ImpactAlpha's Agents of Impact: 'From lean startups to spiritual holding companies — the education of Eric Ries'

ImpactAlpha — the impact-investing publication — drops a 40-minute Agents of Impact podcast episode hosted by Amy Cortezy and introduced by David Bang. Eric on the through-line from Lean Startup to Incorruptible and why so many of the 'best practices' in corporate governance actively destroy value.

“There's a through line through all of my work which is really about how to build great organizations. Not just okay, we made a little money. We got lucky. But no, how do we create innovation that can really work in any kind of environment, no matter how much uncertainty, and one that really uses the scientific method, that has more humane values than others in business. I've had the privilege over the past 15 years to help a lot of people build a lot of companies. I'm really proud of that. Those companies are incredible. People have made billions of dollars, had really positive impact. And yet a lot of those companies have ultimately been destroyed. It's not so much that they failed in the marketplace. We've got plenty of that. But then we have these companies that exhibit what I call unusual failures, where their very success becomes a liability and they lose that special spark, the thing that made them worth creating in the first place.” — Eric Ries on ImpactAlpha's Agents of Impact podcast