Eric Ries of Lean Startup fame defines a startup as “a human institution designed to create a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty“. I find this definition extremely powerful. In reality startups are an organizational model to deal with uncertainty and complexity. And it can be actually seen as a tool in that context.
Eric Ries goes further: “According to this broad definition, anyone—no matter their official job title—can be cast unexpectedly into the waters of entrepreneurship if the context of their work becomes highly uncertain. I argued that entrepreneurs are everywhere—in small businesses, mammoth corporations, health care systems, and schools, even inside government agencies. They are anywhere that people are doing the honorable and often unheralded labor of testing a novel idea, creating a better way to work, or serving new customers by extending a product or service into new markets”.
This is why in his new book ‘The Startup Way‘ he explores the way the startup toolbox can be imported into larger and more institutionalized organizations. I tend to find that he sometimes stretches the concept a bit too much – don’t expect suddenly mammoth corporations to become an agile startup (that would end up like a mammoth in a porcelaine store I presume), still the idea is interesting and fruitful, if properly executed in the right remits.
