Innovation, Strategy, and Serendipity

Creating Long-Term Success

Photo by Ravi Palwe

Let me tell you a story about Bob, Alice, and you*.

The three of you are in a room playing with Lego bricks. You all have the same goal –to innovate the most and build as many new toys as possible.

As you play, each of you chooses the pieces you believe will help you create the highest number and best combinations. Each of you chooses differently.

• Alice picks “Lego men and their firefighting hats to immediately make simple toys.”
• Bob chooses “pieces such as axles, wheels, and small base plates that he noticed are common in more complex models, even though he is not able to use them straightaway to produce new toys.”
• Your approach follows your gut–you arbitrarily select bricks that look interesting.

Who wins? Who will have created the best new toys with their bricks?

“In the beginning, Alice will lead the way, surging ahead with her impatient strategy. But as the game progresses, fate will appear to shift. Bob’s early moves will begin to look serendipitous when he is able to assemble a complex fire truck from his choice of initially useless axles and wheels. It will seem that he was lucky, but we will soon see that he effectively created his…