Serguei Netessine retweetledi
Most innovation efforts don’t fail because of technology.
They fail because of culture.
In the latest episode of Experience-focused Leaders, I sat down with @snetesin, Senior Vice Dean of Innovation at @Wharton, @amazon Scholar, and active investor, to talk about what actually drives innovation, investment decisions, and reinvention.
Serguei operates at the intersection of academia and real-world execution.
He teaches, invests, and works with companies like Amazon, which makes his perspective anything but theoretical.
One idea that really stayed with me:
“The biggest barrier to innovation in big companies is not technical. It’s culture.”
That reframes the whole conversation.
Most organizations assume they need better technology.
But what they often need is a system that allows experimentation and tolerates failure.
Serguei explains why innovation stalls when:
• Companies don’t reward experimentation
• Failure is punished instead of learned from
• Decisions are driven by hierarchy, not evidence
• There is no structured process for testing new ideas
And what actually works instead:
• Designing experiments as a core capability
• Treating innovation as a repeatable process, not a one-off project
• Separating exploration from execution
• Building cultures where failure is part of progress
Another idea worth sitting with:
“Investing in innovation can be a very structured, mathematical process, not just gut feeling.”
That applies beyond venture capital.
It applies to how we make decisions about products, strategy, and even our own careers.
We also talked about reinvention for companies and individuals.
Serguei’s view is simple and challenging:
“Every five to seven years, you need to completely change what you do.”
Not because you have to.
But because staying the same is often the bigger risk.
This episode is for founders, executives, and operators who are thinking about:
• How to build real innovation systems
• How to make better investment decisions
• How to reinvent themselves without waiting for a crisis
🎧 Listen to the full conversation with Serguei Netessine on Experience-focused Leaders: relayto.com/blog/s-02-ep-2…
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