Executar versus aprender

Não sei o que se passa no interior da Fundação Champalimaud por isso só sei o que me chega através dos media tradicionais.
.
Ao olhar para as imagens das obras e para todo o buzz em torno da Fundação não consigo deixar de fazer um paralelismo com as startups.
.
Steven Blank em "Four Steps to the Epiphany" escreve acerca das startups mais preocupadas em executar um plano de negócio do que em aprender:
.
"An Emphasis on Execution Instead of Learning and Discovery
In startups the emphasis is on “get it done, and get it done fast.” So it’s natural that heads of Sales and Marketing believe they are hired for what they know, not what they can learn. They assume their prior experience is relevant in this new venture. Therefore they need to put that knowledge to work and execute the sales and marketing programs that have worked for them before.
.
This is usually a faulty assumption. Before we can sell a product, we have to ask and answer some very basic questions: What are the products that our product solves? Do customers perceive these problems that as important or “must have?” If we’re selling to businesses, who in a company has a problem that our product could solve? If we are selling to consumers how do we reach them? How big is this problem? Who do we make the first sales call on? Who else has to approve the purchase? How many customers do we need to be profitable? What’s the average order size?
…
A company needs to answer these questions before it can successfully ramp up sales and sell. For startups in a new market, these are not merely execution activities; they are learning and discovery activities that are critical to the company’s success or failure.
…
What kind of objectives would a startup want or need? That’s the key question. Most sales executives and marketers tend to focus on execution activities because at least these are measurable.
…
Simply put, a startup should focus on reaching a deep understanding of customers and their problems, discovering a repeatable road map of how they buy, and building a financial model that results in profitability."
.
Convém não esquecer que cada vez mais são as pequenas organizações que são mais eficazes a produzir inovação que os grandes mamutes cheios de recursos ao serviço das mega-empresas.