Always in Beta

“Do and learn,” advises Marc Pritchard, global marketing and brand building officer of Procter & Gamble, in a recent speech. “We have to try new things, be accepting that some things won’t work and learn why.”
 

This is far from the risk-averse P&G that I knew. They used to talk endlessly, and only reluctantly made decisions to act. Pritchard recognised this in his address: “We are trying to make this shift ourselves at P&G,” he said, “and it’s not always easy.”

But the validity and power of this approach is amply confirmed by the experience of many of the most successful businesses in Silicon Valley – Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Disney and others.

In an article in the current issue of Market Leader magazine, Marc Nohr reports that it’s a constant refrain in their corridors – “test, test, test”, “launch and learn”, “always in beta”.

Market research is nearly always a poor substitute for real life experience – especially in the case of breakthrough innovation.

It’s something that those big old corporations need to learn. And soon if they are to survive.