Out-Innovate: How Global Entrepreneurs–from Delhi to Detroit–Are Rewriting the Rules of Silicon Valley
Alexandre Lazarow
Harvard Business Review Press (April 2020)

“The early bird may get the worm but the second mouse gets the cheese.”  Steven Wright

As Alexandre Lazarow explains, he wrote this book in response to four basic questions:

“[1] What unique strategies do Frontier [i.e. non-Silicon Valley] Innovators employ to successfully develop their innovations? [2] How can these strategies be replicated by others at the Frontier? [3] What can Silicon Valley learn from these emerging approaches? [and 4] How should we use these lessons to promote vibrant and successful innovation ecosystems around the world?”

His responses are based on his decades of wide and deep experience in a global ecosystem of entrepreneurship (both investment and management) as well as his extensive interviews of hundreds of senior-level executives, including those throughout the world “who are driving world-changing innovation.” These Frontier Innovators “are leading the charge and providing a glimpse of the future of innovation and entrepreneurship worldwide.”

With all due respect to the importance of the “WHAT” of global entrepreneurship, the greater value and benefit of Lazarow’s material will be found in his explanations of the “HOW” and “WHY” as he explores ten elements of a new model for innovation at the Frontier. He examines more than a dozen significant differences between what he characterizes as Silicon Valley’s “unicorns” and the Frontier’s “camels.”

For example, “Silicon Valley is focused on disrupting established industries, but at the Frontier, innovators must create new industries because often there are no established industries to disrupt. They must build entirely new sectors that offer customers a range of products and services that Silicon Valley takes for granted, such as education, health care, financial services, energy, and even infrastructure.”

Silicon Valley’s startups tend to be asset-light, focused almost entirely on rapid growth within the United States — or perhaps North America — regardless of its cost. Frontier startups focus on sustainability and resilience and often must strategically target multiple global markets from day one. In one of Hans Christian Andersen’s stories, if I recall correctly, he suggests that an ugly duckling (camel) in Silicon Valley belongs with Trumpeters whereas an ugly swan (unicorn) would only thrive among Mallards.

I am grateful to Lazarow for this “eye-opening [for me, a mind-opening] journey through the unique challenges and opportunities of scaling a business outside Silicon Valley.” Of course, there are frontiers yet to explore within Silicon Valley but I think other locations have greater appeal at this time. In a world that seems to becoming smaller each day, the human capacity to envision what no one else sees and to achieve what no one else has done also seem to be be shrinking.

Over time, will at least some camels become unicorns?
And will at least some unicorns become camels?
In that event, will there be camicorns, unicamels, or both?
Will outliers be challenged by others much further out?
Will natural selection self-destruct or be transformed? How about both?

Perhaps Alexandre Lazarow will address these questions in his next book. In fact, I really hope he does.

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