James Currier of NFX: “[Network effects are] like having another thousand employees at your company… you set up the conditions and then the network grows and then the network density increases and the value gets greater and greater to all your users and they get happier and happier with you. Even though what’s adding value to you, your company is actually the addition of new people.” [via Azeem Azhar]
Thomas McKinlay: “Print ads are better absorbed by our memory. One week after seeing them, we remember them better than we would digital ads.”
Rita McGrath: “I’m often asked about what leadership roles are necessary in guiding innovation. I think there are at least three, although they are often performed by multiple people at multiple levels. The first is of the executive leader. This person sets the strategy, makes it clear what kinds of ideas and innovations fit, creates resource flows and fosters alignment among the senior team(s) about the importance of the innovation agenda. At the level of a given venture or project, we have the internal entrepreneurs. These are often the energetic, passionate, love-the-idea-beyond-anything-else people with the energy to persist despite setbacks and to break through obstacles…[W]hat you also desperately need to get the most benefit from prototypes is a character I call the Sherpa. Like the Sherpa who is going to help you climb Mt. Everest, the organizational Sherpa knows what it means when the organizational wind blows one way or another, who can trade favors, who has friends across the organization and who has significant senior-level credibility.”
