It has been a long time since I have attended such an inspiring conference. Guy Kawasaki’s speech at Capital Innovation Conference on March 25 was so entertaining, truthful and so… uh oh, “Californian” that first, I could not focus on Tweeting properly, second, I was feeling the Californian breeze floating in the Club St-James room. As Deloitte Canada was a sponsor, I got myself a nice ticket.
Not only his spiel appealed to startup owners, entrepreneurs and Venture Capital Investors filling the room, but it also appealed to all of us, wannabe innovators in the room. Those who breathe and live Business Innovation, Web Innovation, Product Innovation and that intend to, one day, change the equation. I have never been in a room with so many Venture Capital investors in my whole life. Well, I am still young.
Guy Kawasaki started by telling us that every single lunch during the week day, he is not having business lunches. (No you won’t find him at a fancy Tech New Hot Spot), but he is playing hockey in some San Francisco location, hidden, as a dedication to his hockey dad status. Fine with me that he has ghost twitterers, playing sports and living your life is important. And he swore, if someone was to provide him with a game every day he would stay two weeks more in Montreal. Did that happen? Does somebody know?
I will summarize Guy Kawasaki’s “The Art of Innovation”, in a really brief way, as I can not reproduce the momentum, here are his ten key points.
1) Make meaning
2) Make a mentra (3 words)
3) Jump to the next curve: not the next product innovation curve, but the business model total 360 shift. Why didn’t the telegraph company, Western Union could not invent the telephone? Why didn’t Wester Union invent Twitter. (ahem..)
4) Roll the dice
5) Don’t worry, be crappy: launch your product, even it is not 100% perfect, that is called “beta”.
6) Let a 100 Flowers Blossom
7) Churn, baby churn
Polarize people
9) Niche Thyself
10) Follow the 10, 20, 30 rule;
which basically means, don’t show up with 60 pages powerpoint presentation when meeting Venture Capital investors.
11) Don’t let the Bozos grind you down. (That, you have to ask me for me to tell you the full details)
