X’s Astro Teller on Managing Moonshot Innovation

HBR IdeaCast

Harvard Business Review

Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Communication, Marketing, Business, Business/management, Management, Business/marketing, Business/entrepreneurship, Innovation, Hbr, Strategy, Economics, Finance, Teams, Harvard

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 28 March 2023

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How do you solve the world's toughest problems? Or find the next big thing in tech? Lots organizations fail to explore and take big bets on new ideas because they can't tolerate the mess of experimentation and the fear of failure. At X, Alphabet's dedicated innovation factory, they don't have that problem, and Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots at X, can explain why. Undertaking projects on everything from rural communication to ocean health to machine learning, he and his teams operate with different creative mindsets and decision-making principles than many of us. He spoke with host Alison Beard at HBR at 100: Future of Business live virtual conference.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The future of work isn't coming, it's here.
0:04.0	Warton Executive Education's new program, leading today's talent,
0:08.0	provides modern leaders with the practical methods, data-driven approaches,
0:11.0	and management strategies needed to unlock success in the evolving workforce.
0:15.0	Learn more and apply today at leadwithwarton.com.
0:23.0	Do you want to go deeper on business strategy?
0:26.0	I want to suggest HBR's new podcast feed, HBR on Strategy.
0:30.0	HBR editors like me hand select the best strategy case studies and conversations
0:35.0	from across HBR's podcasts, videos, and beyond.
0:39.0	Listen for free to HBR on Strategy wherever you get your podcasts.
0:43.0	New episodes every Wednesday.
0:56.0	Welcome to the HBR Idea Cast from Harvard Business Review.
1:00.0	I'm Allison Beard.
1:11.0	Taking big swings isn't always easy in business, especially when you don't know what will
1:16.0	pay off or how long it will take.
1:18.0	Today's guest has a high tolerance for that kind of uncertainty, exploring big problems,
1:23.0	experimenting with solutions, failing, trying again, sometimes succeeding, sometimes not.
1:28.0	Astroteller is captain of moonshots at X, Alphabet's dedicated innovation factory.
1:34.0	He helped launch it after co-founding a number of other companies,
1:37.0	teaching at Stanford University, and setting computer science there and at Carnegie Mellon.
1:42.0	His teams at X work on everything from getting remote populations online
1:46.0	to modernering ocean health, to using machine learning to improve supply chains.
	...

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