Author: Eisaiah Engel

Publisher:

Published: 2020-12-08

Total Pages: 120

ISBN-13:

Are you ready to outperform the competition in the digital economy-but are dissatisfied with how internal initiatives never get you far enough, fast enough? Innovation Casino is a new playbook on how executives at large firms can grow digital revenue in the 2020s. Challenged with COVID-19 at the outset, the 2020s are also poised for higher taxes and higher borrowing costs. In this new decade, large corporates will need to change course from betting on big acquisitions (a strategy used by "players" in the innovation casino) to growing organically by creating new reasons for customers to pay a premium and stay loyal. The "innovation casino" is a metaphor for the odds of delivering financial returns from innovation. To beat the odds, large firms must transform their core products into digital ecosystems-much like the App Store on the Apple iPhone. Digital ecosystems give large firms the opportunity to participate in thousands of bets on digital innovation produced by outside startups-rather than trying to innovate by themselves. By focusing on their core platforms and incentivizing startups to build everything else, large firms can play to their natural strengths as the "house" in the innovation casino. In his work with leading companies, digital innovator and best-selling author Eisaiah Engel has seen firsthand how innovation investments can be hampered by internal roadblocks and complexities. Engel founded three companies in the digital advertising space, including one that generated over $1 million annually with an initial investment of $25,000. Curious to learn the machinery of large organizations, Engel then divested his startups and worked as a consultant and later as a marketing leader at a Fortune 10 firm. Innovation Casino was born of Engel's struggles to innovate at the extreme ends of corporate structure-from his own startups to companies with billions in revenue. In Innovation Casino, Engel proposes a shift in corporate innovation financing: Use outside capital to fund startups, encouraging them to build new products and services on a large firm's platform. Through the research-based strategies in Innovation Casino, you will: Learn how to combine open innovation with seed funding-motivating startups to develop products and services that attract customers to your platform. Make thousands of bets on innovation with an Ecosystem Innovation Fund (EIF)-a cross between the US government's SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) grant program and venture capital. Maximize principal preservation and your returns with the unique risk management structure of an EIF. "Buy low" by giving entrepreneurs unprecedented control of their companies in exchange for valuation discounts to maximize your returns. Invest in "zebra" startups that are excited about delivering niche solutions on your platform, unlike their "unicorn" cousins who are trying to become your competitors. Free your digital ecosystem to participate in thousands of bets on innovation-overcoming the constraints of your organizational structure. Innovation Casino takes an odds-based view of strategy, basing its provocative recommendations on years of primary and secondary research by the author. With more than 21 graphs and detailed data tables, this book provides critical information for your digital ecosystem strategy. Giving this book to your corporate strategy, finance, and product teams would be a smart bet on your company's future in the platform economy.