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Invariably I find they’ve been doing shallow, dull work aimed at racking up institutional merit points (number of papers/patents, awards etc). They are the Paris Hiltons of innovation. Famous for being famous. A resume stuffed with everything except blue-collar innovation.
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Blue-collar innovators are “new medium pilot plant” producers. Their workspaces/tooling are inbetween basic research labs and scaled production. They produce in small batches not because they have artisan sensibilities but because they’re pushing the scaling limits of new media.
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BCIMINs are the most stimulating and energizing place for most smart, creative, imaginative, and growth-oriented people to participate in. It’s not the rare lightning-strike regime that creates pioneers, nor is it the predictable world of institutions built around stable tools.
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I’d guess 1% of the population will end up as pioneers, 9% as blue-collar innovators, and 90% as mature-institution normies. Of that 90%, a third to half (so 30-45% of total) will be bullshit workers, predators and parasites at maturity. Free riders of one sort or the other.
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This is fine. I approve of non-producing free riders right up to the point that kills the host process of wealth creation. It’s only good wealth if it produces a surplus, and somebody has to consume it. Somebody has to eat all that cake.
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Cringley’s (pseudonym) model was a 1/2 page comment on three different types of companies - commandos / infantry / police ... that is quite a long way from the pioneer - settler - town planner model of organising a company that i used. Though a debt is acknowledged.
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Personally, I'm not yet convinced that you can describe companies themselves in this form but within companies you can describe different attitudes necessary -
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X : Is my company more of a pioneer, settler or town planner? Me : Hmmm. Tricky. I have mixed feelings on this. Let me explain why. I'm going to start with an old map of Fotango ...
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You could argue that Geoffrey Moore's Dealing with Darwin/crossing the chasm model is isomorphic (bowling alley = settler, main street = town planner) and his prescription is companies should try to be full lifecycle, moving projects through the curve.
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In sectors with an acquisition culture, it seems to be a relay race as startups sell to holding companies (eg pharma) and team disbands and circles back to try again. Settler/bowling alley is the transition/hand-off zone. No companies specialize there, but VCs etc. facilitate.