Business Growth Strategies: The Marshmallow Experiments Demonstrate Iteration Works Best

June 2, 2010

Business growth strategies need iterative approaches to be successful. I have been pushing iterative approaches to execution for years and more recently have been working to develop practices that our expansion stage portfolio companies can easily adopt that help them with iterative management practices.

One of the issues with people grasping the idea that iterative approaches work best seems to be that most people are educated to believe that they can perfectly plan then perfectly execute. With this mental model, it is extremely difficult to get the idea of iterative approaches to stick. Perhaps this quick Ted Video from Tom Wujec will help. He summarizes his marshmallow experiments and shows how kindergartners beat MBAs because of their iterative approaches…take a look!

Founder & Partner

As the founder of OpenView, Scott focuses on distinctive business models and products that uniquely address a meaningful market pain point. This includes a broad interest in application and infrastructure companies, and businesses that are addressing the next generation of technology, including SaaS, cloud computing, mobile platforms, storage, networking, IT tools, and development tools.