The Startup Way: How Entrepreneurial Management Transforms Culture and Drives Growth

by Eric Ries

Even the most senior technical leader in the entire company at the time, Mark Little, who was then senior vice president and chief technology officer of GE Global Research, had a change of heart. He was the person the engineers in the room most looked up to, and whose skepticism—voiced quite clearly earlier in the day—had them most worried. He ended our workshop by saying something that stunned the room: “I get it now. I am the problem.” He truly understood that for the company to move faster in the way that Jeff Immelt wanted, he, along with every other leader, had to adapt. The standard processes were holding back growth, and he, as a guardian of process, had to make a change.