Paolo Lombardi and Adam Berk
Startup Program Design
ISBN: 978-1-260-46325-5
One thing I enjoy doing when I travel to conferences and conventions around the country and around the world is to attend book-related talks, in an effort to snag a copy of the author’s latest work. At the Rally convention in Indianapolis this past August, I had a chance to meet Adam Berk, one of the authors of Startup Program Design, a guide to creating corporate accelerators and incubators. I’ve worked with some entrepreneurial ecosystem builders involved in the work of “intrapreneurship” – entrepreneurship within large companies – and wanted a glimpse into their world.
This book felt like it could have been two companion volumes – the first volume could cover all of the theoretical and introductory material from part 1, and the second volume would contain the rest of the book. By breaking this into two volumes, the authors could have widened the audience of the book beyond corporate innovators to a broader audience including nonprofits and existing but struggling incubator and accelerator programs. Combined, the book was already incredibly lengthy, weighing in at nearly 500 pages including appendices and index, so there wasn’t much room for elaboration.
As someone who doesn’t work and hasn’t worked in a large corporate setting, there were parts of this book that didn’t apply to me. Most of the first part of the book was incredibly dense, and I don’t know if people developing corporate innovation centers will have the time to slog through that much information in order to do what needs to be done in their situation. However, you have to fight through part 1 in order to understand parts 2 and 3, which were an absolute breeze to read. Part 2 was my favorite section of the book, as it really dived into the design of innovation programs, and I was able to compare notes with what I did at the university.
The main crux of the book surrounded the concept of ikigai applied to the intersection between the needs and wants of the corporation funding and running the innovation center and the startups and intrapreneurs who are utilizing the innovation center to advance their business or project. Ikigai is a Japanese concept that refers to someone’s “reason for being,” and was also utilized in Jim Collins’ works that focused on some of the greatest companies in history.
I had heard of ikigai before reading this book but didn’t have much previous knowledge on the topic. The authors did a great job modifying the concept to fit the topics discussed in this book – instead of focusing on self and the relationship to work, the authors found the intersection point between the corporate organization, the startup, and the program itself, and how the three need to be in alignment in order to work. If you have a chance to study the original ikigai concept before reading this book, it might make the first section of the book an easier or faster read than it was for me.
While the book was dense and incredibly academic at times, the authors did include Key Takeaways at the end of each chapter. If corporate intrapreneurship directors grab a copy of this book before they start building their own programs, these Key Takeaway sections can function as a literary express lane in order to get things up and running quickly, depending on the demands of their supervisors and funding sources. I do appreciate that a number of larger, denser books that I’ve read recently have started to include these summaries, either at the end of each chapter or at the end of the book.
Overall, 8/10, would recommend to those who work in a large corporate setting and are looking for a basic introduction into the world of innovation in the context of the company in which they work. Even though the first part of the book is ridiculously dense, you do need the background presented there in order to make the rest of the book a smooth experience. Your program can succeed, and your company can innovate – it’s all a matter of finding your ikigai.