Another alternative to the principal investigator model is exemplified by DARPA. The DARPA model focuses on a program manager with a vision for an ambitious technological goal. The PM contracts out to labs to perform the work, but they control the vision and the budget. This model lends itself well to ambitious technological prototypes, and was the... See more

Take Home Messages

1. A critical niche in the innovation ecosystem once occupied by industrial labs is unfilled.


2. The current innovation ecosystem — academia, startups, and modern corporate R&D — do not cut it.


3. A private organization that riffs on DARPA's model could fill this niche.


4. Private ARPA (PARPA) will de-risk a series of hypotheses and go

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The Bitter Lesson versus The Garbage Can

Does process matter? We are about to find out.

Ethan Mollick

Jul 28

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One of my favorite academic papers about organizations is by Ruthanne Huising, and it tells the story of teams that were assigned to create process maps of their company, tracing what the... See more