Jens Martin Skibsted Quotes

Mathematicians are like managers - they want improvement without change.

Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones.

There are different ways to do innovation. You can plant a lot of seeds, not be committed to any particular one of them, but just see what grows. And this really isn't how we've approached this. We go mission-first, then focus on the pieces we need and go deep on them and be committed to them.

One of the banes of successful innovation is that companies may be so committed to innovation that they will give the innovators a lot of money to spend.

The emphasis on innovation and technology in our companies has resulted in a few of them establishing global benchmarks in product design and development, manufacturing practices and human resource capabilities. However, there is no room for complacency.

I like the creative aspect of developing a project.

Business has only two functions - marketing and innovation.

A lot of the Google inventions came from engineers just screwing around with ideas. And then management would see them, and we'd say, 'Boy, that's interesting. Let's add some more engineers.'

Executives need ample flexibility to respond to the market. That means both reducing costs and increasing innovation.

One thing I've been doing at Baidu is running a workshop on the strategy of innovation. The idea is that innovation is not these random unpredictable acts of genius but that, instead, one can be very systematic in creating things that have never been created before.

In business, we use certain principles to measure performance, and I envision applying those principles in the public sector.

I've certainly seen R&D groups, typically funded by large corporations, where they bring together a lot of smart people and nothing happens. And the reason nothing happens is that they don't have a clear goal.

I see business as an ecosystem.

Entrepreneurs create value; I wanted to create ideas that became machines for making value.

The biggest difference between the private sector and public sector is in the private sector, there's a sense of urgency because you have customers and you have competitors. Whereas in government, one of your major objectives is to not make any really big mistakes.

Innovation comes from, one, acknowledging yourself; two, studying and understanding the problem; and three, finding a solution.

Cool innovation might happen in startups, but they often lack the resources or the deep expertise in the problems they want to address.

Twitter can afford to build the wrong things. However, Twitter cannot afford to build the right things too slowly.

Business isn't complicated; we complicate business.

In the future, there are going to be various components of doing business that have to be looked at.

New ideas for innovation grow out of the minds of each new generation. Having an institution of higher learning that can help young people put those ideas into action is critical.

You need to run the company on an even keel, and you need to be thinking about the company long-term and how to drive your next innovation.

I love the creative process - brainstorming and coming up with campaigns.

When we talk about change, we, the business leaders, have to implement it. We have to look at what we're not doing and what we should be doing.

The marketplace is absolutely mercurial. But what I love about our company is that we create a vision, and then we go all in.