Francisco Palao Reinés, current CEO of IActive, was one of the most applauded at the event held by Lean Community and Opinno last Wednesday, February 26th. That is why the end of the day, we wanted this successful entrepreneur from Cadiz to tell us what the keys are for large companies and startups to trust the Lean Startup methodology in order to validate their entrepreneurial projects.
- Opinno. What is the Lean Startup methodology is based on?
Francisco Palao. It is a new discipline that helps both innovators and entrepreneurs transform their innovative ideas into successful projects that provide real value. When we have a good idea and launch it into the market, we do not get it to stick or we don’t get the success we are looking for; we are inventing something new but not innovate.
- O. You claim that almost 96% of innovative projects do not set the market at when they are first launched. What is missing to cause such a high percentage of projects to not receive any output after the first launch?
F. P. Nothing is missing. It’s not missing new ideas, it’s not lacking new technologies, the only thing is it’s necessary to use the right process. With this, the Lean methodology helps transform the path for an idea until it sticks in the market. What’s missing is the correct method that allows it to evolve and adapt in order to fit into the market and succeed.
- O. What role does time play in this process?
F. P. The role of time is very important. Time allows us to seize the moment and not miss a market opportunity by taking more time than necessary to innovate. Many companies fail by their use of time; they innovate but when they finish their process is too late, which is why all these innovation cycles must happen as soon as possible. We should try to make new ideas reach the market instantly or in a short period of time.
- O. Is this the work of Lean Monitor?
F. P. Lean Monitor is a tool that helps businesses, large corporations, as well as startups, implement this Lean Startup methodology. It also guides us to validate ideas, developing experiments to validate these ideas and do it all in a faster, more agile way.
- O. How is Lean Monitor looking to be implemented into companies?
F. P. Lean Monitor began in the world of startups and is aimed solely and exclusively towards small businesses. Gradually we were checking the need to include it within large corporations. In the future, we will run on the same line. We help corporations use certain principles of this methodology to improve their own processes. We do not want to completely transform the corporations, but rather have large corporations use this tool for what suits them and adapt their processes to it.
- O. What would highlight the material on innovation and integration of the lean method by the speeches that were given today?
F. P. They highlight that all of them mentioned the importance of Lean Startup. They are all adapting to this methodology and that's a huge advancement.
- O. What is to be predicted for the future of the ‘Lean’ method?
F. P. The future is already happening. The corporation, which more or less is familiar with the Lean methodology, is already implementing it.
- O. Do you think this means a breakthrough in terms of conquering the fear of failure among entrepreneurs, since this method considerably reduces risks when implementing a new project into the market?
F. P. It helps the business venture and helps launch it well, understanding that failure is part of the process. Yes it is happening and we can see that internal teams within large corporations are able to put the entrepreneur hat on by using this methodology which is what a great corporation looks for; to transform their employees into entrepreneurs.
