The First Mile

CHAPTER 1

The First Mile Problem

Almost every successful company traces success to a process—sometimes intentional, sometimes accidental—of trial-and-error experimentation that surfaces a winning approach. If you study the history of almost any innovation success story, you find a starting point that bears little resemblance to the finishing point, with interesting twists and turns along the way.

Consider Innosight. The company’s first strategy wasn’t consulting—it was newsletters. The company’s next strategy wasn’t consulting—it was developing software that would allow individuals to teach themselves how to get better at innovation. Customers failed to materialize, and Innosight almost ran out of cash. Yet the team persisted, convinced that ...