article thumbnail

Elon Musk by Walter Isaascson

Leading Blog

This emotional shutoff valve could make him callous, but it also made him a risk-seeking innovator. “He Entrepreneurs are actually not risk takers,” says X.com CFO Roelof Botha. It made his engineers engage in first-principles thinking. He learned to shut down fear,” she says. “If Adversity shaped me,” Musk says. “My

CFO 354
article thumbnail

Leadership and Product Management

Lead on Purpose

Here are the key roles that are crucial to your success as a product manager, and why they are important: Engineering/QA: The relationship with the engineering/development team is paramount for product managers. Smart product managers know the value of having allies in the CFO’s office.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

50 Ways to Leave your Lover: Keep Failing Til the Last Thing You Try Is Successful

Mills Scofield

Special guest blog post by Don Esch, President of Bettcher Industries of his story at BW-Center For Innovation & Growth 's Innovation Summit. The Change: Was It Innovation, Serendipity or Providence? So into the “Scoping” stage we go and the learning begins. Million; not big, but interesting.

article thumbnail

Why Leaders Need To Show Humility

Tanveer Naseer

The hubris displayed by Skilling, along with founder Kenneth Lay and CFO Andrew Fastow, didn’t just destroy Enron. The trust of many in a system that has been the most spectacular generator of innovation in history was damaged by the unbridled greed of a few.

Kaplan 100
article thumbnail

Five Questions Companies Should Ask Before Making an Innovation-Driven Acquisition

Harvard Business Review

This ongoing struggle raises an issue that is endemic in such acquisitions: In search of innovation, big companies often buy other companies whose most innovative days are almost at an end. An acquirer looking for innovation would have been likelier to try to buy Gateway, a company that is almost an after-thought now.

article thumbnail

Today's CIO Needs to Be the Chief Innovation Officer

Harvard Business Review

Therefore, the CIO''s role must shift from protecting and defending the status quo to embracing and extending new innovative capabilities. The visual, social, virtual, and mobile transformations that are already happening are creating a new golden era of technology-enabled innovation, and the CIO needs to be leading the charge.

CIO 8
article thumbnail

R&D Won’t Succeed If It Ignores the CEO’s Vision

Harvard Business Review

After a morning innovation workshop at the bucolic R&D campus of a top-tier but tradition-rich technology giant, the lunchtime conversation with the Lab’s leadership turned strategic. How should they better prioritize innovation? These Labs were filled with talented technologists and innovators. What should they do?

CFO 8