Eric Ries

Harvard Book Store welcomes entrepreneur and bestselling author of The Lean Startup, ERIC RIES, for a discussion of his latest book, The Startup Way: How Modern Companies Use Entrepreneurial Management to Transform Culture and Drive Long-Term Growth. He will be joined in conversation by TOM EISENMANN, Howard H. Stevenson Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. This event is co-sponsored by the Animal Ventures, the Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School, and the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.

About The Startup Way

Eric Ries reveals how entrepreneurial principles can be used by businesses of all kinds, ranging from established companies to early-stage startups, to grow revenues, drive innovation, and transform themselves into truly modern organizations, poised to take advantage of the enormous opportunities of the twenty-first century.  

In The Lean Startup, Ries laid out the practices of successful startups—building a minimal viable product, customer-focused and scientific testing based on a build-measure-learn method of continuous innovation, and deciding whether to persevere or pivot. In The Startup Way, he turns his attention to an entirely new group of organizations: established enterprises like iconic multinationals GE and Toyota, tech titans like Amazon and Facebook, and the next generation of Silicon Valley upstarts like Airbnb and Twilio. 

Drawing on his experiences over the past five years working with these organizations, as well as nonprofits, NGOs, and governments, Ries lays out a system of entrepreneurial management that leads organizations of all sizes and from every industry to sustainable growth and long-term impact. Filled with in-the-field stories, insights, and tools, The Startup Way is an essential road map for any organization navigating the uncertain waters of the century ahead.

Praise

“Continuous innovation is the key to long-term impact and success. Eric shows how organizations of all kinds—not just startups—can be built to learn and adapt. In the pivot-or-perish networked world of twenty-first-century business, this is mission critical reading.” —Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and co-author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers The Alliance and The Startup of You

“Organizations are normally where entrepreneurship goes to die, but Eric Ries has the master plan for breathing new life into them. This is a remarkably useful playbook that every business, government, and nonprofit needs to ignite the spark of innovation and fuel the fire of change.” —Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Originals, Give and Take, and OPTION B with Sheryl Sandberg

"My research has focused on what causes established companies to maintain success, and The Startup Way provides practical guidance on how to do just that." —Clay Christensen, Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School

"The Startup Way creates a vision and blueprint for a new form of management which combines entrepreneurial and general management skills and practices. The inspirational examples across multiple, diverse organizations show that integrating the highly iterative, experimental mindset and skills of start-ups into established organizations is key to unlocking continuous innovation and sustainable growth… Provides clear and useful guidance for tackling the toughest challenges.” —Kathy Fish, CTO, Procter & Gamble