presentation. Understand this ; Jetstar has used the computerised Aircraft Communication Addressing and Reporting System ( ACARS ) to guarantee the truth of going clip and arrival clip. In 2008 and 2009, Jetstar s on-time public presentation ever achieved from 92 % to 98 % ( Jetstar, neodymium ) . 2.1.2 Failings Narrow flight finishs: So far, Jetstar Asia Airways has merely exploited its aeronautic paths to 17 finishs across 10 states in Asia Pacific ( Jetstar, neodymium ) . Meanwhile, Tiger Airways has runing with 27 finishs, and Asia Airways has 50 finishs. This can be seen failings of Jetstar Asia in air power competition to achieve clients. Limited fleet: Due to the limited fleet of seven A320 aircrafts, Jetstar Asia Airways has some troubles in spread outing its market portion to new finishs. 2.1.3 Opportunities Jetstar Asia Airways has focused on non merely single riders but besides concern travelers. It has set up several sorts of privilege services for concern travelers to increase figure of riders twelvemonth by twelvemonth. From merely 50 houses in 2004, now Jetstar has 400 corporations going with it ( Baoying, 2009 ) . More and more concerns, even transnational companies, are likely to take low cost air hoses to salvage their concern cost that create possible low cost market for Jetstar Asia Airways and other air hoses. Besides, tendency of short-haul traveling is increasing in figure of Asiatic tourers ; alternatively of long-haul vacations because it enables Asiatic people travel more on a regular basis in twelvemonth. Concentrating on these topics, Jetstar Asia will catch more chances to spread out its market portion. In add-on to this, in Singapore, two incorporate resorts the Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa will be opened in 2010. At that clip, figure of traveler visi ts Singapore will increase dramatically. There will be about 15 million visitants coming to Singapore ( integratedresort, neodymium ) . Such general tendencies as mentioned above will convey chance for Singapore air hose industry, including budget air hoses and mainstream air hoses. 2.1.4 Menaces The addition in fuel monetary value over the past few old ages has bad affected on sustainable growing of Jetstar Asia Airways and air power industry. This can be seen an inexplicit menaces to profitableness of air hoses. Furthermore, the spread swine grippe in many parts has affected significantly on air hose going due to the dramatic lessening of travelers. Unpredictable accidents that come from bad conditions or proficient jobs are besides menaces to air hoses. Passengers may waver in taking between budget air hoses and mainstream air hoses because of the safety in budget air hoses. This menace may veto impact on gross revenues of Jetstar Asia. Recommendation Presents, Asian air hoses industry is acquiring more ferociously competitory between budget air hoses and traditional full services air hoses. Furthermore, competition among the outgrowth of Asiatic budget air hoses, such as Air Asia, Tiger Airways and Jetstar Asia has besides become intensely. In order to better the company s selling public presentation, we suggest some recommendations based on SWOT analysis above and consequences collected from an interview with people who are refering about air hoses market. First, we suggest Jetstar Asia should plan a client driven selling scheme to place its mark market. Its market cleavage includes clients those who normally travel on short draw trips and can non afford mean international tickets. Then the company should construct profitable client relationships based on topics: travelers for leisure, business communities and pupils. Understanding who its clients are, the company will construct client relationship to fulfill their demands. In add-on to this, the consequences from questioning reflect the company s convenience and services are non excessively high, merely over 50 % of respondents think that it is just. In order to capture value from clients and ain client trueness, in its selling schemes, the company needs to construct the right relationship with right clients and make client delectation. The company should beef up clients belief that lower monetary value does non intend bad services. Besides, Jetstar Asia should develop effectual advertisement scheme to consolidate their trade name name through mass media. Furthermore, limited fleet and flight finishs caused limitation in enlargement market place every bit good as pulling mark clients. Therefore, we recommend the company to use competitory schemes. The company should transport out non merely protect its current market portions but besides increase it farther. Books Weiss, J.W. ( 2008 ) Business Ethical motives: A Stakeholder and Issues Management Approach, Cengage Learning, New York. Lelieur, I. ( 2003 ) Law and policy of significant ownership and effectual control of air hoses Prospects for alteration, Ashgate Publishing, Hampshire. Pinson, L.J. ( 2008 ) Anatomy of a concern program: the bit-by-bit usher to constructing a concern and procuring your company hereafter, Out of your mindaˆÂ ¦and into the market place, California. Kotler, P and Amstrong, G ( 2009 ) Principles of Marketing, Pearson, New Jersey. A Elliott, D. , Swartz, E. and Herbane, B ( 2002 ) Business continuity direction: a crisis direction attack, Routledge, London Web sites Abacus ( 2008 ) The Year of the Resourceful A ; Enterprising Rat, accessed September 06, 2009, hypertext transfer protocol: //www.abacus.com.sg BusinessWeek ( 2009 ) Jetstar Airways Pty Ltd, accessed September 06, 2009, hypertext transfer protocol: //investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp? privcapId=10917341 A ; goback=.cps_1247149767187_1 Baoying, Ng. ( 2009 ) Jetstar Asia expands fleet and paths to maintain up with competition, accessed September 06, 2009, hypertext transfer protocol: //www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporebusinessnews/view/450077/1/.html integratedresort ( nd ) Singapore Integrated Resorts, accessed September 06, 2009, hypertext transfer protocol: //integratedresorts.com.sg/ jetstar ( neodymium ) News, accessed September 06, 2009, hypertext transfer protocol: //www.jetstar.com/sg/en/about-us/news.aspx # SinApr16b Asnic ( neodymium ) Singapore history, accessed September 06, 2009, hypertext transfer protocol: //asnic.utexas.edu/asnic/countries/singapore/Singapore-History.html IATA ( 2008 ) IATA Economic briefing-The impact of recession on air traffic volumes, accessed September 07, 2009, hypertext transfer protocol: //www.iata.org/NR/rdonlyres/7E25AD13-E0AD-4166-ABD8-CFA192D51AB4/0/IATA_Economics_Briefing_Impact_of_Recession_Dec08.pdf IATA ( 2009 ) Annual study 2009, accessed September 07, 2009, hypertext transfer protocol: //www.iata.org/nr/rdonlyres/a33bc4b3-431b-4690-be6d-6788900c8ae3/0/iataannualreport2009.pdf Primary Resource Interview We have conducted market research by an interview with clients of Jetstar Asia and non-clients at Changi Airport to happen replies so develop selling scheme for Jetstar Asia. We would be grateful if you could help our group by finishing our questionnaires, which will supply utile information to us. Personal information 1. Sexual activity: a-? Male a-? Female 2. Age scope: a-?18-25 a-? 26-30 a-? 31-40 a-? 41-50 a-? 51-60 3. Occupation: _______________ A. Questionnaires 1. Which air hose with do you normally wing? a-? Mainstream air hoses a-? Budget airlines a-? Never 2. Which budget air hose with do you normally wing? a-? Jetstar Asia a-? Tiger Airways a-? Air Asia a-? Others ____________ 3. What concerns you most when you think of taking the budget air hose? a-? Money a-? Service a-? Convenience a-? Others ____________ 4. Which beginning lead you know Jetstar Asia? a-? Newspapers a-? Internet a-? Friends a-? Others ____________ 5. What is the intent of your trip? a-? Leisure a-? Business a-? Study a-? Others 6. How would you rate Jetstar Asia in footings of service? a-? Poor a-? Fair a-? Good a-? Excellent 7. How would you rate Jetstar Asia in footings of convenience? a-? Poor a-? Fair a-? Good a-? Excellent 8. What do you believe about Jetstar Asia s ticket monetary value comparing to other budget air hoses? a-? High a-? Reasonable a-? Low Thank you really much for taking the clip to reply these inquiries. B. Answers from appraising Question 1: For this inquiry, the consequences show that riders of budget air hoses are lower than that of mainstream air hoses, 27 % compared to 69 % . It means that budget air power s market portion is little. 4 % of the respondents have neer been on plane. Question 2: Reacting this inquiry, outcomes indicate out that Jetstar Asia rank at 3rd place behind Tiger Airways and Air Asia, with 23 % whereas Tiger Airways and Air Asia are 31 % and 42 % severally. 4 % of the replies flew with other air hoses. It should be recommended that Jetstar Asia need more effectual selling scheme to heighten the competitory capacity. Question 3: The consequence illustrate that the most clients concern when they choose budget air hoses is salvaging money, with 69 % of the respondents. Service standards and convenient standards rank the 2nd and the 3rd pick, with 16 % and 13 % severally. 2 % of the replies chose budget air hoses chiefly because attach toing with friends. Question 4: 41 % of the replies show that they knew Jetstar Asia through Internet. Newspapers, Friends and Others are ordered by 27 % , 25 % and 7 % severally. Question 5: For intent of concern, 31 % of the respondents take this consequence. 44 % of the replies show that their trip for leisure. For analyzing intent is 19 % , other intent is 6 % , such as wellness attention, sing old friends. Therefore, Jetstar Asia should concentrate on mark clients who are travelers in order to hike up its gross revenues. Besides it should pay attending to possible client section, including business communities and pupils. Question 6: In term of services, 53 % of respondents explained that they considered Jetstar Asia s services are sensible and acceptable. In contrast, 8 % of interviewees admitted poverty of service. Good standards and first-class standards are appraised by 25 % and 14 % severally. Question 7: Similarly, 51 % of interviewees illustrated that they evaluated convenience is just. 23 % of the replies think that convenience offered by Jetstar Asia is good whilst 15 % of them considered it as first-class. Staying 11 % of respondents are non pleased with Jetstar Asia convenience as they think it is hapless. Question 8: What do you believe about ticket monetary value of Jetstar Asia comparing to other budget air hoses? 64 % of them think that ticket monetary value offered by Jetstar Asia is sensible. 29 % of them believe that is low. Merely 7 % of the replies claim its monetary value is high.

“The Collector of Treasures” by Bessie Head Essay Research Paper Example

â€Å"The Collector of Treasures† by Bessie Head Essay Research Paper Example â€Å"The Collector of Treasures† by Bessie Head Essay Paper â€Å"The Collector of Treasures† by Bessie Head Essay Paper Bessie Head was born and reared in from South Africa. She is the writer of â€Å"The Collector of Treasures. † Many points that she depicted in her narrative were about the oppressive attitudes some work forces had about adult females and kids and how society outcast certain adult females based upon what happened in their lives or upon what they could or could non make. In this narrative. â€Å"The Collector of Treasures. † Dikeledi. a strong and resilient characteris married to a adult male named Garesego who is a womaniser. Garesego believed that everything had to be about sex. He did non take attention of his duties as a adult male. Head described him as the type of adult male who had sex with adult females like Canis familiariss. out of canal lecherousness. Out of the four old ages that they were together. Garesego got Dikeledi pregnant 3 times and left her. He did non go forth and travel to another small town. he stayed in the same small town and did non take attention of the boies he helped convey in the universe. On the contrary. Paul is wholly different from Garesego. Paul is portrayed as the adult male who cares about his adult female and treats her like a individual. He is at that place for his married woman. Kenalepe. and their kids. Sing Paul dainty his married woman like a individual was something new for Dikeledi and seeing that type of action from a adult male to his married woman led Dikeledi to seek to speak to Garesego. Garesego is your typical male. so when Dikeledi asked him for money to take attention of their kids. he expected sex in return. Dikeledi had another program in head. Her mentality in this scenario was that Garesego phallus is the lone thing that makes him different from her and he used to command adult females. Therefore. when she castrated him. non merely did she kill him. she made him her equal. Garesego was a adult male who did non hold any regard for adult females. He used them as sex objects and threw them off when he was done. In Dikeledi’s experience. he used her one excessively many times. Without his phallus. Dikeledi felt he could non ache anyone any longer. particularly her. She had watched him handle her wronglongenough every bit good as other adult females. Dikeledi felt that without his phallus. Garesego and she would be on the same degree. This narrative is entitled. â€Å"A Collector of Treasures† and Dikeledi was decidedly a aggregator of hoarded wealths. Even though throughout the full narrative. she had nil but grief after grief and bad things done to her. nevertheless. she did non allow that impact who she was destined to be. Dikeledi was non the ordinary lady. she was stronger than the mean adult female and cognize how to make everything the mean adult female and adult male could. That is one thing she treasured. Dikeledi besides treasured the fact that she could make what she needed to make to do certain her and her household was taken attention of. Dikeledi treasured the fact that she was a strong. independent adult female. Dikeledi’s name meant â€Å"Tears. † Throughout the full narrative. Dikeledi neer shed a tear whether it was felicity or unhappiness. She valued her strong willed head and her finding to make the incredible. Due to the fact that she was a strong adult female likely meant that she caused person else tears. but non herself. There are some dry points in this narrative. One is that the protagonist’s name was Dikeledi and you pronounce the beginning of her name as â€Å"Dick† which is a slang name for phallus. Besides. the writer of this narrative name is Bessie Head and Dikeledi had a good â€Å"head† on her shoulder. Dikeledi was a aggregator of many hoarded wealths and she added her husband’s phallus to the aggregation. Throughout Dikeledi’s difficult life. she has looked beneath the surface and collected little hoarded wealths. and these gave her the strength to travel on.

Is it legal to download the music freely Research Paper

Is it legal to download the music freely - Research Paper Example The research project aims at addressing the question whether free download of music is legal. The authors investigate the issue of illegal downloading of music under ethical perspective. They indicate that people illegally download music despite them knowing that it is wrong. This article is peer reviewed and I have not found any awards for the article. The main aim of the research for this project is to determine whether music downloads for free is legal. The authors indicate that individual’s share and record music for other to download the music online for free. One example is the case of napster that enabled users to download anything they want on the internet for free. However, it is now restricted by legal actions. This article is peer reviewed with no awards for it. It seeks to explore the aim of the project that asks whether the download of music for free is legal. This article is able to study the degree to which protecting copyright owners is required. This is the case for music download requiring individuals to download music for free which is illegal. This article is peer reviewed with no awards for the article. It adds to the aim of this project that seeks to understand whether download of music for free is legal. The author indicates that people widely share music files on the internet. Such transfers allow individuals to download the music for free which can be illegal. This article is peer reviewed with no awards for the article. The aim of my project is to answer the question as to whether it is legal to download music for free. The author indicates that most of the software and music industries suggest to consumers that copying digital contents would land them in jail. Scelba, Curtis Johnlee. "Culture and the Digital Copyright Chimera: Assessing the International Regulatory System of the Music Industry in Relation to Cultural Diversity." International Journal of Cultural Property (2009):

Organ Systems & Evolution Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Organ Systems & Evolution - Assignment Example The circulatory and lymphatic systems are also connected, for lymph in the lymphatic system comes from blood. Lastly, secondary lymphedema, an obstruction of lymph flow, is discussed with its similarities to atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis and Heart Attack Normally, the heart supplies oxygen to all parts of the body to keep them alive, and at the same time, oxygen-rich blood must be supplied to the heart muscle to keep it alive. However, in the case of atherosclerosis, or the buildup of plaque in the arterial walls, the flow of oxygen-rich blood to a particular section of a heart muscle, or myocardium, can get blocked. If the blood supply to the heart muscle is greatly reduced or completely prevented, it will eventually cause the muscle to die. Although there could be other causes for a heart attack, the one caused by this buildup of plaque, or atherosclerosis, is known as coronary heart disease, or CHD (â€Å"What is a Heart Attack,† NIH, 2011). The reason behind the name is the fact that the coronary artery is responsible for the supply of oxygen to the heart. (Matthews, 2011) Coronary heart disease is caused by the buildup of plaque for many years, and will most likely lead to a heart attack. As plaque accumulates in the wall of the artery which supplies oxygen-rich blood to the heart, this plaque may cause a rupture inside the artery and thus cause a blood clot to form on the surface of the plaque. If this plaque grows in size and becomes large enough, it may completely block all blood flow to the heart muscle (â€Å"What is a Heart Attack,† NIH, 2011). The complete obstruction of the blood will cause a myocardial infarction, or heart attack. However, partial blockage may only cause chest pain. (Matthews, 2011) Heart attacks may not kill the person and may simply cause heart failure. Heart failure can lead to other problems like dyspnea, or shortness of breath, and edema, or swelling of the body due to buildup of fluid the heart would normall y get rid of as waste if it were functioning efficiently. (Sourfer, 2002) Arteries, Veins and Capillaries Blood vessels are hollow tubes that do not only hold the blood within the body but also circulate them across organs in the body. There are three types or varieties of blood vessels. The arteries transport oxygenated blood away from the heart. The capillaries are the ones that connect the arteries and the veins, and finally the veins carry the deoxygenated blood back to the heart. (â€Å"Blood Vessels,† 2011) The main function of arteries is to carry blood from the heart to all the other organs, except for the pulmonary arteries that carry deoxygenated blood towards the lungs. Arteries are thick-walled blood vessels and thus may be able to withstand constant stretching every time blood rushes through them for every heartbeat. The thick walls of the artery protect it from the high pressure of blood flow coming from the ventricles of the heart. (â€Å"Blood Vessels,† 2000) Veins, on the other hand, may undergo less pressure coming from the blood flow from organs. It also follows that the wall of a vein is thinner than that of an artery. The function of veins is generally to carry deoxygenated blood from the organs towards the heart, except for pulmonary veins that carry oxygenated blood from the lungs towards the heart. Moreover, veins have a special purpose of carrying waste

Global leadership and management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Global leadership and management - Essay Example They understand that the leadership tools help them in solving complicated problems and thus give them way to be success. Those leaders who are best are certainly keen on learning more to sharpen their qualities and skill to be constructive and efficient .A leader can turn out to be disorganized and unfocused, if he does not evaluate and analyze himself at the right time and in the right manner. A stressed and unfocused leader can be a disaster and failure and can also de-motivate the team which he is leading. The performance standards of the leader can be enhanced only if he makes use of an appropriate leadership assessment tool. These tools provide assessment in various areas of management like sales, customer service, team building, and time management and so on. The overview of the proposed leadership assessment tool The proposed leadership assessment tool is focused on determining the ability of the person to work with tasks and people. In this assessment, a person needs to resp ond on 18 questions which evaluate their skill on task and people. This assessment studies the leader’s skill and ability in leading a project by giving attention to all areas of working. It also evaluates the person’s ability in achieving a task or objective in the appropriate manner Also, the person’ s ability to coach the team regarding new tasks and procedures are also analyzed in this proposed leadership assessment tool. His ability to carry out different complicated task at one time is also kept in consideration during the assessment. Managing the time is an important aspect of a successful leadership and this tool give much value to it. A leader can perform a task efficiently only if he is expert in analyzing problems and managing team work. He should also honor the limits and restrictions of his employees and plan things accordingly. However, if a leader can counsel his employees well, he has done half of his job. Once the person has responded to the que stions listed, his scores are recorded on a form which has the two columns with a specification of task and people. The total marks for both areas are totaled and jotted on a chart. The graph has task has the horizontal axis, and people as the vertical axis. According to the intersection of lines on graph, the leadership will be categorized as team leader, country club type, authoritarian or impoverished. In the following pages we can see the results of 10 respondents who have used this tool. Leadership assessment results of 10respondents Respondent One : The first respondent is not very keen in involving the team in decision making process, coaching them , reading literature to training, leadership and psychology as the score is two .Although, he is averagely good with accomplishing tasks ,keeping accounts of minute details of projects, correcting mistakes, time management and encouraging employees, since his score is three. He has proved too competent with analyzing problems, mult i- tasking, explaining the task to employees and honoring their limits as he scored four. The person has gives least importance in breaking large projects to smaller task and monitoring the schedule of the project, since he has scored one .However, the score is five in areas like building a great team, on counseling skills and carrying out and implementing innovative procedures. Finally, by

Youth Drug Abuse Hong Kong

Youth Drug Abuse Hong Kong Youth problem is a wide-ranged and intertwined one among the social problems. With the development of information technology and economics, the teenagers are faced with more temptations than the older generations of their age, in other words, they have more choices for fun, like online games, Japanese cartoon and animation books and magazines, everyday updated fashionable accessories, hi-tech products and something can make the young generation feel like in the trend. However, out of some reasons, they are prone to be addicted with the novelties and then deviate from their normal life, such as the internet addiction, alcohol abuse, drug abuse and so on. Some of those youth problems are independent, but most of them are relevant and can elicit each other. Quite recent, I watched a documentary film named the Crimson Jade telling a story about a drug abuse schoolgirl, which arouse me to dig more about the young drug abuse group. Thus, in this paper, I especially choose the youth drug ab use problem as the topic. Drug abuse is regarded as a serious teenager problem in Hong Kong. The age of the individuals who is the first time taking drug is younger than past: since 2007, the reported drug abuser under 21 increased by 34 percent within 3 years (Qing shao nian du pin wen ti zhuan ze xiao zu bao gao : zhai yao, 2008); In the year of 2007, almost all reported young drug abuser (99 percent) once took the mentally damaging drugs, only 2 percent of them took the traditional drugs (mainly the heroin), and there were 80.2 percent of young abuser took the ketamine for the most part (Qing shao nian du pin wen ti zhuan ze xiao zu bao gao : zhai yao, 2008).The developing traits of the Hong Kong teenagers drug abuse:1) the age of abusers tends to be younger as time goes on ; 2) increasing females become the drug abusers (Luan, 2010), the drug addictive female under 21 increased by 25 percent than the same duration in the first half year of 2008. 3% of youth are easily tend to be involved in drug dealing a nd/or smuggling. The definition of the youth drug abuse According to the definition of deviant behavior, the drug abuse is one of forms of that. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the meaning of former first. After reviewing the textbook, it can be illustrated that the deviance involves the activities do not compliant with the social norms and are unreached the expectations of members from a specific society (Haralambos, 2008). Deviance in a sociological context describes actions or behaviors that violate cultural norms including formally-enacted rules (e.g., crime) as well as informal violations of social norms (e.g., rejecting folkways and norms). It is the preview of sociologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, and criminologists to study how these norms are created, how they change over time and how they are enforced (Wikipedia, 2010). It can be illustrated that the crime, delinquency, different kinds of addictions are the forms of the deviant behaviors, and the drug abuse is one of the addictions. In terms of the definition of you th drug abuse, the American Psychiatric Associations Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), no longer regarded drug abuse as a current medical diagnosis. Instead, DSM has adopted substance abuse (Wikipedia, 2010) as a blanket term to embrace drug abuse and other things. In my view, I think the youth drug abuse is young people who have their internal problems (mental and physical) and influenced by the external factors from their peers, families, neighhoods, and social trend and culture, are resulting in passive emotion, thereby tending to transfer or shirking the negative emotion temporarily through taking drugs without tackling the concrete problems. Additionally, according to Elises lecture, it was told that the alcohol abuse also belong to the drug abuse, for the alcohol is one of the chemicals can induce the mentally active abnormal syndrome. But in this paper, it mainly narrows down the topic to the usual understanding of the drugs like ketamine, heroin an d marijuana etc. The nature and origin of youth drug abuse The micro level 1) Individual factor: partial reasons are personality and the developmental physical function of the young drug abuse. The former is instinctively from the perspective of the psychology, such as sensation or novelty seeking, inhibition and antisocial traits. The people who are inclined to be the drug abuser showed several personality deficits in common: 1) Behavioral problem. 2) Emotional obsession. 3) Low self-esteem. 4) Low resistance to obstacles.5) Swaying will(Yang, 2008).the latter is physiology, for adolescence is the transition from child to teenagers whose physical functions are developing under flux, thus some deficit of the body might be aroused during that time (Luan, 2010). Analyses of many studies have concluded that genes influence 40 to 50 percent of the variation in antisocial behaviors with a population, and 60 to 65 percent of the variation in aggressive antisociality (Rhee Waldmam, 2002; Tackett, Krugeger, Iacono, McGue, 2005). Owing to the research of Coleman, the certain genes in some individuals can render them more prone to be the drug abusers (2009).In addition, Laura deemed that the addiction is a disease in the brain that can control of it (2008). The mezzo level 1) Family factors: the family integrity (whether the teenage lives with single parent or not), the communication pattern of the family members etc., especially the lacking of monitoring of a teenagers interpersonal relationship and whereabouts, regarded as the most influential predictor of the drug use of that age (Chilcoat and Anthony, 1996; Williams and Hine, 2002).Further more, the parents acknowledgement and the cognition on the drugs can not match the developmental understanding of their childrens. There were 30 percent of interviewed parents did not know or could not be sure about whether their children had taken drugs or not (Ming Pao, 2009). It is the fact that parents are lacking the basic knowledge on updated drug-taking development in youth; therefore they are not that sensitive and alert to the slight symptoms or unusual behaviors of their children, and their care for the children might put in the inappropriate place. 2) Peer factors: except the parenting influence, the peer group is the sources of affection, sympathy, understanding, moral guidance, a place for experimentation, a setting for achieving autonomy and independence from parents (Papalia, 2009). Adolescence is the transition stage of an individual, from which an individual gradually starts to live more independent and dedicate more time with peers. Therefore, the peers or friends choosing for the youth play a pivotal role in accepting influence from the people they hang out with. Some negative peer pressure might breed from the interaction among the association, for instance, a negative role model in a clique takes drugs and also escape the punishment from law might encourage his or her friends to try the drug, for complicated combination of the fluke mind and peer pressure, the rest member of the clique probably might imitate the negative one. From 2008 to the first half year of 2010, according to statistics results from the Narcotics Division, Security Bureau of Hong Kong, there was over 60 percent respondent to choose the Influenced by the peers, I want to fit in the peers group as the initial reason why they take the drugs for straight years(ND, 2010). Additionally, young people are inclined to those whose are similar to themselves in school achievement, adjustment, and prosocial or antisocial tendencies (Collins et al., 2000; B. B. Brown et al., 1993). 3) School and community risk factors: Friedman took the view that the teenagers who had poor academic performance and/or behavioral problems are prone to substance abuse at a high risk (Friedman, Bransfield, Kreisher, 1994). A strict disciplinary school can possibly restrict teenagers from the potential influence of the other factors. At school teachers evaluate students basically towards their academic performance instead of well-rounded perspective out limited human resources and effective and applicable methods. Students who have poor performance academically might be looked upon as the deviants and bad students at school. In my point of view, the school the whereabouts those students who have poor academic performance are labeled as the bad ones. Because self-concepts of individuals are largely stemmed from the responses of others, and they will tend to indentify themselves with that certain label (Haralambos, 2008); some young people are just potentially deviant once labeled as the concrete deviant, which will possibly trigger them give off the potential tendency into reality as well as the behaviors are going to be reinforced. From the perspective of labeling theory, Becker thought that the deviant behaviors resulted from those who had power could define others and make them label sticker. Here it can be seen that the school is the party with power who seems can be the judge, meanwhile, the students are compelled to receive the inappropriate judgment, which is unfair and ill-considered. As for Lemert the other advocator of the theory, he deemed that there were the primary deviation and the secondary deviation that publically labeled. But the former effected very little to whom were labeled for the first time, which means, it is slightly possible to elicit the being first labeled ones to do something deviant. Only the latter was the determinant cause for the concrete deviant to happen. If some students with poor academic performance receive the negatively labeling comments (they can be regarded as the negative punishment) again and again, there is no doubt that the self-identities are questioned and the potential deviant tendency will be possibly triggered. In terms of community, the living circumstance of teenagers is quite important. The accessibility to the drugs of the neighborhoods and the degree of awareness of forbidden drugs are the influential factors for the teenagers. I think the influences can be good or not, it can be imagined that if the young people with drug abusive tendency live in positively active neighborhoods, the possibility for them of transforming into the drug abuser is still quite low, therefore neighborhoods can play the vital roles as the positive reinforcement for the possible deviant behavior of the youth. The macro level 1) Culture and social factors: from the perspective of Marxism, it is acknowledged that the economic foundation decides the superstructure. Hong Kong is a world class cosmopolitan city with rapid speed life tempo, no matter which aspect is in the first class of the world. Hong Kong people can have the most updated electronic products, the comic books, and the so-called leisure style like taking some drugs, which are pretty attractive for the young people to give it a try. The teenagers of that age are easy to do something deviant impulsively and over-esteemed to think they can control themselves, which lead them to deem that taking drugs is not a big deal. The misconception of leisure modes in these entertainment mass media is likely to have deteriorative effects on the moral conscience of the young people. In addition, all kind forms of mass media like the TV, radio, magazines, newspapers, especially the barrier-free internet services create infinite accessibilities for the juveniles to the violence and pornography that are exactly one of the sources giving the chance to the youth to imitate the negative side of the humanity consciously or subconsciously, like instigating peers to try the drugs or even being the drug dealers. In the light of the exploratory study by Yung Lai fong, she concluded that the adverse influence of the unhealthy representations on newspapers/movies/VCDs was great. The comic books/magazines on sex and violence, in particular, appeared to have the most damaging effects on the healthy development of young people (Yung, L, Edith, 1998). There is no doubt that the mass media does have the far-reaching and perpetuating impacts on the development of the young people intellectually and morally, and on their attitudes and perspectives towards self and others as well. In conclusion, the three levels analysis for the origin and nature of the youth drug abuse are reciprocal to each other, one factor can not bring about the consequence of youth drug abuse recursively. The factors of different levels are considered as the social institutions, and they interact and have mutual impact to each other, in the specific condition, can turn the drug abusive tendency into reality. Intervention from different levels In my opinion, the social worker can be compared to the agent that is functioning as the bridge between the client and the other social institutions. Therefore, it is necessary to fully tap the functions of the agent to bridge well connections among those social institutions. From the macro level, in campus and off campus, social workers can promote and popularize the essential knowledge on drugs and its damage as well as the negative influences to abusers and their families, peers and the society. Especially, the agency can bring the advantages of mass media into full play by cooperating with them, and its social workers can held some activities in order to disseminate the general ideas on disadvantages and the irreversible damages to the youth, and advocate the appropriate way to report some pop stars who take drugs and favorable in teenagers but not advocate it as a novel lifestyles.E.g: In the mezzo and micro levels, social workers and the agency can filter down the target group, and then carry out the relevant intervention plans. When carrying out the intervention, social workers should be sensitive about the slight changes of the high risky youth, and the possible behavioral characteristics them are as follows: 1) Borrowing money from friends more often. 2) The abuser is looked dispirited and low-energy, sometimes having unusual excitements and meaninglessness behavior. 3) The abuser immediately turns to be depressive after behaving happily and talkatively (00).In terms of the specific approach, the social workers can adopt the CBT-MBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy with Motivational Therapy), according to previous experience, CBT-MBT has been evaluated primarily in cases of young people abusing marijuana, 10 out of 12 randomized clinical trails have supported the effectiveness of the approach, with the effects persisting for as long as 30 months after treatment (W aldron, Turner,2008).The social workers can also refer to practical skills during a ten-session CBT: 1) refusing offers to use drugs; 2) expanding the young persons networks; 3) avoiding high-risk drug use situations; 4) managing anger; 5) communicating with parents and peers; 6) dealing with depressed mood ;7) coping with craving (Scharffer, Chang, Henggeler, 2008). In my point of view, among those skills, the social workers should carry them out logically and progressively according to different situations and the major inducement of taking drugs of clients. For example, given that the clients are easily prone to be influenced by peers and less decisive, he or she took drugs largely because his or her so-called friends did. In consideration of this, firstly, the social worker can concentrate on the teaching the skill of refusing offers to use drugs; secondly, it is crucial to find out the behind reasons through skillful counseling. Maybe the client feels lacking the support from f amily or can not be understood by others etc. which possibly contribute to different solutions and methods to deal with clients situation. During the counseling process, finding the strength (Hepworth, 2009) of the client is especially important for social workers to make it a part of the intervention. It is the essential solution that encouraging the clients to believe in themselves in order to enhance the self-strength efficiency during the process. The social worker can assist the client to set short term goal and long run goal for the sake of strengthening the self-esteem of the client. When the goals are settled, the social can also put forward the monitoring plan including the weekly meeting and self-monitoring on the behalf of the client. In all, it is practical to evoke the positive sides of the clients like helping and taking care of others, the pursuit of life goal, the capacity of anti-stress and meet the challenges. Parents are the key to the successful intervention. For the social worker, they can hold the workshop, panel discussion and keep in tough with parents. Because of lacking daily communication and interaction with the children, most young drug abusers parents did not realize the changes of their children. The social workers held the workshop in order to create more opportunities for enhancing the interaction between those parents and children via interactive games and role-playing of using the videotapes to model positive and negative parent-child interaction, discussion etc. (Scharffer, Henggeler,2008). If the social worker finds the drug abuse /addiction case or is informed by the other parties, such as teachers, students and community members, it is necessary to make the referral in order to help the abuser efficiently and timely. After the rehabilitation, the case still requires to be followed in the long run, for there is usually existing the recrudesce of drug addiction in the following months. Information inclination: The cognition conducts the behavior, in the aspect of diversified intervention methods, that is to say, what kind of the perspectives towards the matters decides the information inclination. Showing the mass media materials like videotapes and newspapers can provide vivid examples of the physical and mental disadvantages and damages to the clients. Theories Labeling theory: Social learning theory: Julian Rotter moved away from theories based on psychosis and behaviorism, and developed a learning theory. In Social Learning and Clinical Psychology (1954), Rotter suggests that the effect of behavior has an impact on the motivation of people to engage in that specific behavior. This social learning theory suggests that behavior is influenced by these environmental factors or stimulus, and not psychological factors alone. Albert Bandura (1977) expanded on Rotters idea, as well as earlier work by Miller Dollard (1941), and is related to social learning theories of Vygotsky and Lave. Social learning suggests a combination of environmental (social) and psychological factors influence behaviors. This theory incorporates aspects of behavioral and cognitive learning. Behavioral learning assumes that peoples environment (surroundings) cause people to behave in certain ways. Cognitive learning presumes that psychological factors are important for influencing how one behaves. Push-pull Theory Differential Association theory Evidences/ supports of the youth substance abuser: Peer influence is the major cause of youth drug abuseAccording to the survey in 2004, it reported that the commonest drug suppliers were the peers of the teenagers with 51.8 percent, and there were only 10.4 percent by drug dealers and 8.2 percent to 10.8 percent by parents, family members and relatives respectively. When the young drug abusers encounter some problems or troubles they tend to seek for help from those who provided the drugs to them as their first choice rather than the parents, teachers and social workers. One interesting founding in the 2004 survey was that psychotropic substance abusers would rather to get help from their close friends first (26.8percent ) than seek help from parents first with 11.8 percent and seek help from social workers counted to 9.3 percent. The reason for first try of drugs: Knowledge deficit, misconceptions of substance use, academic problems, family problems and poor relationship with parents and peers have also driven them to have their first try (The 2004 Survey of Drug Use among Students, 2005; Boys, Marsden, Strang, 2001).

The Battles Before The Battle Between The States :: essays research papers

The Battles Before The Battle Between The States Warning: THE COMMENTARY IN THE FOLLOWING IS THE SOLE PRODUCT OF THE AUTHOR, AND MAY CONTAIN SOME BIAS DUE TO THE BIAS CONTENT OF THE AUTHOR’S SOURCE OF INFORMATION, PLEASE READ WITH CARE. In 1861 the United States declared war on the seceded Confederate States of America. This war is more popularly known as the Civil War or the War Between the States. The war was a conflict that was inevitable because of the progression of dislike between the slave holding states and the free ones. The war had to happen because of the many disagreements that caused tension between the slave holding South and the free states in the North. There are many things that one party did to upset the other. One of the first notable things that started the disagreement between the North and the South was the idea of â€Å"Popular Sovereignty.† â€Å"Popular Sovereignty† was an idea created by Senator Lewis Cass, who said that the Missouri Compromise was out dated and that the citizens of a territory should "regulate their own internal concerns." (p. 459) Many Southern citizens liked the idea of â€Å"Popular Sovereignty,† for the reason that they could move their slaves to "undecided" territories. With this point for the South the North came back with one of their own. The North, battling in the government, decided to join three parties into one to create the Free-Soil party. Those three parties were "rebellious Democrats, Antislavery Whigs, and members of the Antislavery Liberty party." (p. 460) One of the main reasons that the Free-Soil party was created was to give voters a new party to choose from, rather than the two other main parties. In the 1848 election the Free-Soil party upset a small, but significant part of the vote, receiving 10.1 percent of the popular vote. Having one significant issue that the opposition did not care for, the great trio of Clay, Calhoun, and Webster had something up their sleeves. One of the greatest debates of the time, the Great Compromise, brought forth eight resolutions that solved all the issues. The eight resolutions are as follows: 1) Admit California as a free state, 2) organize the remainder of the Southwest with out restriction as to slavery, 3) deny Texas its extreme claim to a Rio Grande boundary up to its source, 4) compensate Texas for this by assuming the Texas debt, 5) uphold slavery in District of Colombia, 6) but abolish the slave trade across its boundaries, 7) adopt a more effective fugitive slave act, 8) and deny congressional authority to interfere with the interstate slave trade. The Battles Before The Battle Between The States :: essays research papers The Battles Before The Battle Between The States Warning: THE COMMENTARY IN THE FOLLOWING IS THE SOLE PRODUCT OF THE AUTHOR, AND MAY CONTAIN SOME BIAS DUE TO THE BIAS CONTENT OF THE AUTHOR’S SOURCE OF INFORMATION, PLEASE READ WITH CARE. In 1861 the United States declared war on the seceded Confederate States of America. This war is more popularly known as the Civil War or the War Between the States. The war was a conflict that was inevitable because of the progression of dislike between the slave holding states and the free ones. The war had to happen because of the many disagreements that caused tension between the slave holding South and the free states in the North. There are many things that one party did to upset the other. One of the first notable things that started the disagreement between the North and the South was the idea of â€Å"Popular Sovereignty.† â€Å"Popular Sovereignty† was an idea created by Senator Lewis Cass, who said that the Missouri Compromise was out dated and that the citizens of a territory should "regulate their own internal concerns." (p. 459) Many Southern citizens liked the idea of â€Å"Popular Sovereignty,† for the reason that they could move their slaves to "undecided" territories. With this point for the South the North came back with one of their own. The North, battling in the government, decided to join three parties into one to create the Free-Soil party. Those three parties were "rebellious Democrats, Antislavery Whigs, and members of the Antislavery Liberty party." (p. 460) One of the main reasons that the Free-Soil party was created was to give voters a new party to choose from, rather than the two other main parties. In the 1848 election the Free-Soil party upset a small, but significant part of the vote, receiving 10.1 percent of the popular vote. Having one significant issue that the opposition did not care for, the great trio of Clay, Calhoun, and Webster had something up their sleeves. One of the greatest debates of the time, the Great Compromise, brought forth eight resolutions that solved all the issues. The eight resolutions are as follows: 1) Admit California as a free state, 2) organize the remainder of the Southwest with out restriction as to slavery, 3) deny Texas its extreme claim to a Rio Grande boundary up to its source, 4) compensate Texas for this by assuming the Texas debt, 5) uphold slavery in District of Colombia, 6) but abolish the slave trade across its boundaries, 7) adopt a more effective fugitive slave act, 8) and deny congressional authority to interfere with the interstate slave trade.

Innovators Dna

(Continued from front flap) is the Horace Beesley Professor of Strategy at the Marriott School, Brigham Young University. He is widely published in strategy and business journals and was the fourth most cited management scholar from 1996–2006. is a professor of leadership at INSEAD. He consults to organizations around the world on innovation, globalization, and transformation and has published extensively in leading academic and business journals. is the Robert and Jane Cizik Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and the architect of and the world’s oremost authority on disruptive innovation. â€Å"Businesses worldwide have been guided and in uenced by e Innovator’s Dilemma and e Innovator’s Solution. Now e Innovator’s DNA shows where it all starts. is book gives you the fundamental building blocks for becoming more innovative and changing the world. One of the most important books to come out this year, and one that will remain pivotal reading for years to come. † Chairman and CEO, salesforce. com; author, Behind the Cloud â€Å" e Innovator’s DNA is the ‘how to’ manual to innovation, and to the fresh thinking that is the root of innovation.It has dozens of simple tricks that any person and any team can use today to discover the new ideas that solve the important problems. Buy it now and read it tonight. Tomorrow you will learn more, create more, inspire more. † Chairman of the Executive Committee, Intuit Inc. â€Å" e Innovator’s DNA sheds new light on the once-mysterious art of innovation by showing that successful innovators exhibit common behavioral habits—habits that can boost anyone’s creative capacity. † author, e 7 Habits of Highly E ective People and e Leader in Me Having worked with Clayton Christensen on innovation for over a decade, I can see that e Innovator’s DNA continues to stretch our thinking with insights that cha llenge convention and enable progress in the important cause of innovation . . . so critical to competitiveness and growth. † retired Chairman of the Board and CEO, e Procter & Gamble Company Also by Clayton M. Christensen: Bestselling Author of e Innovator’s Dilemma You can be as innovative and impactful— if you can change your behaviors to improve your creative impact. In e Innovator’s DNA, authors Je Dyer,Hal Gregersen, and bestselling author Clayton M. Christensen ( e Innovator’s Dilemma, e Innovator’s Solution) build on what we know about disruptive innovation to show how individuals can develop the skills necessary to move progressively from idea to impact. By identifying behaviors of the world’s best innovators—from leaders at Amazon and Apple to those at Google, Skype, and Virgin Group—the authors outline ve discovery skills that distinguish innovative entrepreneurs and executives from ordinary managers: Associati ng, Questioning, Observing, Networking, and Experimenting.Once you master these competencies (the authors provide a self assessment for rating your own innovator’s DNA), the authors explain how you can generate ideas, collaborate with colleagues to implement them, and build innovation skills throughout your organization to sharpen its competitive edge. at innovation advantage can translate into a premium in your company’s stock price—an innovation premium—that is possible only by building the code for innovation right into your organization’s people, processes, and guiding philosophies. Practical and provocative, e Innovator’sDNA is an essential resource for individuals and teams who want to strengthen their innovative prowess. (Continued on back flap) 100092 00 i-vi r1 rr. qxp 5/13/11 6:52 PM Page i THE INNOVATOR’S DNA 100092 00 i-vi r1 rr. qxp 5/13/11 6:52 PM Page ii 100092 00 i-vi r1 rr. qxp 5/13/11 6:52 PM Page iii THE INNOVATORâ €™S DNA MASTERING THE FIVE SKILLS OF DISRUPTIVE INNOVATORS Jeff Dyer Hal Gregersen Clayton M. Christensen H A R VA R D B U S I N E S S R E V I E W P R E S S BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 100092 00 i-vi r1 rr. qxp 5/13/11 6:52 PM Page iv Copyright 2011 Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, and Clayton M.Christensen All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior permission of the publisher. Requests for permission should be directed to [email  protected] harvard. edu, or mailed to Permissions, Harvard Business School Publishing, 60 Harvard Way, Boston, Massachusetts 02163. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataDyer, Jeff. The innovator’s DNA : mastering the ? ve skills of disruptive innovators/ Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, Clayto n M. Christensen. p. cm. ISBN 978-1-4221-3481-8 (hardback) 1. Creative ability in business. 2. Technological innovations. 3. Entrepreneurship. I. Gregersen, Hal B. , 1958– II. Christensen, Clayton M. III. Title. HD53. D94 2011 658. 4'063—dc22 2011008440 The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Publications and Documents in Libraries and Archives Z39. 48-1992. 100092 00 i-vi r1 rr. qxp /13/11 6:52 PM Page v Contents Introduction 1 Part One Disruptive Innovation Starts with You 1 The DNA of Disruptive Innovators 17 2 Discovery Skill #1 41 Associating 3 Discovery Skill #2 65 Questioning 4 Discovery Skill #3 89 Observing 5 Discovery Skill #4 113 Networking 6 Discovery Skill #5 133 Experimenting Part Two The DNA of Disruptive Organizations and Teams 7 The DNA of the World’s Most Innovative Companies 157 100092 00 i-vi r1 rr. qxp 5/13/11 6:52 PM Page vi vi CONTENTS 8 Putting the Innovatorâ €™s DNA into Practice 175 People 9 Putting the Innovator’s DNA into Practice 93 Processes 10 Putting the Innovator’s DNA into Practice 215 Philosophies Conclusion: Act Different, Think Different, Make a Difference 235 Appendix A: Sample of Innovators Interviewed Appendix B: The Innovator’s DNA Research Methods Appendix C: Developing Discovery Skills Notes Index Acknowledgments About the Authors 241 245 249 261 269 283 295 100092 00a 001-014 INT r1 go. qxp 5/13/11 9:53 AM Page 1 Introduction I It’s the lifeblood of our global economy and a strategic priority for virtually every CEO around the world. In fact, a recent IBM poll of ? teen hundred CEOs identified creativity as the number-one â€Å"leadership competency† of the future. 1 The power of innovative ideas to revolutionize industries and generate wealth is evident from history: Apple iPod outplays Sony Walkman, Starbucks’s beans and atmosphere drown traditional coffee shops, Skype u ses a strategy of â€Å"free† to beat AT and British Telecom, eBay crushes classi? ed ads, and Southwest Airlines ? ies under the radar of American and Delta. In every case, the creative ideas of innovative entrepreneurs produced powerful competitive advantages and tremendous wealth for the pioneering company.Of course, the retrospective $1 million question is, how did they do it? And perhaps the prospective $10 million question is, how could I do it? The Innovator’s DNA tackles these fundamental questions— and more. The genesis of this book centered on the question that we posed years ago to â€Å"disruptive technologies† guru and coauthor Clayton Christensen: where do disruptive business models come from? Christensen’s best-selling books, The Innovator’s NNOVATION. 1 100092 00a 001-014 INT r1 go. qxp 5/13/11 9:53 AM Page 2 2 INTRODUCTIONDilemma and The Innovator’s Solution, conveyed important insight into the characteristics of disr uptive technologies, business models, and companies. The Innovator’s DNA emerged from an eight-year collaborative study in which we sought a richer understanding of disruptive innovators—who they are and the innovative companies they create. Our project’s primary purpose was to uncover the origins of innovative—and often disruptive— business ideas. So we interviewed nearly a hundred inventors of revolutionary products and services, as well as founders and CEOs of game-changing companies built on innovative business ideas.These were people such as eBay’s Pierre Omidyar, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Research In Motion’s Mike Lazaridis, and Salesforce. com’s Marc Benioff. For a full list of innovators we interviewed whom we quote in this book, see appendix A; virtually all of the innovators we quote, with the exception of Steve Jobs (Apple), Richard Branson (Virgin), and Howard Schultz (Starbucks)—who have written autobiogra phies or have given numerous interviews about innovation—are from our interviews. We also studied CEOs who ignited innovation in existing companies, such as Procter & Gamble’s A.G. Lafley, eBay’s Meg Whitman, and Bain & Company’s Orit Gadiesh. Some entrepreneurs’ companies that we studied were successful and well known; some were not (for example, Movie Mouth, Cow-Pie Clocks, Terra Nova BioSystems). But all offered a surprising and unique value proposition relative to incumbents. For example, each offered new or different features, pricing, convenience, or customizability compared to their competition. Our goal was less to investigate the companies’ strategies than it was to dig into the thinking of the innovators themselves.We wanted to understand as much about these people as possible, including the moment (when and how) they came up with the creative ideas that launched new products or businesses. We asked them to tell us 100092 00a 001-0 14 INT r1 go. qxp 5/13/11 9:53 AM Page 3 3 Introduction about the most valuable and novel business idea that they had generated during their business careers, and to tell us where those ideas came from. Their stories were provocative and insightful, and surprisingly similar. As we re? ected on the interviews, consistent patterns of action emerged.Innovative entrepreneurs and executives behaved similarly when discovering breakthrough ideas. Five primary discovery skills—skills that compose what we call the innovator’s DNA—surfaced from our conversations. We found that innovators â€Å"Think Different,† to use a well-known Apple slogan. Their minds excel at linking together ideas that aren’t obviously related to produce original ideas (we call this cognitive skill â€Å"associational thinking† or â€Å"associating†). But to think different, innovators had to â€Å"act different. † All were questioners, frequently asking questions that punctured the status quo.Some observed the world with intensity beyond the ordinary. Others networked with the most diverse people on the face of the earth. Still others placed experimentation at the center of their innovative activity. When engaged in consistently, these actions—questioning, observing, networking, and experimenting—triggered associational thinking to deliver new businesses, products, services, and/or processes. Most of us think creativity is an entirely cognitive skill; it all happens in the brain. A critical insight from our research is that one’s ability to generate innovative ideas is not erely a function of the mind, but also a function of behaviors. This is good news for us all because it means that if we change our behaviors, we can improve our creative impact. After surfacing these patterns of action for famous innovative entrepreneurs and executives, we turned our research lens to the less famous but equally capable innovators aro und the world. We built a survey based on our interviews that taps into the discovery skills of innovative leaders: associating, questioning, observing, networking, and experimenting. To date, we have 00092 00a 001-014 INT r1 go. qxp 5/13/11 9:53 AM Page 4 4 INTRODUCTION collected self-reported and 360-degree data on these discovery skills from over ? ve hundred innovators and over ? ve thousand executives in more than seventy-five countries (for information about our assessments for individuals and companies, go to our Web site: http://www. InnovatorsDNA. com). We found the same pattern for famous as well as less famous leaders. Innovators were simply much more likely to question, observe, network, and experiment compared to typical executives.We published the results of our research in Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, the top academic journal focused on entrepreneurs (details of our study are reported in appendix B). 2 We also published our ? ndings in an article titled â€Å" The Innovator’s DNA,† which was the runner-up for the 2009 Harvard Business Review McKinsey Award. We then turned to see what we could learn about the DNA of innovative organizations and teams. We started by looking at BusinessWeek’s annual ranking of innovative companies.This ranking, based on votes from executives, identified companies with a reputation for being innovative. A quick look at the BusinessWeek lists from 2005 to 2009 shows Apple as number one and Google, number two. OK, intuitively that sounds right. But we felt that the BusinessWeek methodology (executives voting on which companies are innovative) produces a list that is largely a popularity contest based on past performance. Indeed, do General Electric, Sony, Toyota, and BMW deserve to be on the list of most innovative companies today? Or are they simply there because they have been successful in the past?To answer these questions, we developed our own list of innovative companies based on curre nt innovation prowess (and expectations of future innovations). How did we do this? We thought the best way was to see whether investors—voting with their wallets—could give us insight into which companies they thought most likely to produce future innovations: new products, services, or markets. We teamed up with HOLT (a division of Credit Suisse Boston that had done a similar analysis for The Innovator’s 100092 00a 001-014 INT r1 go. qxp 5/13/11 9:53 AM Page 5 5 Introduction Who Is Classified as an Innovator?Perhaps one of the most surprising findings from the past thirty years of entrepreneurship research is that entrepreneurs do not differ signi? cantly (on personality traits or psychometric measures) from typical business executives. a We usually meet this ? nding with skepticism, since most of us intuitively believe that entrepreneurs are somehow different from other executives. Note that our research focused on innovators and, in particular, innovative en trepreneurs rather than entrepreneurs. Here’s why. Innovative entrepreneurs start companies that offer unique value to the market.When someone opens a dry cleaner or a mortgage business, or even a set of Volkswagen dealerships or McDonald’s franchises, researchers put them all in the same category of entrepreneur as the founders of eBay (Pierre Omidyar) and Amazon (Jeff Bezos). This creates a categorization problem when trying to ? nd out whether innovative entrepreneurs differ from typical executives. The fact is that most entrepreneurs launch ventures based on strategies that are not unique and certainly not disruptive. Among entrepreneurs as a whole, only 10 percent to 15 percent qualify as â€Å"innovative entrepreneurs† of the kind we’re discussing.Our study includes four types of innovators: (1) start-up entrepreneurs (as we described earlier), (2) corporate entrepreneurs (those who launch an innovative venture from within the corporation), (3) prod uct innovators (those who invent a new product), and (4) process innovators (those who launch a breakthrough process). Our process inventor category includes folks like A. G. La? ey, who initiated a set of innovative processes at Procter & Gamble that sparked numerous new product innovations. In all cases, the original idea for the new (continued) 00092 00a 001-014 INT r1 go. qxp 5/13/11 9:53 AM Page 6 6 INTRODUCTION business, product, or process must be the innovator’s idea. While these different types of innovators have numerous similarities, they also have some differences, as we will show in the chapters that follow. a. This is evident in the conclusions of numerous studies on entrepreneurs, including the following: â€Å"After a great deal of research, it is now often concluded that most of the psychological differences between entrepreneurs and managers in large organizations are small or non-existent† (L.W. Busenitz and J. B. Barney, â€Å"Differences Between E ntrepreneurs and Managers in Large Organizations,† Journal of Business Venturing 12, 1997). â€Å"There appears to be no discoverable pattern of personality characteristics that distinguish between successful entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs† (W. Guth, â€Å"Director’s Corner: Research in Entrepreneurship,† The Entrepreneurship Forum, winter 1991). â€Å"Most of the attempts to distinguish between entrepreneurs and small business owners or managers have discovered no differentiating features† (R. H. Brockhaus and P. S.Horwitz, â€Å"The Psychology of the Entrepreneur† in The Art and Science of Entrepreneurship, 1986). Solution) to develop a methodology for determining what percentage of a ? rm’s market value could be attributed to its existing businesses (products, services, markets). If the ? rm’s market value was higher than the cash ? ows that could be attributed to its existing businesses, then the company would have a gr owth and innovation premium (for our purposes, we’ll just call it an innovation premium). An innovation premium is the proportion of a company’s market value that cannot be accounted for from cash ? ws of its current products or businesses in its current markets. It is the premium the market gives these companies because investors expect them to come up with new products or markets—and they expect the companies to be able to generate high profits from them (see chapter 7 for details on how the premium is calculated). 100092 00a 001-014 INT r1 go. qxp 5/13/11 9:53 AM Page 7 7 Introduction It is a premium that every executive, and every company, would like to have. We unveil our list of the most innovative companies—ranked by innovation premium—in chapter 7.Not surprisingly, we found that our top twenty-five companies include some on the BusinessWeek list—such as Apple, Google, Amazon, and Procter & Gamble. These companies averaged at least a 35 percent innovation premium over the past five years. But we also learned that companies such as Salesforce. com (software), Intuitive Surgical (health care equipment), Hindustan Lever (household products), Alstom (electrical equipment), and Monsanto (chemicals) have similar premiums. And as we studied these ? rms in greater detail, we learned that they are also very innovative.As we examined both our list and the BusinessWeek list of innovative companies, we saw several patterns. First, we noticed that compared to typical companies they were far more likely to be led by an innovative founder or a leader who scored extremely high on the ? ve discovery skills that compose the innovator’s DNA (their average discovery quotient was in the eighty-eighth percentile, which meant they scored higher than 88 percent of people taking our discovery skills assessment). Innovative companies are almost always led by innovative leaders. Let us say this again: Innovative companies are almos t always led by innovative leaders.The bottom line: if you want innovation, you need creativity skills within the top management team of your company. We saw how innovative founders often imprinted their organizations with their behaviors. For example, Jeff Bezos personally excels at experimenting, so he helped create institutionalized processes within Amazon to push others to experiment. Similarly, Intuit’s Scott Cook shines at observing, so he pushes observation at Intuit. Perhaps not surprisingly, we discovered that the DNA of innovative organizations mirrored the DNA of innovative individuals.In other words, innovative people 100092 00a 001-014 INT r1 go. qxp 5/13/11 9:53 AM Page 8 8 INTRODUCTION systematically engage in questioning, observing, networking, and experimenting behaviors to spark new ideas. Similarly, innovative organizations systematically develop processes that encourage questioning, observing, networking, and experimenting by employees. Our chapters on bui lding the innovator’s DNA in your organization and team describe how you too can actively encourage and support others’ innovation efforts.Why the Ideas in This Book Should Matter to You Over the last decade, many books on the topic of innovation and creativity have been written. Some books focus on disruptive innovation, such as Clayton Christensen’s The Innovator’s Dilemma and The Innovator’s Solution. Others, such as Ten Rules for Strategic Innovators (Govindarajan and Trimble), Game Changer (A. G. La? ey and Ram Charan), and The Entrepreneurial Mindset (Rita McGrath and Ian MacMillan), examine how organizations, and organizational leaders, encourage and support innovation. Others look more speci? ally at product development and innovation processes within and across firms, such as How Breakthroughs Happen (Andrew Hargadon) and The Sources of Innovation (Eric von Hippel). Other books on innovation look at the roles individuals play in the innova tion process within companies, such as The Ten Faces of Innovation and The Art of Innovation (both by Tom Kelley of IDEO), or A Whole New Mind (Daniel Pink). Finally, other books like Creativity in Context (Teresa Amabile) and Creativity (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi) examine individual creativity and, more speci? cally, theories and research about creativity.Our book differs from the others in that it is focused squarely on individual creativity in the business context and is based on our study of a large sample of business innovators, including some big-name innovators such as Jeff Bezos (Amazon. com), Pierre Omidyar (eBay), Michael Lazaridis 100092 00a 001-014 INT r1 go. qxp 5/13/11 9:53 AM Page 9 9 Introduction A Disclaimer . . . Sort of We think it is important to remember three signi? cant points as you read The Innovator’s DNA. First, engaging in the discovery skills doesn’t ensure ? nancial success. Throughout the book, we tell stories of people who were manifestly successful at nnovating. We focus on the success stories because we are all more naturally drawn to success than failure. However, in our sample of ? ve hundred innovators, only two-thirds launched ventures or products that met our criteria of success. Many were not successful. The innovators developed the right skills— questioning, observing, networking, and experimenting—that produced an innovative venture or product, but the result was not always a ? nancial success. The point is that the discovery skills we describe are necessary, indeed critical, for generating innovative business ideas, but they don’t guarantee success.Second, failure (in a ? nancial sense) often results from not being vigilant in engaging all discovery skills. The more ? nancially successful innovators in our sample demonstrated a higher discovery quotient (scored higher on the discovery skills) than less successful ones. If you fail with an innovation, it may be that you didn’t as k all the right questions, make all of the necessary observations, talk to a large enough group of diverse people, or run the right experiments. Of course, it is also possible that you did all these things but an even newer technology emerged or some other bright innovator came up ith an even better idea. Or maybe you just didn’t excel at executing on the idea or have the resources to compete with an established ? rm that imitated your invention. Many factors can prevent a new product or business idea from gaining traction in the market. But the better you are at asking the (continued) 100092 00a 001-014 INT r1 go. qxp 5/13/11 9:53 AM Page 10 10 INTRODUCTION right questions, engaging in the right observations, eliciting ideas and feedback through networking with the right people, and running experiments, the less likely you are to fail.Third, we spotlight different innovators and innovative companies to illustrate key ideas or principles, but not to set them up as perfect exa mples of how to be innovative. Some innovators we studied were â€Å"serial innovators,† as they had developed quite a number of innovations over time and appeared motivated to continue doing so. Others bene? tted by being in the right place at the right time to make a critical observation, talk to a key person with particularly useful knowledge, or serendipitously learn from an experiment. They made an important discovery once, but they might not necessarily be apable or motivated (perhaps due to financial success) to continue generating innovative ideas. In similar fashion, we have found that innovative companies can quickly lose their innovative prowess, while others can quickly improve it. In chapter 8, we show that Apple’s innovation prowess (as measured by its innovation premium) dropped dramatically after Jobs left in 1984, but then jumped up dramatically a few years after he returned to lead the company. Procter & Gamble was a solid innovation performer before La? ey took the helm, but increased its innovation premium by 30 percent under his leadership.The point is that people and companies can change and may not always live up to our lofty expectations. (Research In Motion/BlackBerry), Michael Dell (Dell), Marc Benioff (Salesforce. com), Niklas Zennstrom (Skype), Scott Cook (Intuit), Peter Thiel (PayPal), David Neeleman (JetBlue and Azul airlines), and so on. The premise of our book is that we explain how these big names got their â€Å"big ideas† and describe a process 100092 00a 001-014 INT r1 go. qxp 5/13/11 9:53 AM Page 11 11 Introduction that readers can emulate. We describe in detail five skills that anyone can master to improve his or her own ability to be an innovative thinker.Ask yourself: Am I good at generating innovative business ideas? Do I know how to ? nd innovative people for my organization? Do I know how to train people to be more creative and innovative? Some executives respond to the last question by encouragin g employees to think outside the box. But thinking outside the box is precisely what employees (and executives) are trying to ? gure out. We’ve even watched some executives answer the â€Å"How do I think outside the box? † question with another equally generic (and unhelpful) answer, â€Å"Be creative. † If you ? d yourself struggling with actionable answers to these questions, read on to gain a solid grasp of ? ve skills that can make all the difference when facing your next innovation challenge. All leaders have problems and opportunities sitting in front of them for which they have no solution. It might be a new process. It might be a new product or service. It might be a new business model for an old business. In every case, the skills you build by putting into practice the innovator’s DNA may literally save your job, your organization, and perhaps your community. Indeed, we’ve found that if ou want to rise to the highest levels of your organi zation— to a business unit manager, president, or CEO position—you need strong discovery skills. And if you want to lead a truly innovative organization, you likely will need to excel at those skills. We hope that The Innovator’s DNA will encourage you to reclaim some of your youthful curiosity. Staying curious keeps us engaged and our organizations alive. 3 Imagine how competitive your company will be ten years from now without innovators if its people didn’t find any new ways to improve its processes, products, or services. Clearly, your company would not survive.Innovators constitute the core of any company’s, or even country’s, ability to compete. 100092 00a 001-014 INT r1 go. qxp 5/13/11 9:53 AM Page 12 12 INTRODUCTION How The Innovator’s DNA Unfolds Like a pocket-sized map in a foreign place, our book serves as a guide to your innovation journey. The first part (chapters 1 through 6) explains why the innovator’s DNA matte rs and how the pieces can combine into a personalized approach to innovation. We put ? esh onto the â€Å"think different† slogan by explaining in detail the habits and techniques that allow innovators to think differently.The chapters in part one give rich detail about how to master the specific skills that are key to generating novel ideas—associating, questioning, observing, networking, and experimenting. The second part (chapters 7 through 10) ampli? es the building blocks of innovation by showing how the discovery skills of innovators described in part one operate in organizations and teams. Chapter 7 introduces our ranking of the world’s most innovative companies based on each company’s innovation premium, a market value premium based on investors’ expectations of future innovations.We also provide a framework for seeing how the innovator’s DNA works in the world’s most innovative teams and organizations. We call this the  "3P† framework because it contains the discovery-driven building blocks of highly innovative organizations or teams—people, processes, and philosophies. Chapter 8 focuses on building-block number one, people, and describes how innovative organizations achieve maximum impact by actively recruiting, encouraging, and rewarding people who display strong discovery skills—and blending innovators effectively with folks who have strong execution skills.Chapter 9 shows innovative team and company processes that mirror the ? ve discovery skills of disruptive innovators. In other words, innovative companies rely on processes to encourage—even require— their people to engage in questioning, observing, networking, experimenting, and associating. Chapter 10 focuses on the funda- 100092 00a 001-014 INT r1 go. qxp 5/13/11 9:53 AM Page 13 13 Introduction mental philosophies that guide behavior within innovative teams and organizations. These philosophies not only gu ide disruptive innovators but also get imprinted in the organization, giving people the courage to innovate.Finally, for those interested in building discovery skills in yourself, your team, and even the next generation (young people you know), in appendix C we guide you through a process of taking your innovator’s DNA to the next level. We’re delighted that you’re starting or continuing your own innovation journey. We have watched scores of individuals take the ideas in this book to heart and who describe how they have dramatically improved their innovation skills as a result. They continually confirm that the journey is worth taking.We think you’ll feel the same way once you’ve finished reading about and mastering the skills of a disruptive innovator. 100092 00a 001-014 INT r1 go. qxp 5/13/11 9:53 AM Page 14 100092 01 015-040 r1 go. qxp 5/13/11 9:56 AM Page 15 PA R T O N E Disruptive Innovation Starts with You 100092 01 015-040 r1 go. qxp 5/13/11 9:56 AM Page 16 100092 01 015-040 r1 go. qxp 5/13/11 9:56 AM Page 17 1 The DNA of Disruptive Innovators â€Å"I want to put a ding in the universe. † —Steve Jobs, founder and CEO, Apple Inc. D to generate innovative, even disruptive, business ideas? Do I know how to ?nd creative people or how to train people to think outside the box?These questions stump most senior executives, who know that the ability to innovate is the â€Å"secret sauce† of business success. Unfortunately, most of us know very little about what makes one person more creative than another. Perhaps for this reason, we stand in awe of visionary entrepreneurs such as Apple’s Steve Jobs, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and eBay’s Pierre Omidyar, and innovative executives like P A. G. La? ey, Bain & Company’s Orit Gadiesh, and eBay’s Meg Whitman. How do these people come up with groundbreaking new ideas? If it were possible to discover the inner O I KNOW HOW 17 100092 01 0 15-040 r1 go. xp 5/13/11 9:56 AM Page 18 18 DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION STARTS WITH YOU workings of the masters’ minds, what could the rest of us learn about how innovation really happens? Ideas for Innovation Consider the case of Jobs, who was recently ranked the world’s number-one best-performing CEO in a study published by Harvard Business Review. 1 You may recall Apple’s famous â€Å"Think Different† ad campaign, whose slogan says it all. The campaign featured innovators from different ? elds, including Albert Einstein, Picasso, Richard Branson, and John Lennon, but Jobs’s face might easily have been featured among the others.After all, everyone knows that Jobs is an innovative guy, that he knows how to think different. But the question is, just how does he do it? Indeed, how does any innovator think different? The common answer is that the ability to think creatively is genetic. Most of us believe that some people, like Jobs, are simply born with cr eative genes, while others are not. Innovators are supposedly right brained, meaning that they are genetically endowed with creative abilities. The rest of us are left brained—logical, linear thinkers, with little or no ability to think creatively.If you believe this, we’re going to tell you that you are largely wrong. At least within the realm of business innovation, virtually everyone has some capacity for creativity and innovative thinking. Even you. So using the example of Jobs, let’s explore this ability to think different. How did Jobs come up with some of his innovative ideas in the past? And what does his journey tell us? Innovative Idea #1: Personal Computers Should Be Quiet and Small One of the key innovations in the Apple II, the computer that launched Apple, came from Jobs’s decision that it should be quiet. His conviction resulted, in part, from all the time he’d spent 00092 01 015-040 r1 go. qxp 5/13/11 9:56 AM Page 19 19 The DNA of D isruptive Innovators studying Zen and meditating. 2 He found the noise of a computer fan distracting. So Jobs was determined that the Apple II would have no fan, which was a fairly radical notion at the time. Nobody else had questioned the need for a fan because all computers required a fan to prevent overheating. Getting rid of the fan wouldn’t be possible without a different type of power supply that generated less heat. So Jobs went on the hunt for someone who could design a new power supply. Through his network of contacts, he found RodHolt, a forty-something, chain-smoking socialist from the Atari crowd. 3 Pushed by Jobs, Holt abandoned the ? fty-year-old conventional linear unit technology and created a switching power supply that revolutionized the way power was delivered to electronics products. Jobs’s pursuit of quiet and Holt’s ability to deliver an innovative power supply that didn’t need a fan made the Apple II the quietest and smallest person al computer ever made (a smaller computer was possible because it didn’t need extra space for the fan). Had Jobs never asked, â€Å"Why does a computer need a fan? † and â€Å"How do we keep a computer cool without a fan? the Apple computer as we know it would not exist. Innovative Idea #2: The Macintosh User Interface, Operating System, and Mouse The seed for the Macintosh, with its revolutionary operating system, was planted when Jobs visited Xerox PARC in 1979. Xerox, the copier company, created the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), a research lab charged with designing the office of the future. Jobs wrangled a visit to PARC in exchange for offering Xerox an opportunity to invest in Apple. Xerox didn’t know how to capitalize on the exciting things going on at PARC, but Jobs did. Jobs carefully observed the PARC computer screen ? led with icons, pull-down menus, and overlapping windows—all controlled 100092 01 015-040 r1 go. qxp 5/13/11 9:56 AM Page 20 20 DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION STARTS WITH YOU by the click of a mouse. â€Å"What we saw was incomplete and ? awed,† Jobs said,â€Å"but the germ of the idea was there . . . within ten minutes it was obvious to me that all computers would work like this. †4 He spent the next ? ve years at Apple leading the design team that would produce the Macintosh computer, the ? rst personal computer with a graphical user interface (GUI) and mouse. Oh, and he saw something else during the PARC visit.He got his ? rst taste of objectoriented programming, which became the key to the OSX operating system that Apple acquired from Jobs’s other start-up, NeXT Computers. What if Jobs had never visited Xerox PARC to observe what was going on there? Innovative Idea #3: Desktop Publishing on the Mac The Macintosh, with its LaserWriter printer, was the ? rst computer to bring desktop publishing to the masses. Jobs claims that the â€Å"beautiful typography† available on the Macintosh would never have been introduced if he hadn’t dropped in on a calligraphy class at Reed College in Oregon. Says Jobs:Reed College offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully handcalligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating. None of this had even a hope of any ractical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the ? rst Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It 100092 01 015-040 r1 go. qxp 5/13/11 9:56 AM Page 21 21 The DNA o f Disruptive Innovators was the ? rst computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. 5 What if Jobs hadn’t decided to drop in on the calligraphy classes when he had dropped out of college?So what do we learn from Jobs’s ability to think different? Well, first we see that his innovative ideas didn’t spring fully formed from his head, as if they were a gift from the Idea Fairy. When we examine the origins of these ideas, we typically ? nd that the catalyst was: (1) a question that challenged the status quo, (2) an observation of a technology, company, or customer, (3) an experience or experiment where he was trying out something new, or (4) a conversation with someone who alerted him to an important piece of knowledge or opportunity. In f act, by carefully examining Jobs’s behaviors and, speci? ally, how those behaviors brought in new diverse knowledge that triggered an innovative idea, we can trace his innovative ideas to their source. What is the moral of this story? We want to convince you that creativity is not just a genetic endowment and not just a cognitive skill. Rather, we’ve learned that creative ideas spring from behavioral skills that you, too, can acquire to catalyze innovative ideas in yourself and in others. What Makes Innovators Different? So what makes innovators different from the rest of us? Most of us believe this question has been answered. It’s a genetic endowment. Some people are ight brained, which allows them to be more intuitive and divergent thinkers. Either you have it or you don’t. But does research really support this idea? Our research con? rms 100092 01 015-040 r1 go. qxp 5/13/11 9:56 AM Page 22 22 DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION STARTS WITH YOU others’ work th at creativity skills are not simply genetic traits endowed at birth, but that they can be developed. In fact, the most comprehensive study con? rming this was done by a group of researchers, Merton Reznikoff, George Domino, Carolyn Bridges, and Merton Honeymon, who studied creative abilities in 117 pairs of identical and fraternal twins.Testing twins aged fifteen to twenty-two, they found that only about 30 percent of the performance of identical twins on a battery of ten creativity tests could be attributed to genetics. 6 In contrast, roughly 80 percent to 85 percent of the twins’ performance on general intelligence (IQ) tests could be attributed to genetics. 7 So general intelligence (at least the way scientists measure it) is basically a genetic endowment, but creativity is not. Nurture trumps nature as far as creativity goes. Six other creativity studies of identical twins con? rm the Reznikoff et al. esult: roughly 25 percent to 40 percent of what we do innovatively stem s from genetics. 8 That means that roughly two-thirds of our innovation skills still come through learning—from first understanding the skill, then practicing it, and ultimately gaining con? dence in our capacity to create. This is one reason that individuals who grow up in societies that promote community versus individualism and hierarchy over merit—such as Japan, China, Korea, and many Arab nations—are less likely to creatively challenge the status quo and turn out innovations (or win Nobel prizes).To be sure, many innovators in our study seemed genetically gifted. But more importantly, they often described how they acquired innovation skills from role models who made it â€Å"safe† as well as exciting to discover new ways of doing things. If innovators can be made and not just born, how then do they come up with great new ideas? Our research on roughly ?ve hundred innovators compared to roughly ? ve thousand executives led us to identify five discover y skills that distinguish innovators from typical executives (for detail on the research 00092 01 015-040 r1 go. qxp 5/13/11 9:56 AM Page 23 23 The DNA of Disruptive Innovators methods, see appendix B). First and foremost, innovators count on a cognitive skill that we call â€Å"associational thinking† or simply â€Å"associating. † Associating happens as the brain tries to synthesize and make sense of novel inputs. It helps innovators discover new directions by making connections across seemingly unrelated questions, problems, or ideas. Innovative breakthroughs often happen at the intersection of diverse disciplines and ? elds.Author Frans Johanssen described this phenomenon as â€Å"the Medici effect,† referring to the creative explosion in Florence when the Medici family brought together creators from a wide range of disciplines—sculptors, scientist, poets, philosophers, painters, and architects. As these individuals connected, they created new ideas a t the intersection of their respective fields, thereby spawning the Renaissance, one of the most innovative eras in history. Put simply, innovative thinkers connect fields, problems, or ideas that others ? nd unrelated.The other four discovery skills trigger associational thinking by helping innovators increase their stock of building-block ideas from which innovative ideas spring. Speci? cally, innovators engage the following behavioral skills more frequently: Questioning. Innovators are consummate questioners who show a passion for inquiry. Their queries frequently challenge the status quo, just as Jobs did when he asked, â€Å"Why does a computer need a fan? † They love to ask, â€Å"If we tried this, what would happen? † Innovators, like Jobs, ask questions to understand how things really are today, why they are hat way, and how they might be changed or disrupted. Collectively, their questions provoke new insights, connections, possibilities, and directions. We fou nd that innovators consistently demonstrate a high Q/A ratio, where questions (Q) not only outnumber answers (A) in a typical conversation, but are valued at least as highly as good answers. 100092 01 015-040 r1 go. qxp 5/13/11 9:56 AM Page 24 24 DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION STARTS WITH YOU Observing. Innovators are also intense observers. They carefully watch the world around them—including customers, products, services, technologies, and companies—and the bservations help them gain insights into and ideas for new ways of doing things. Jobs’s observation trip to Xerox PARC provided the germ of insight that was the catalyst for both the Macintosh’s innovative operating system and mouse, and Apple’s current OSX operating system. Networking. Innovators spend a lot of time and energy ?nding and testing ideas through a diverse network of individuals who vary wildly in their backgrounds and perspectives. Rather than simply doing social networking or networking for resources, they actively search for new ideas by talking to people who may offer a radically different view of things.For example, Jobs talked with an Apple Fellow named Alan Kay, who told him to â€Å"go visit these crazy guys up in San Rafael, California. † The crazy guys were Ed Catmull and Alvy Ray, who headed up a small computer graphics operation called Industrial Light & Magic (the group created special effects for George Lucas’s movies). Fascinated by their operation, Jobs bought Industrial Light & Magic for $10 million, renamed it Pixar, and eventually took it public for $1 billion. Had he never chatted with Kay, he would never have wound up purchasing Pixar, and the world might never have thrilled to wonderful animated ? ms like Toy Story,WALL-E, and Up. Experimenting. Finally, innovators are constantly trying out new experiences and piloting new ideas. Experimenters unceasingly explore the world intellectually and experientially, holding convictions at bay and testing hypotheses along the way. They visit new places, try new things, seek new information, and experiment to learn new things. Jobs, for example, has tried new experiences all his life—from meditation and 100092 01 015-040 r1 go. qxp 5/13/11 9:56 AM Page 25 25 The DNA of Disruptive Innovators living in an ashram in India to dropping in on a calligraphy class at Reed College.All these varied experiences would later trigger ideas for innovations at Apple Computer. Collectively, these discovery skills—the cognitive skill of associating and the behavioral skills of questioning, observing, networking, and experimenting—constitute what we call the innovator’s DNA, or the code for generating innovative business ideas. The Courage to Innovate Why do innovators question, observe, network, and experiment more than typical executives? As we examined what motivates them, we discovered two common themes. First, they actively desire to change the status quo .Second, they regularly take smart risks to make that change happen. Consider the consistency of language that innovators use to describe their motives. Jobs wants to â€Å"put a ding in the universe. † Google cofounder Larry Page has said he’s out to â€Å"change the world. † These innovators steer entirely clear of a common cognitive trap called the status quo bias—the tendency to prefer an existing state of affairs to alternative ones. Most of us simply accept the status quo. We may even like routine and prefer not to rock the boat. We adhere to the saying, â€Å"if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,† while not really questioning whether â€Å"it† is â€Å"broke. In contrast, innovators see many things as â€Å"broke. † And they want to ? x them. How do innovators break the status quo? One way is to refuse to be dictated by other people’s schedules. Just glance at an innovative executive’s typical calendar a nd you will ? nd a radically different schedule compared to less inventive executives. We found that innovative entrepreneurs (who are also CEOs) spend 50 percent more time on discovery activities (questioning, observing, experimenting, and networking) than CEOs with no innovation track 100092 01 015-040 r1 go. qxp /13/11 9:56 AM Page 26 26 DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION STARTS WITH YOU record. That translated into spending almost one more day each week on discovery activities. They understand that ful? lling their dreams to change the world means they’ve got to spend a signi? cant amount of time trying to discover how to change the world. And having the courage to innovate means that they are actively looking for opportunities to change the world. Embracing a mission for change makes it much easier to take smart risks, make mistakes, and most of all, learn quickly from them.Most innovative entrepreneurs we studied felt that mistakes are nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, they are an expected cost of doing business. â€Å"If the people running Amazon. com don’t make some signi? cant mistakes,† Jeff Bezos told us, â€Å"then we won’t be doing a good job for our shareholders because we won’t be swinging for the fences. † In short, innovators rely on their â€Å"courage to innovate†Ã¢â‚¬â€an active bias against the status quo and an un? inching willingness to take smart risks—to transform ideas into powerful impact. In summary, the DNA of innovators—or the code for enerating innovative ideas—is expressed in the model shown in ? gure 1-1. The key skill for generating innovative ideas is the cognitive skill of associational thinking. The reason that some people generate more associations than others is partly because their brains are just wired that way. But a more critical reason is that they more frequently engage in the behavioral skills of questioning, observing, networking, and experimenting. These are the catalysts for associational thinking. Of course, the next question is, why do some people engage these four skills more than others?The answer is that they have the courage to innovate. They are willing to embrace a mission for change and take risks to make change happen. The bottom line is that to improve your ability to generate innovative ideas, you need to practice associational thinking and more frequently engage in questioning, observing, 100092 01 015-040 r1 go. qxp 5/13/11 9:56 AM Page 27 27 The DNA of Disruptive Innovators FIGURE 1-1 The innovator’s DNA model for generating innovative ideas Courage to innovate Behavioral skills Cognitive skill to synthesize novel inputs QuestioningChallenging the status quo Taking risks Observing Associational thinking Networking Innovative business idea Experimenting networking, and experimenting. That will likely only happen if you can somehow cultivate the courage to innovate. As innovators actively engage in their discove ry skills over a lifetime, they build discovery habits, and they become de? ned by them. They grow increasingly con? dent in their ability to discover what’s next, and they believe deeply that generating creative insights is their job. It is not something to delegate to someone else.As A. G. La? ey declared, â€Å"innovation is the central job of every leader—business unit managers, functional leaders, and the CEO. †9 The Innovator’s DNA We’ve just told you that the ability to be innovative is not based primarily on genetics. At the same time, we’re using the DNA metaphor to describe the inner workings of innovators, which suggests that it is. Bear with us for a moment. (And welcome to the world of innovation, where the ability to synthesize two seemingly opposing ideas is the type of associating that produces novel 00092 01 015-040 r1 go. qxp 5/13/11 9:56 AM Page 28 28 DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION STARTS WITH YOU insights. ) Recent developments in the ? eld of gene therapy show that it is possible to modify and strengthen your physical DNA, for example, to help ward off diseases. 10 Likewise, it is metaphorically possible to strengthen your personal innovator’s DNA. Let us provide an illustration. Imagine that you have an identical twin, endowed with the same brains and natural talents that you have. You’re both given one week to come up with a creative new business idea.During that week, you come up with ideas alone, just thinking in your room. By contrast, your twin (1) talks with ten people— including an engineer, a musician, a stay-at-home dad, and a designer—about the venture; (2) visits three innovative start-ups to observe what they do; (3) samples five â€Å"new to the market† products and takes them apart; (4) shows a prototype he’s built to five people, and (5) asks â€Å"What if I tried this? † and â€Å"What would make this not work? † at least ten times eac h day during these networking, observing, and experimenting activities.Who do you bet will come up with the more innovative (and usable) idea? My guess is that you’d bet on your twin, and not because he has better natural (genetic) creative abilities. Of course, the anchor weight of genetics is still there, but it is not the dominant predictor. People can learn to more capably come up with innovative solutions to problems by acting in the way that your twin did. As figure 1-2 shows, innovative entrepreneurs rarely display across-the-board strength in observing, experimenting, and networking, and actually don’t need to. All of the high-pro? e innovative entrepreneurs in our study scored above the seventieth percentile in associating and questioning. The innovators seemed to hold these two discovery skills more universally. But the innovators we studied didn’t need world-class strength in the other behaviors. It certainly helped if they excelled at one of the four skills and were strong in at least two. If you hope to be a better 100092 01 015-040 r1 go. qxp 5/13/11 9:56 AM Page 29 29 The DNA of Disruptive Innovators Discovery Skill Strengths Differ for Disruptive Innovators To understand that innovative entrepreneurs develop and use ifferent skills, look at ? gure 1-2. It shows the percentile rank scores on each of the ? ve discovery skills for four well-known founders and innovators: Pierre Omidyar (eBay), Michael Dell (Dell), Michael Lazaridis (Research In Motion), and Scott Cook (Intuit). The percentile rank indicates the percentage of over ? ve thousand executives and innovators in our database who scored lower on that particular skill. A particular skill is measured by the frequency and intensity with which these individuals engage in activities that compose the skill.FIGURE 1-2 High-pro? le innovators’ discovery skills pro? le 100 90 Percentile rank 80 70 Mike Lazaridis Pierre Omidyar Scott Cook Michael Dell Noninnovators 60 50 40 30 20 10 or kin g Ne tw en tin g Ex p er im in g bs er v O ni ng io ue st Q As s oc iat in g 0 As you can see, the pattern for each innovative entrepreneur is different. For example, Omidyar is much more likely to acquire his ideas through questioning (ninety-fifty percentile) and (continued) 100092 01 015-040 r1 go. qxp 5/13/11 9:56 AM Page 30 30 DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION STARTS WITH YOU bserving (eighty-seventh percentile), Dell through experimenting (ninetieth percentile) and networking (ninety-eighth percentile), Cook through observing (eighty-eighth percentile) and questioning (eighty-third percentile), and Lazaridis through questioning (ninety-sixth percentile) and networking (ninetyeighth percentile). The point is that each of these innovative entrepreneurs did not score high on all ? ve of the discovery skills. They each combined the discovery skills uniquely to forge new insights. Just as each person’s physical DNA is unique, an innovator’s DNA comprises a uni que combination f skills and behaviors. innovator, you will need to ? gure out which of these skills you can improve and which can be distinguishing skills to help you generate innovative ideas. Delivery Skills: Why Most Senior Executives Don’t Think Different We’ve spent the past eight years interviewing scores of senior executives—mostly at large companies—asking them to describe the most novel and valuable strategic insights that they had generated during their careers. Somewhat surprisingly, we found that top executives rarely mentioned an innovative business idea that they had personally generated.They were extremely intelligent and talented individuals who were accomplished at delivering results, but they didn’t have much direct, personal experience with generating innovative business ideas. In contrast to innovators who seek to fundamentally change existing business models, products, or processes, most senior executives work hard to efficien tly deliver the next thing that should be done given the existing business model. That is, they 100092 01 015-040 r1 go. qxp 5/13/11 9:56 AM Page 31 31 The DNA of Disruptive Innovators I’m Not Steve Jobs . . . Is This Relevant?OK, so you’re not Steve Jobs. Or Jeff Bezos. Or any other famous business innovator. But that doesn’t mean you can’t learn from these innovators. You can get better at innovating, even if most of your innovations are somewhat incremental in nature. We’ve seen it happen, and we’ve seen that it can make a difference. We’ve seen a pharmaceutical executive practice a questioning technique (see chapter 3) each day to identify key strategic issues facing his division. After three months, his boss told him that he’d become the most effective strategic thinker on his team.Within six months, he was promoted to a corporate strategic planning job. â€Å"I just improved my ability to ask questions,† he told us . We’ve seen MBA students in our classes use the observing, networking, and experimenting techniques to generate entrepreneurial business ideas. One got the idea for launching a company that uses bacteria to eat pollution from networking with someone he met at a neighborhood barbeque. Another observed that the best English speakers in Brazil were people who watched American movies and television. So he launched a company that sells software that helps people learn English by watching movies.Many innovative ideas may seem small, such as a new process for effectively screening job recruits or a better way to build customer loyalty, but they are valuable new ideas nonetheless. And if you come up with enough of them, they will de? nitely help you advance in your career. The point is this: you don’t have to be Steve Jobs to generate innovative ideas for your business. work inside the box. They shine at converting a vision or goal into the speci? c tasks to achieve the de? n ed goal. They organize work and conscientiously execute logical, detailed, data-driven plans of action.In short, most executives excel at execution, including the 100092 01 015-040 r1 go. qxp 5/13/11 9:56 AM Page 32 32 DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION STARTS WITH YOU following four delivery skills: analyzing, planning, detail-oriented implementing, and disciplined executing. (We’ll say more about these skills later in the chapter and in chapter 8, but for now we need only note that they are critical for delivering results and translating an innovative idea into reality. ) Many innovators realize that they are de? cient in these critical skills and, consequently, try to team up with others who possess them.For example, eBay founder Omidyar quickly recognized the need for execution skills, so he invited Jeff Skoll, a Stanford MBA, and Meg Whitman, a Harvard MBA, to join him. â€Å"Jeff Skoll and I had very complementary skills,† Omidyar told us. â€Å"I’d say I did more of the creative work developing the product and solving problems around the product, while Jeff was involved in the more analytical and practical side of things. He was the one who would listen to an idea of mine and then say, ‘Ok, let’s ? gure out how to get this done. ’† Skoll andWhitman professionalized the eBay Web site, added ? xed-price auctions, drove international expansion, developed new categories such as autos, and integrated important capabilities such as PayPal. Why do most senior executives excel in the delivery skills, but are only above average in discovery skills? It is vital to understand that the skills critical to an organization’s success vary systematically throughout the business life cycle. (See ? gure 1-4). For example, in the start-up phase of an innovative venture, the founders are obviously more discovery-driven and entrepreneurial.Discovery skills are crucial early in the business life cycle because the company’s key task is to generate new business ideas worth pursuing. Thus, discovery (exploration) skills are highly valued at this stage and delivery (execution) skills are secondary. However, once innovative entrepreneurs come up with a promising new business idea and then shape that idea into a bona fide business opportunity, the company begins to grow and then must pay attention to building the processes necessary to scale the idea. 100092 01 015-040 r1 go. qxp 5/13/11 9:56 AM Page 33 33 The DNA of Disruptive Innovators The Discovery and Delivery Skills Matrix:How Innovators Stack Up To test the assertion that innovative executives have a different set of skills than typical executives, we used our innovator’s DNA assessment to measure the percentile rank of a sample of highpro? le innovative entrepreneurs (founder CEOs of companies on BusinessWeek’s list of the top one hundred most innovative companies) on both the ? ve discovery skills (associating, questioning, observing, net working, experimenting) and the four delivery or execution skills: analyzing, planning, detail-oriented implementing, and self-disciplined executing. We averaged their percentile rank scores across the ? e discovery skills to get an overall percentile rank, and then did the same thing across the four delivery skills to get an overall percentile rank. We refer to the overall percentile rank across the ? ve discovery skills as the â€Å"discovery quotient† or DQ. While intellectual quotient (or IQ) tests are designed to measure general intelligence and emotional quotient (or EQ) assessments measure emotional intelligence (ability to identify, assess, and control the emotions of ourselves and others), discovery quotient (DQ) is designed to measure our ability to discover ideas for new ventures, products, and processes.Figure 1-3 shows that the high-pro? le innovative entrepreneurs scored in the eighty-eighth percentile on discovery skills, but only scored in the ? fty-sixth perc entile on delivery skills. In short, they were just average at execution. We then conducted the same analysis for a sample of nonfounder CEOs (executives who had never started a new business). We found that most senior executives in large organizations were the mirror image of innovative entrepreneurs: they scored around the eightieth percentile on delivery skills, while scoring only above average on (continued) 100092 01 015-040 r1 go. qxp 5/13/11 9:56 AMPage 34 34 DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION STARTS WITH YOU FIGURE 1-3 Discovery-delivery skills matrix 100 (Percentile score) 75 Discovery skills Founder CEOs at innovati