Lean Entrepreneurship

George Watt has been passionate about technology from a very early age and built his first “computer” out of cardboard boxes somewhere around age five. He led the design workshops for the Accelerator program described in this book and created and deployed its foundation artifacts and ceremonies. Throughout his career, he has delivered innovations of his own such as a knowledge base for a neural network-based predictive performance management solution, one of the earliest private clouds (2005), and a lightweight event management agent. A transformative leader, he has spearheaded initiatives that have enabled organizations to address complex technology problems, deliver new business benefits, and drive millions of dollars in savings and productivity gains. He began his technical career as a systems programmer/sysadmin and systems engineer. He has held many national and global leadership positions, and has led global teams spanning North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. As VP of Strategy for CA Technologies Office of the CTO, he is passionate about helping budding intrapreneurs turn great ideas into viable businesses, and is responsible for the global scientific research, worldwide innovation initiatives, and the ongoing evolution of the Accelerator program. He is co-author of The Innovative CIO (Apress), and tweets as @GeorgeDWatt. Howard Abrams is Distinguished Engineer and Senior Vice President at CA Technologies. Working at CA since 2002 has given him the opportunity to take on several diverse technical and leadership roles—from software architecture to user experience. In his current role, he is responsible for CA’s internal incubator, CA Accelerator, where incubations function like lean startups and internal innovators receive the support and funding they need to develop and test new products. Prior to joining CA, he held technical positions in organizations, including Muse Corporation, US Navy, Paradigm Simulation, MITRE Corporation, and Jeppesen Sanderson. He has been granted nine patents and has several additional pending. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from the Naval Postgraduate School as well as a BSc in Aerospace Engineering from Embry-Riddle University. Although he began coding at age seven in the Chicago, Illinois suburbs, he now enjoys spending his free time with his wife and two children in the San Francisco Bay Area in California.

Chapter 1: Their Own Worst Enemy.- Chapter 2: Unintended Consequences.- Chapter 3: Lean Acceleration.- Chapter 4: Inside the Accelerator.- Chapter 5: Innovation Support Structure.- Chapter 6: Benefits Beyond Revenue.- Chapter 7: Bootstrapping an Incubation Program.- Chapter 8: Inspiring Lean Innovation.- Chapter 9: Conclusion.