"Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple (AAPL) came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It's not about money. It's about the people you have, how you're led, and how much you get it."
What does all that mean above? Money and successful innovation aren't necessarily connected.
The one thing having money does is give you a cushion if you're really trying a lot of different things. What money can't do is innovate.
One obvious reason to run a company lean is the benefits of cost savings and passing that on to customers. Another benefit of running lean is it forces our people to come up with creative ways to make things happen. Too much money can make people lethargic or lazy; they can easily loose their sense of urgency.
Running lean forces poeple into a certain mode where answers all the way around a problem have to be sought. I mean from design, cost, functionality, profitability and the myriad other things connected to real life.
Lean brings you into the realm of the real customer you'll be serving, from all aspects of the product or service in connection to their lives.
As Jobs says, it's about "how much you get it." How much you get it relates to understanding innovation as it relates to your customers. Innovation for its own sake or based upon how much money you have has no value.
When Jobs talks about how people are led in relationship to innovation, he's talking about tying it into the purpose and values of a company.
Last, it's about the people you have. No amount of money can buy people who line up with a company's core purpose and values. Nothing can buy tying innovation into the core demographic you serve.
It's up to us to make sure the people we have line up with these key elements of success. These three together is what makes innovation valuable to a company and the customer it serves, not the amount of money available to tinker with stuff.
Other Steve Jobs Resources:
You've got to find what you love
Steve Jobs, Business Personality
Steve Jobs' Greatest Presentation
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