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Why Your Social Media Metrics Are a Waste of Time

Harvard Business Review

They're what Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup , calls "vanity metrics.". That's what Ries calls an "engine of growth.". These metrics are valuable because they measure success at your core business. Seek out what Ries refers to as "actionable metrics." Vanity metrics look good but fail the "So what?"

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How GE Stays Young

Harvard Business Review

For example, GE incubated an energy storage company (“ Durathon ”), which has gone from the lab to a $100 million business in five years. In 2009, GE’s transportation unit developed a new sodium battery for a hybrid engine for locomotives. Says Comstock, “You have to believe that energy storage has a big future.”

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Looking to Join the Lean Start-up Movement?

Harvard Business Review

In my eyes, the work Steve Blank, Eric Ries, and others have done to provide a cogent, accessible frame around the academic concepts of emergent strategy is one of the most important contributions to the innovation movement over the past few years. I love Lean. Of course, the value of a tool depends on its application.

Ries 8
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The Danger of Celebritizing Entrepreneurship

Harvard Business Review

Eric Ries has recently become fond of saying, "Entrepreneurship is not cool, it's not sexy and it's totally uncomfortable. Or maybe he's a self-proclaimed "business model and monetization expert" fresh off the MBA assembly line. It's boring and grueling, and that part is never part of the movie."

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The Danger of Celebritizing Entrepreneurship

Harvard Business Review

Eric Ries has recently become fond of saying, "Entrepreneurship is not cool, it's not sexy and it's totally uncomfortable. Or maybe he's a self-proclaimed "business model and monetization expert" fresh off the MBA assembly line. It's boring and grueling, and that part is never part of the movie."

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The 5 Requirements of a Truly Innovative Company

Harvard Business Review

Over the past two decades, we’ve led dozens of innovation projects and have talked to thousands of managers about the challenge of building a high-performance innovation “engine.” The engine may be otherwise well built, but without just one of these components, it will be essentially worthless.