Start-Up or Stop: When Innovation Means Knowing How to Let Go

Companies need to update their products, develop new ones and break into fresh markets. But equally important is the ability to cull projects that aren’t working. Dan Levinthal, the Michael J. Crouch Visiting Professorial Fellow at the Australian School of Business, describes it as a “difficult balance of being tough on resource allocation, but at the same time you can’t make it stigmatising and career-ending” for those whose ideas don't go forward. Controlled micro-failures are part of innovation for start-ups in the tech sector, where the knowledge gained from unsuccessful initiatives is known as “flearning”.