I’ve used my GM case study as a backdrop to help companies inspire an innovative mindset in their people.

1. Leading Innovation &
Value Creation
Andrew L. Urich, J.D.
Puterbaugh Professor of
Ethics & Legal Studies
Spears School of Business
Oklahoma State University
aurich@okstate.edu
www.andrewurich.com

2. “It is not the strongest of the
species that survive, nor the
most intelligent, but the one
most responsive to change.”
Charles Darwin

3. Innovation
 Eliminate impediments to innovation
 Collaboration
 Implementation
 Value Creation

4. Eliminate impediments to
innovation
1. Understanding the Urgent Need for
Innovation
2. Lack of engagement
3. Apply “Real” Capitalist ideas within the
organization
4. Overcoming fear and resistance to change
5. Facing reality

5. Organizational Restraints to Innovation
Bureaucracy & the Status Quo
 Risk taker to Risk avoidance
 Cash poor to Cash comfortable
 Contribution to Playing favorites
 Opportunities to Problems
 Create value to Doing your job
 Marketing & sales to Finance & bean-counting
 Momentum to Inertia
 Working to Meetings
 END

6. GM: Smart People Trying
Hard
 My first car: ’66 Cadillac Coupe de Ville
 I’ve rooted for GM ever since, but I never bought
another one of their cars

7. GM History
 1950’s - Half of all cars in the US

8. GM History
 Things turned South with the Vega

9. Why is it So Hard to Face
Reality?

10. Why is it So Hard to
Face Reality?

11. “What we see depends mainly
on what we look for.”
Sir John Lubbock
(1834 – 1913)
English Archeologist

12. “When things change, the truth
is what we need to change.”
Spencer Johnson
Author, Who Moved My Cheese

13. Focus on What Matters

14. Focus on What Matters

15. Focus on What Matters

16. Focus on What Matters

17. There is value creation in what you
don’t do
 Southwest Airlines: The King of “No!”
 No food
 No choice of planes
 No assigned seats
 No extra baggage
 No first class
 No shared reservation system
 No expensive equipment
 Failure to say “no” leads to disaster

18. 1999
“The most versatile vehicle on earth”
“Lifestyle support vehicle”

19. 1999
“The most versatile vehicle on earth”
“Lifestyle support vehicle”

20. Why Don’t They Give Us an
Owner’s Manual For Our Brain?