with Ries’ The Lean Startup, is core
reading for the Silicon Valley set. He
was captivated by the idea of entre-
preneurship within organizations, then
following the process of getting buy-in
from internal stakeholders, raising
funds, recruiting a team and so on.
“A lot of [The Lab] is modelled on the
principles in those books and really
trying to avoid what’s been coined as
‘innovation theatre’ where you spend
the money on some fancy room or
fancy building and then come up with
all these ideas but there doesn’t end
up being any opportunity – or ROI –
that comes from it.
“So we’re either getting something
out of it or we’re showing ourselves
that this isn’t the right thing to do
because our members don’t want it or
the ROI is just not there,” added Maxim.
The program has transformed the
speed of testing dramatically. POP/io,
a video banking company, had been
lurking near MSUFCU’s project board
for 18 months before being thrust into
The Lab. “We were up and running in
five weeks,” says Maxim. 153technologymagazine.com