Presentation: Tweet"Innovation at Google"

There are many paths to innovation. At one extreme, we have large companies who create research labs, staff them with world-class Ph.Ds, and set them working for years to solve extremely complex technical problems. At the other extreme, we have the proverbial "two entrepreneurs in the garage" working on a shoe-string budget. Between these two extremes, we have all sorts of combinations of organizational structure, team size, budgets and time horizons.

History shows that world-changing innovation is possible through all of these paths. But history also shows that, as companies grow in size and reputation, they almost inevitably become more conservative and risk-averse when it comes to considering, and investing in, new ideas and disruptive technology – often with disastrous results.

In this presentation, Google's Senior Engineering Director Patrick Copeland will introduce three basic models for innovation: Top-Down, Democratic and "eXtreme". He will describe how Google's core beliefs, culture, organization and infrastructure have successfully encouraged and enabled Democratic innovation throughout its growth. He will conclude by presenting and discussing "Unleash the Innovators", a practical manifesto and manual to stimulate and leverage eXtreme Innovation in any organization.