This post previously appeared in Poets and Quants. We just finished the 14th annual Lean LaunchPad class at Stanford. The class had gotten so popular that in 2021 we started teaching it… Read More

We just finished our 9th annual Hacking for Defense class at Stanford. What a year. Hacking for Defense, now in 60 universities, has teams of students working to understand and help sol… Read More

Join us for the final presentations of our two Stanford classes this Tuesday June 4th and Wednesday June 5th. Tuesday = Hacking for Defense Wednesday = Lean Launchpad The presentations just… Read More

Gordon Bell passed on this month. I was a latecomer in Gordon Bell’s life.  But he made a lasting impact on mine. The first time I laid eyes on Gordon Bell was in 1984 outside a r… Read More

Ilya Strebulaev at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Director of the Stanford Venture Capital Initiative just came out with a book that should be on your reading list – The… Read More

This part 2 of the Secret History of Polaroid and Edwin Land. Read part 1 for context. Kodak and Polaroid, the two most famous camera companies of the 20th century, had a great partnership f… Read More

The connections between the world of national security and commercial companies still has surprises. December 1976 – Vandenberg Air Force Base, U.S. military space port on the coast of… Read More

One of the most exciting things a startup CEO in a business-to-business market can hear from a potential customer is, “We’re excited. When can you come back and show us a prototy… Read More

This article first appeared in Inc. Capitalism has been good to me. After serving in the military during Vietnam, I came home and had a career in eight startups. I got to retire when I was 4… Read More

A version of this article previously appeared in Fortune. If you haven’t been paying attention Apple has started shipping its Apple Vision Pro, its take on a headset that combines Virt… Read More

We just wrapped up the third year of our Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition class –part of Stanford’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation. Joe F… Read More

This post previously appeared in Defense News  and C4SIR. Despite the clear and present danger of threats from China and elsewhere, there’s no agreement on what types of adve… Read More

This post is the latest in the “Secret History Series.” They’ll make much more sense if you watch the video or read some of the earlier posts for context. Se… Read More

Bill Gurley was one of Silicon Valley’s smartest and most successful VCs. He recently gave a talk at the All-In Summit that was really two talks in one. The first part was railing agai… Read More

Laura Thomas is a former CIA operations officer. Reading how she moved in 2021 from CIA ops to a quantum technology company offered insightful career transition advice for those leaving… Read More

Laura Thomas is a former CIA operations officer. Reading how she moved in 2021 from CIA ops into a quantum technology company offered insightful career transition advice for those leaving he… Read More

This post previously appeared in EIX. In the early stages of a startup your hypotheses about all the parts of your business model are your profound beliefs. Think of profound beliefs as &ldq… Read More

I just saw the movie Oppenheimer.  A wonderful movie on multiple levels. But the Atomic Bomb story that starts at Los Alamos with Oppenheimer and General Grove misses the fact that from… Read More

This post previously appeared in Poets & Quants. I just spent a month and a half at Imperial College London co-teaching a “Wicked” Entrepreneurship class. In this case Wicked… Read More

This article previously appeared in Defense News. It was co-written with Joe Felter, and Pete Newell. Today, the U.S. is supporting a proxy war with Russia while simultaneously attempting to… Read More

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. John F. Kennedy Humans have mastered lots of t… Read More

This article previously appeared in EIX – Entreprenuers and Innovators Exchange. Data shows that pre-seed and seed startups with employees showing up in a physical office have 3½… Read More

This post previously appeared in the Harvard Business Review. Three types of organizations – Incubators, Accelerators and Venture Studios – have emerged to reduce the risk of ear… Read More

This post previously appeared on the readwrite blog. A CEO running a B-to-B startup in needs to live in the city where their business is – or else they’ll never scale. I was hav… Read More

We just wrapped up the second year of our Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition class – now part of our Stanford Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation… Read More

This article previously appeared in War on the Rocks. In the past, headlines about the Pentagon failing its financial audit again would never have caught my attention. But having been in the… Read More

Join Jerry Engel, Pete Newell, and Steve Weinstein for the sixth edition of the Lean Innovation Educators Summit December 14, 1-4 pm Eastern Time, 10 am-1 pm Pacific Time. Register here. &md… Read More

My good friend Alexander Osterwalder, the inventor of the business model canvas (one of foundations of the Lean Methodology) has written a playbook (along with his associate partner&nbs… Read More

An edited version of this article previously appeared in the Boston Consulting Group’s strategy think tank website. I spent last week at a global Fortune 50 company offsite watching th… Read More

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step  Lǎozi 老子 I just had lunch with Shenwei, one of my ex-students who had just taken a job in a mid-sized consult… Read More

This article previously appeared in The National Interest. Last month the U.S. passed the CHIPS and Science Act, one of the first pieces of national industrial policy – government plan… Read More

This post previously appeared in Fast Company. How does a newly hired Chief Technology Officer (CTO) find and grow the islands of innovation inside a large company? How not to waste your fir… Read More

Artificial Intelligence is a once-in-a lifetime commercial and defense game changer (download a PDF of this article here) Hundreds of billions in public and private capital is being invested… Read More

 Portions of this post previously appeared in War On the Rocks. Looking at a satellite image of Ukraine online I realized it was from Capella Space – one of our Hacking for D… Read More

This article previously appeared in TechCrunch. Cram downs are back – and I’m keeping a list. At the turn of the century after the dotcom crash, startup valuations plummeted, bur… Read More

It was an honor to host US Deputy Secretary of Defense Dr. Kathleen Hicks at Stanford’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation.  (Think of the Deputy Secretary of De… Read More

If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don’t understand quantum mechanics Richard Feynman IBM Quantum Computer Tens of billions of public and private capital are being inve… Read More

The last year has seen a ton written about the semiconductor industry: chip shortages, the CHIPS Act, our dependence on Taiwan and TSMC, China, etc. But despite all this talk about chips and… Read More

SAVE THE DATE for the 5th Lean Innovation Educators Summit on The Role of Educators and the University in Building Sustainable and Innovative Ecosystems February 3rd, 2022 fro… Read More

This post previously appeared in the Proceedings of the Naval Institute. One of the most audacious and bold manifestos for the future of Naval innovation has just been posted by the Rear Adm… Read More

This article first appeared in West Point’s Modern War Institute. We just had our final session of our Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition class. Jo… Read More

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the s… Read More

If I ask you to think of an elephant do you see an elephant in your head when you close your eyes? I don’t. Regardless of how descriptive the imagery, story or text I can’t crea… Read More

penitus cogitare, cito agere – think deeply, act quickly 75 years ago, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) helped kickstart innovation in Silicon Valley with a series of grants to Fred… Read More

This article first appeared in West Point’s Modern War Institute. We just completed the eighth week of our new national security class at Stanford – Technology, In… Read More

This article first appeared in West Point’s Modern War Institute. We just completed the seventh week of our new national security class at Stanford – Technology, I… Read More

This article first appeared in West Point’s Modern War Institute. We just completed the sixth week of our new national security class at Stanford – Technology, Inn… Read More

As an entrepreneur at times you forget that being in charge doesn’t mean you have to know everything. When it feels like you’re trapped facing an unsolvable dilemma, and wre… Read More

This article first appeared in West Point’s Modern War Institute. We just completed the fifth week of our new national security class at Stanford – Technology, Inn… Read More

Modern entrepreneurship began at the turn of the 21st century with the observation that startups aren’t smaller versions of large companies – large companies at their core execut… Read More

This article first appeared in West Point’s Modern War Institute.   We just completed the fourth week of our new national security class at Stanford – Technol… Read More

This article first appeared in West Point’s Modern War Institute.  We just had our third week of our new national security class at Stanford – Technology, Innovat… Read More

This article first appeared in West Point’s Modern War Institute. We just had our second week of our new national security class at Stanford – Technology, Innovation an… Read More

This article first appeared in West Point’s Modern War Institute. We just had our first week of our new national security class at Stanford – Technology, Innovation and… Read More

For 25 years as the sole Superpower, the U.S. neglected strategic threats from China and a rearmed Russia. The country, our elected officials, and our military committed to a decades-long ba… Read More

You think startups are hard? Try innovating inside a large company where 99% of the company is executing the current business model, while you’re trying to figure out and build what co… Read More

A week ago I got invited to an “innovation hero” award ceremony at a government agency. I don’t know how many of these I’ve been to in the last couple years, but this… Read More

This article first appeared in Poets and Quants Revolutions start by overturning the status quo. By the end of the 20th century, case studies and business plans had reached an evolutionary… Read More

We just finished the 11th annual Lean LaunchPad class at Stanford — our first version focused on deep science and technology. I’ve always thought of the class as a minimal v… Read More

We just finished our 6th annual Hacking for Defense class at Stanford. What a year. With the pandemic winding down it finally feels like the beginning of the end. This was my sixth time… Read More

I was pleasantly surprised to hear from Suresh, an ex-student I’ve known for a long time. A U.S. citizen he was now the head of sales and marketing for a company in London selling medi… Read More

There are no facts inside your building, so get the heck outside I just had a call with Lorenz, a former business school student who started a job at a biotech startup making bacteria to tak… Read More

Register Here In 2020 over 1,000 educators joined us online to learn and share how to teach during the pandemic. Now we’re heading back into the classroom and the world has changed. Wh… Read More

As Director of the U.S. Army’s Rapid Equipping Force Pete Newell delivered innovation at speed and scale in the Department of Defense. Pete is now CEO of BMNT, a company… Read More

The U.S. Department of Defense is coming to grips with the idea that the technologies it needs to keep the country safe and secure are no longer exclusively owned by the military or its prim… Read More

I first met Shawn Carolan and his wife Jennifer at the turn of the century at 11,000 feet. I was hiking with my kids between the Yosemite High Sierra camps. Having just retired from a career… Read More

This post previously appeared in Real Clear Defense. The Latin phrase E Pluribus Unum – Out of Many, One – is our de facto national motto. It was a rallying cry of ou… Read More

A version of this story previously appeared in Defense One. The story of RYAN and Able Archer is an oft-told lesson of a U.S. intelligence failure, miscalculation, and two superpowers unawar… Read More

During the Cold War U.S. diplomatic and military alliances existed to defend freedom around the world. Today, these alliances are being reshaped to respond to Russian threats to the Baltics… Read More

A version of this article – co-authored with Raj Shah and Joe Felter – previously appeared in War On The Rocks. After hearing from 20+ guest speakers, including two Sec… Read More

A version of this article – co-authored with Raj Shah and Joe Felter – previously appeared in The National Interest. After hearing from 20+ guest speakers, including tw… Read More

A version of this article – co-authored with Raj Shah and Joe Felter – previously appeared in Defense One. (Update: After this article was written the Secretary of Defe… Read More

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Our recent national security class at Stanford, Technology, Innovation, and Modern War was designed to give students insights on how the onslaught of new technologies like AI, machine learni… Read More

This class, Technology, Innovation, and Modern War was designed to give our students insights on how the onslaught of new technologies like AI, machine learning, autonomy, cyber, access to s… Read More

Over the weekend I got asked the best way to teach students the principles of Lean via Zoom. One of the key lessons from our Educators Conference is that when teaching online complex informa… Read More

With the theme “Build Back Better” Jerry Engel, Pete Newell, Steve Weinstein and I co-hosted nearly 500 Lean Educators from 63 countries and 235 universities online for a three-h… Read More

We just held our eighteenth and final session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed a class to exa… Read More

SAVE THE DATE for the 3rd edition of Lean Innovation Educators SummitDecember 16th, 10 – 1pm PST, 1 – 4pm EST, 6 – 9pm UTC In July 2020, 400+ educators gathered o… Read More

We just held our seventeenth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed a class to examine the… Read More

We just held our sixteenth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed a class to examine the ne… Read More

Last Friday the Secretary of Defense abruptly fired half of the Defense Business Board. For some reason, he forgot me. He appointed former Trump campaign officials Corey Lewandowski and Davi… Read More

We just held our fifteenth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed a class to examine the ne… Read More

We just held our fourteenth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed a class to examine the n… Read More

We just held our twelfth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed a class to examine the new… Read More

In July 2020, 400+ educators gathered online to discuss and share best practices for Lean education in the virtual environment. We learned a ton.  And we’re going to do it again… Read More

We just held our twelfth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed a class to examine the new… Read More

We just held our eleventh session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed a class to examine the new… Read More

We just held our tenth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed a class to examine the new mi… Read More

We just held our ninth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed a class to examine the new mi… Read More

We just held our eighth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed a class to examine the new m… Read More

We just held our seventh session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed the class to examine the ne… Read More

We just held our sixth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed a class to examine the new mi… Read More

We just held our fifth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed a class to examine the new mi… Read More

We just held our fourth sessions of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed a class to examine the new… Read More

We just held our fourth sessions of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed a class to examine the new… Read More

We just held our third session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed a class to examine the new mi… Read More

We just held our third session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed a class to examine the new mi… Read More

We just held our second session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Given the tech-centricity of Stanford and Silicon Valley, Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I… Read More

We just held our second session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Given the tech-centricity of Stanford and Silicon Valley, Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I… Read More