BiF-4 Insights - John Wolpert - Best Buy

Impact of BBC Connections television program on his life (hosted by James Burke).

We have to share, but what do we share?

• Do we know what we need to share?


• It is one thing to share inventions, it is another thing to share intentions

An innovation changes how people organize, how they do business, and/or how people live their lives.

IBM Alphaworks:

• Average lifespan of an innovation program is three years, maybe five years at the outside, but Alphaworks is now thirteen years old


• Reason is the crossing of the membrane of the firm and connecting to external companies


• This makes it more valuable and difficult to dislodge

Personal Journey

• Alphaworks -> Extreme Blue -> Innovation XChange Network -> YCombinator

Extreme Blue is a ten year old talent program:

• Reported to heads of HR, Technology, and Business Strategy

Innovation XChange Network in Australia

• Hiring trusted intermediaries and implanting people into companies that could share with other implanted intermediaries but not with companies


• We brought together a healthcare company and technology company looking for overlap


• People started sharing nouns (their technology) and then crickets chirping


• People wouldn't share their verbs (their intentions)


• We should have brought the interns (experienced people have a hesitancy to share)

There are always that 1-3% chomping at the bit to start something new.

The talent program I've built for Best Buy involves some of the same keys as the Extreme Blue program I worked on for IBM:

• 10 weeks


• Live and work together


• A small investment


• Give people more money and they'll spend it


• Restricting the investment and basing additional funding on meeting certain milestones is better

For more information on the talk, go here.