Innovator's DNA--Post #2--The Study

The Innovation DNA Study: The authors studied a hundred revolutionary founders and executives like Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Pierre Omidyar (eBay), Steve Jobs (Apple), Marc Benioff (Salesforce) and many other very recognizable, innovative CEOs.  Following an analysis of these innovative geniuses, the authors built a survey focused on the five emergent innovative skills: questioning, associating, observing, networking, and experimenting. They also collected self-reported data and 360-degree data on these discovery skills from over five hundred innovators and on over five thousand executives in more than seventy-five countries. (See their website: http://www.InnovatorsDNA.com ). They discovered the following: 1) the same pattern [of associating, networking] existed for both famous as well as less famous leaders; 2) entrepreneurs do not differ significantly (on personality traits or psychometric measures) from typical business executives; 3) most entrepreneurs launch ventures based on strategies that are not unique; 4) among entrepreneurs as a whole, only 10 to 15 percent qualify as “innovative entrepreneurs” of the disruptive kind; 5) the psychological differences between entrepreneurs and managers in large organizations are small or non-existent”; 6) there were no distinctions between traits of entrepreneurs and small business owners.