changing the world through innovation and engineering - judy estrin, ceo jlabs llc
DESCRIPTION
Judy Estrin, CEO of JLabs LLC and a serial entrepreneur discusses why innovation is so important and what it takes to be an entrepreneur. Estrin was involved in the development of TCP/IP and is a former Cisco CTO. A Stanford Engineering alum, she spoke at the school's annual eDay event.TRANSCRIPT
COPYRIGHT © JLABS, LLC 2011 Copyright © Judy Estrin 2008 1
Judy Estrin CEO, JLabs, LLC
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Changing the World Through Innovation and Engineering
• One engineer’s path • Innovation • Opportunities and challenges
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• Academic/scientific family - strong role models
• Fell in love with computer science - appealed to my problem solving skills
• Involved in early development of TCP/IP and the Internet with Vint Cerf
• First job with a small company: early move into management – interacting with people, applying technology
• Never imagined I would become an entrepreneur or write a book on innovation
• My most important and fullfilling ‘achievement’ is my 21 year old son
Shaping My Career (and Attitudes)
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Range of Experiences
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Computer science • UCLA • Stanford • Early networking research Advisory Boards
• Bridge Communications • NCD • Precept • Packet Design, LLC
• Mother!
• CTO Cisco Board member of: • Disney (current) • FedEx • Rockwell • Sun Microsystems
Author - Closing the Innovation Gap, McGraw-Hill, 2008 Over 100 interviews with innovators, leaders, educators
Academic Entrepreneurial Corporate
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Entrepreneurship is a State of Mind • Many types of entrepreneurship - VC funded start-up,
small business, within large company, academic, social
• Entrepreneurship does not require any special degree - however engineering education does provide a good foundation for entrepreneurship
• Entrepreneurship = passion, flexibility, intelligent risk, operating lean, identifying needs and disruptive approaches, discipline and drive
• Entrepreneurs are: • Willing to tackle seemingly impossible problems • Able to balance a strong vision and persistence
with assessment and flexibility • Comfortable with ambiguity - often need to make
decisions without hard data
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Advances in healthcare
New materials for bikes, clothes, packaging
The Internet, web, facebook, twitter…..
Mobile devices or GPS
Safe buildings or bridges
Imagine Our World Without……
Dustbuster, HDTV, home gyms, video games……
New forms of clean energy and transportation
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All Brought to You by Engineering and Other Types of Innovation
Copyright © Judy Estrin 2008
• Engineering: “practical application of the knowledge of pure science” or building things that solve problems. Engineers truly can change the world
• Innovation: “something new or different” – in science, engineering, arts, social sciences, business....or all of the above
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Once is Not Enough
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• Sustainable innovation drives economic growth, quality of life and is the only hope of addressing the major challenges that we face – energy/environment, healthcare, security, education….
• It is also very personal, impacting our lives at home, school and work
• Innovation is about identifying human needs – sometimes before people realize they have them
• Innovation is messy - you need to be willing to invest without knowing the outcome. It doesn’t just happen, but needs to be nurtured like a garden
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Core Values = Capacity for Change
Values need to be in balance.
Questioning Curiosity, self-assessment, non-judgmental, free flowing
Risk Vulnerability, attitude toward failure, fail early, learn from failure
Trust In oneself, in others, safety net (bankruptcy, healthcare, education)
Tenacity, patient capital Patience
To imagine, new data, sharing, surprise, change Openness
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Fear Works Against Change • Fear comes in many forms: safety, failure, not fitting
in, criticism, funding, litigation, political agendas….
• It is a hard time to trust: • Ability to get a good education, affordable
healthcare, a job • Banks, government, business leaders doing the
right thing
• Need to rebuild foundation one step at a time through innovation and leadership at individual, organizational, national and global level
• Key is to turn threats into challenges that inspire, engage and motivate action
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Many Opportunities for Innovation
Creation of new industries
Disruption of existing mature industries (edu, commerce,
food, health, transportation,
entertainment…) Technology:
Focus on affordability, security, mobility Intersection of
disciplines: bio, nano, IT, social sciences,
design
Energy independence and
sustainable environment
Healthcare: Expanding to include
wellness, delivery of care to sick, elderly or
disabled and additional focus on affordability
Infrastructure upgrade
requirements: Physical and Digital
US and Globally Changing demographics: Age, ethnicity, economic
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Inevitable Unintended Consequences
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• Cars – accidents, Oil refineries – climate change, High fructose corn syrup – obesity/diabetes, email – spam/phishing
• Powerful and positive advances in information technology are molding our culture but with unknown and unintended social consequences
• The world is flat but…. • It is uneven – increasing income gaps • It is increasingly shallow and impatient – depth of
thought and depth connections decreasing (quantity over quality, number of vs substance of interactions)
• The online world only involves sight and sound – impact on our emotional development if smell, touch and taste are “under-developed”?
• Awareness and balance vs denial or rejection • Consequences = problems that drive new innovation
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21st Century Talent
Copyright © Judy Estrin 2008
• Education system and popular culture are currently working against innovation – undermining core values
• Create the right soil and plant seeds for the future: • Adaptive - ability to learn, capacity for change • Framing questions, not just answering them • Playfulness, exploration, experimentation • Active patience • Collaborative • Interdisciplinary: deep and wide foundation • Scientific and technologic literacy
• America needs more engineers, scientists, innovators – we have fallen behind
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• Money - Enough to be comfortable? Always more? • Impact - On the world? On a community? On
individuals? • Power - Over others? To effect change? • Happiness - Challenged? Pleasure? Personal/career
balance? Service to others? Service to oneself? • Recognition - Among peers? As the best - celebrity? • Realizing your potential - Measurement? Never
enough? • Always moving up? Always taking the next step? • ???
Many different measures of success Wants and needs may differ at
various stages of your career and life
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What Does Success Mean For You? • Think about your definitions of success -
don’t automatically subscribe to what you think is “expected”
• If you have the interest – engineering provides a great foundation for many different paths
• Balance your focus on making things happen and being open to serendipity
• Not everyone wants to, or can be, a leader of other people, but each of us is our own leader - responsible for our path