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There’s more written on corporate innovation than any class of MBA students can read. Harvard Business Review publishes countless articles on the topic. One of my personal favorites is Gifford Pinchot’s classic book Intrapreneuring.

You’re not paid to think.
Shut up and get
back to work.

One thing that these traditional corporate innovation approaches have in common is that they are generally about how to change the corporation to encourage more innovation. It’s a worthy cause, but because of the glacial pace of change inside most big companies, there’s another approach that can be more rewarding and productive in the short-term: Corporate Hacking 101.

Now by Corporate Hacking, I don’t mean some kind of computer crime. Rather, corporate hacking is the process of routing around bureaucratic rules, people who like to say “no”, and plan of record processes. It’s a collection of techniques that allow an individual to succeed in driving innovation forward in spite of the system in place. Rather than change the system, we adapt and move forward anyway.

Sure, it’d be wonderful if my organization suddenly became vastly more innovative, but I’m not going to wait for that to happen, or to wait for permission to start innovating. It’s in my blood. It’s what I come to work to do.

I’m eager to read Seth Godin’s new book Poke The Box, as it seems to be very much in the same vein.

Over the coming days, I’m going to be posting some of my favorite stories about the techniques I’ve used to get innovative ideas implemented at my job.

I hope they help you. If you use any of them, let me know if you have success. And if you have stories or other techniques you’d like to share, let me know, and I’d love to post them here.

Will
email: william .dot hertling at gmail .dot com.

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I recently was working on a Ruby project where I had to query an SQL server, and the connection setup/query/response/close latency was about 5 seconds. I needed to generate many unique data slices for a reporting project, and the naive implementation generated some 6,000 database queries, which would take about eight hours to run.

I could fetch all the data in one query that had a large group by clause, which would return all the data I needed in 60 seconds instead of 8 hours.

But then I had a pile of data in rows. That’s not very handy when you have to slice it by seven different characteristics.

So I wrote a recursive Ruby hash structure with semantics that allow me to retrieve by arbitrary attributes:

h=RecursiveHash.new([:business, :product_line, :format, :country, :state, :count], 0)

h.insert [‘ConsumerBusiness’, ‘Product A’, ‘HTML’, “UnitedStates”, 1, 10]

h.retrieve { :product_line => ‘ConsumerBusiness’ }
h.retrieve { :product_line => ‘ConsumerBusiness’, :doc_format => ‘HTML’ }

The default mode is to sum the responses, but it can also return an array of matches.
It’s really fast, and has a simple interface that, to me, is highly readable.

Here it is – RecursiveHash.rb:

class Array; def sum; inject( nil ) { |sum,x| sum ? sum+x : x }; end; end

class RecursiveHash
 def initialize(attributes, default_value, mode=:sum)
  @attribute_name = attributes[0]
  @child_attributes=attributes[1..-1]
  @default_value=default_value
  @master=Hash.new
  @mode=mode
 end
 
 def insert(values)
  if values.size > 2
   #puts "Inserting child hash at key #{values[0]}, child: #{values[1..-1].join(',')}"
   if @master[values[0]]==nil
    @master[values[0]]=RecursiveHash.new(@child_attributes, @default_value)
   end
   @master[values[0]].insert(values[1..-1])
  else
   puts "Inserting value at key #{values[0]}, value: #{values[1]}"
   @master[values[0]]=values[1]
  end
 end
 
 def return_val(obj, attributes)
  if obj.is_a? RecursiveHash
   return obj.retrieve(attributes)
  elsif obj==nil
   return @default_value
  else
   return obj
  end
 end
 
 def retrieve(attributes)
  if attributes[@attribute_name]==nil or attributes[@attribute_name]=='*' or attributes[@attribute_name].is_a? Array
   keys=nil
   if attributes[@attribute_name].is_a? Array
    keys=attributes[@attribute_name]
   else
    keys=@master.keys
   end
   
   v=keys.collect { |key| return_val(@master[key], attributes) }
   #puts "v: #{v.join(',')}"
   return @mode==:sum ? v.sum : v
  else
   return return_val(@master[attributes[@attribute_name]], attributes)
  end   
 end
 
 def pprint(n=0, parent_key="N/A")
  indent = "  " * n
  puts "#{indent}#{parent_key} (holds #{@attribute_name})"
  @master.each_key { |key| 
   if @master[key].is_a? RecursiveHash 
    @master[key].pprint(n+1, key)
   else
    puts "#{indent}    #{key}: #{@master[key]}"
   end
  }
 end
end

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If you’ve been reading the 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss, you probably know one of the things he recommends is a fermented cod liver oil, vitamin rich butter combination.

This combination is unique for several reasons:

  • The butter is a special vitamin rich butter that comes only from grass-fed cows eating fast-growing spring grass. It turns out to be rich in Vitamin K, and it one of the only food sources for Vitamin K.
  • Cod liver oil normally has some great health benefits, and fermented cod liver oil is even higher in vitamin D.
This hard to find combination can be found on Amazon with Green’s Pastures’ Blue Ice Royal Butter Oil / Fermented Cod Liver Oil Blend – Capsules.

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MIT professor Erik Brynjolfsson discusses how companies can Use IT to Drive Innovation.

I like this quote about the pace of experimentation:

Amazon runs 200 experiments a day, such as trying out different algorithms for recommending products, or changing where they put the shopping cart on the screen. When they moved the shopping cart from the left to the right of the screen, there was a few tenths of a percent improvement in the rate of abandoned shopping carts. That might not seem like much, but it’s meaningful with hundreds of millions of site visits, and the cost of running the experiment was trivial.

Their culture is one of “Let’s put forward a hypothesis and test it”. What is your company’s culture?

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I just read About Stock, a really useful article on allocating and distributing stock in a startup.

The article covers how many shares to issue, founders stock, setting aside stock for investors or options, what to do when you add employees later or a founder leaves, and capitol structure after an investment.

I found this bit of wisdom to be useful:

One way to deal with that (and it’s something an investor is likely to insist on) is that all founder stock purchases will be subject to a buy-back provision (part of the stock purchase agreement between each founder and the company).  Basically this means that the founders do purchase and own their stock, and can vote the stock.  But if the founder leaves the company (by either their choice or the company’s choice) in some period of time (4 years is typical) then the company has the right to purchase back some percentage of the stock at the same price the founder paid for it. 

For example, let’s say a founder owns 20% of the company, and the company’s buy-back provision states that 20% of each founders holdings are not subject to buy-back, but for the first year after the purchase, 80% of a founder’s shares are subject to buy-back, for the second year, 60% is subject to buy-back, the third year, 40% is subject to buy-back, and the fourth year, 20% is subject to buy-back.  After a full four years, there would be, in this example, no buy-back right remaining.  This is basically a 4 year “vesting”, but it’s actually a declining buy-back right, as opposed to a vesting. 

So what does that mean?  Let’s say that founder left the company after 6 months.  Under that arrangement described above, he or she retains the 20% of the original 20% ownership (i.e., 4% of the company) because that “vested” up front.  The company has the right to buy-back the remaining 80% of that founders 20% ownership (i.e., the company buys-back a 16% share in the company).  So the founder ends up owning 4% of the company.

I worked at a startup, and had a significant equity stake subject to buy-back. It vested 25% each year. When I left after six months, I lost all of that stock. I should have negotiated for 20% vested immediately, and 20% vested each year afterwards. Now I know for the next time around.

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I received an email from a reader this morning telling me that the 4 Hour Body wasn’t working for them. They were doing the diet, the GLUT4 exercises, taking the PAGG stack, and not losing weight. I’ve seen similar stories on many 4 Hour Body forums.

Here are a few thoughts:

  1. Even among many people who are not losing weight on the scale, they suddenly find their clothes are fitting better. Tim Ferriss calls this body recomposition, and he even says in the book that you may lose 20 pounds of fat, but gain 5 pounds of muscle. I wonder if for some people this principle may be happening in extreme, where they are putting on lots of muscle. They may not see a net loss of weight, but they look and feel better. Instead of measuring pounds only, measure total inches, bodyfat percentage, and take those full body photos to see if the diet really is having an effect.
  2. Some common themes I’ve noticed among people who are not losing weight include: they write extensively about the amount of beans and vegetables they are eating, but don’t mention anything about protein. Or they write about the protein shakes they are consuming. My advice would be to focus on real-food protein. Eat eggs, fish, and meat to get 30 grams or more of protein at breakfast, and 20 grams or more of protein at lunch and dinner. Don’t do protein shakes, and don’t obsess over beans an veggies.
  3. Watch out for the snack foods. At Tim says, any food that you can’t consume just one of is a risk. So nuts, jerky, or even beans are all foods that may be part of the diet, but you can eat them mindlessly. Don’t do that. Eat meals. If you get too hungry with three meals, then eat four, but don’t snack.
  4. Visit the 4HB Talk forums, where lots of other users are sharing their experiences.

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Buy the Book!
The 4-Hour Body cheat sheet, meal plans and other tips on this blog are now available in Slow Carb Fat Loss, a handy companion guide to make the most of the slow carb fat loss plan. Buy a copy today.

Other 4-Hour Body posts:

If you have been reading The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferris, you’re probably excited to get started. Although the basic eating plan is simple enough, if you add in the GLUT-4 exercises, supplements, and other activities, it can get confusing to plan your day.

I did my best to capture the eating plan, GLUT-4 exercises, supplements, and cold therapy in one cheat sheet for my own use, which provides a daily schedule for the 4-Hour Body fat loss plan.

It is not a replacement for the book itself. The 4-Hour Body is an excellent resource, well researched and carefully documented. The cheat sheet is just a helpful way to capture the most important information on a single page for people who have read the book.

The cheat sheet has been updated to reflect corrections and questions from readers.

New 4 Hour Body Fat Loss Cheat Sheet

4HB Fat Loss Cheat Sheet Download by format:

If you find the cheat sheet helpful, please check out the 4-Hour Body Fat Loss Shopping List, which puts together the supplements, exercise equipment, and measuring tools from the 4-Hour Body in one place.

Frequently asked questions:

  1. Q: Am I supposed to have 3 meals or 4 meals per day? The cheat sheet only shows 3, but Tim Ferriss has 4.
    A: Tim Ferriss says you can do either. His guiding advice is to “eat when you’re hungry”. For many people, 3 meals are more convenient than 4, but if you are consistently getting hungry before your next meal, then it may make sense to do 4 meals. Note that the AGG stack should be taken a maximum of 4 times per day, one of which is at bedtime, so if you do have four meals, don’t take AGG with every meal.
  2. Q: Do I have to take a cold shower?
    A: No, the cold shower and everything besides the eating plan is optional. You may lose weight faster, but you should still lose about 15 pounds in one month just doing the diet portion.
  3. Q: Do I do the GLUT-4 exercises every day or just on cheat day? Do I take PAGG every day or just on cheat day? Do I take Cissus Quad just on cheat day, or every day?
    A: The formatting of the book does make this hard to understand. Most people who are following the 4HB and who choose to use PAGG or do the GLUT4 exercises do them every day. (Tim Ferris says to skip the PAGG stack one day per week, and one week per month.) However, Cissus Quad is not for long term use, according to Tim. I think he is suggesting that you use it only on cheat day, or for periods of up to four to six weeks.
  4. Q: I am not losing weight, so what am I doing wrong?
    A: One possibility is that you’re not losing weight because the fat loss is roughly balancing out weight gain. Many people seem to report that their clothes are fitting much better even though they aren’t seeing any pounds lost. This is what Tim Ferriss calls body recomposition.Other likely possibilities include: You are making your meals too complex and fancy. Keep it simple, and repeat a few meals. You are not eating another protein. Are you getting at least 30 grams of protein at breakfast, and 20 grams at lunch and dinner? That doesn’t mean just 30 grams of food, but actual 30 grams of protein in your food. Not sure? Count your protein for two days.

    Visit the 4hb talk forums, where many users are helping each other.

p.s. If you want to link to the cheat sheet, please link to this page, rather than the individual documents, whose URLs may change.

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I’ve updated my list of SXSW tips, based on reflections from last year. One big change in 2010 was sessions that went through the lunch hour. That has a big impact on planning your day.


Before the Trip
That’s one full conference room. Get to your session
early to get a seat. Popular sessions fill up quickly, and
once they do, you aren’t allowed in. One more reason
to plan your schedule in advance.
  1. Power equipment: Get yourself a travel power strip, and/or auxiliary battery for your laptop. Being able to  take notes, follow the twitter stream, or research sessions for 10 hours a day is a stretch for almost any laptop or phone. I own and love the Monster Travel Power Strip, which packs down small, and let’s you walk up and use any outlet, even one already occupied. I also like the Energizer Rechargeable Power Pack, which allows you to get an extra 3-5 hours power for your laptop and recharge your phone, when you just can’t get access to an out.
  2. Plan out your schedule. There are thousands of sessions you can attend. Which are the ones that are most interesting and applicable to you? Although you should choose primarily based on interest and applicability, all other things being equal it is usually a good bet that speakers in larger rooms are better speakers than speakers in smaller rooms. So get familiar with the map of SXSW, and figure out which rooms are which. 
  3. Choose your backup talks: For a given time slot, you might have a favorite talk you want to attend. Maybe it will be awful, or maybe it’ll be full and you can’t get in, or maybe it will be cancelled. With SXSW Interactive spread out across many blocks and different buildings and different floors, it’s not possible to get from any given room to another quickly. So once you know your preferred talk for a given timeslot, pick out a backup talk that is nearby.
  4. Wean yourself off coffee: Depending on just how hardcore you are, you may want to consider weaning yourself off coffee, or at least reducing your dependence on it. That way, when you get to Austin, you can restart your caffeine habit, and enjoy the full stimulating effects of it. (I wean myself down to one cup per day ahead of time, then plan to enjoy 3 or more cups per day there.)
  5. Holy Basil: Like to drink? I’m really fond of Holy Basil, which is a natural hangover remedy. I’ve found it to be highly effective. (I’m not a doctor, this has not been evaluated by the FDA, etc, etc. Be smart.)
  6. Business Cards: For such an online environment, business cards are still pretty popular. If networking is important to you, bring some. Make them simple. Name, email, phone, twitter handle.

At the Start of Each Day

These are the registration lines. Plan to give yourself
at least an hour to get your badge on the first day.
  1. Food/Coffee: Get your coffee on the way to the conference center, not at the actual conference center. Lines for coffee are 10-20 minutes long. Also, in 2010 they started having sessions go through the lunch hour. I think that sucks, but I hate to miss anything, so I go to them all. Since it’s hard to get food quickly, you may want to bring another snack bars that you’ve got food in your backpack to cover you through to dinner. I’m partial to KIND Nut Delight bars, which are relatively low on sugar and high on protein, and the closest bar I can find that is 4 Hour Body (4HB) compatible.
  2. Start charged: Start the day with charged laptop/phone/etc.
  3. Clothes: Bring a light jacket in case you don’t make it back to your hotel room. It’ll cool down at night. Conversely, it will be warm enough at some point during the day for short sleeves.
  4. Reschedule: Learn anything interesting yet? Find some new track that seems interesting? Reevaluate your list of planned talks, and see if you want to make adjustments.
During the Day
Don’t sit in the back. Go ahead, find a seat up front! Make
friends with the person sitting next to you.
  1. Be in the moment: Don’t go to a session and then check out and read email, surf the web, or do work. SXSW is precious. Make the most of your time by being totally immersed in what is going on. 
  2. Recharge: Look for outlets in hallways, restaurants, outside, anywhere, and use them when you find them. 
  3. Conserve power: If you are taking notes on your computer or blogging the sessions, you may want to turn off wifi on your laptop to save power (and to keep your focus on the session, so you don’t start random web surfing.) I usually use my smartphone to follow twitter and email so I’m still connected.
  4. Follow the #SXSWi tag on twitter: You want to follow #SXSWi so that if another session is excellent and your session kind of sucks, then you can make the switch quickly. (or conversely find out if a room is already packed and can’t fit any more.)
  5. Follow the twitter tag for whatever session you are in: There will be a back channel of conversation about the session you are in that is almost as valuable as the primary speakers. SXSW is full of experts, both presenting and in the crowd, and you want to tap into all of that wisdom. This doesn’t violate tip #1, because you are not being distracted by something different, but rather tapping into more of what you are already there for.
  6. Talk to the people around you: SXSWi is a social place. The people around you are likely to be very experienced, smart, interesting people. Start up conversations, and make dinner plans with strangers, and keep going until 2am. The wisdom of the crowd is not just an abstract thing at SXSW – it is manifest in the people all around you. Talk to them.
  7. Attend my session on Hacking the Corporate Immune System: How to Innovate in Big Companies – Saturday at 12:30.
Have fun, and enjoy SXSW Interactive!

Photo credits: Luc Byhet and John Swords under Creative Commons license.

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I was interviewed about my experiences with the 4 Hour Body by the nice folks at Pareto Nutrition. These are the same folks who developed a combined PAGG supplement that gives you the entire daily supplement regimen in just two pills, at lower cost than you’d get by buying them separately. This is the same supplement regimen recommended by Tim Ferriss.

I look forward to trying it out.

One of the Q&A:

3) What’s one tip that you would share with someone who’s just starting the program?

Stick very closely to the diet portion, because even a tiny amount of carbs on a given day seems to negate any weight loss for that day.

Read the whole interview.