Jim McKelvey shares his approach to innovation, and it's about to get futuristic

"I don’t want people to sit out when they could possibly do something. It’s a message to get off the sidelines." In this week's You've Got This, co-founder of Square Jim McKelvey shares his passion for creativity and what he hopes readers take away from his new book The Innovation Stack. Don't miss his answers below along with announcing our next guest Fran?ois Kress of Feelmore Labs.

Victoria: "Can you tell us a bit about your professional journey?"

Jim: "I’m an economist and computer scientist by training. I started a few companies. I’m also a professional glassblower and pilot. So, I have had a bunch of odd jobs over the years! But the main journey has been stumbling on problems people haven’t solved before, and that’s interesting, I think."

Victoria: "You’re a passionate problem solver as well as an artisan and entrepreneur. How has your creativity helped to fuel the projects and endeavors you look to tackle?"

Jim: "I spend a lot of time in the glass studio, and the rest of my time running or starting companies. Most of the companies I work with are building something that has never been built before. So, I find working in a medium like glass is really helpful, because it provides a tangible result. I can work all day, week or month in an office and have nothing to show for it that’s physical. In fact, sometimes there’s nothing to show period. But if I’m working in the glass studio, I get immediate feedback as to whether I’m producing something good. It’s frustrating, but it’s also grounding. So, I love being able to produce physical objects."

Victoria: "Have you watched the Netflix show BLOWN AWAY?"

Jim: "Yes, and I know some of the contestants. The glassblowing world is pretty small. Janusz Po?niak and I met in London, England, back in the late 1980’s. So that’s how far we go back! The show is exciting, and our studio has been busy ever since season two aired. I love the show, but they are not teaching glassblowing, they’re making good TV. I’ve got a five-hour video course about how to blow glass - it’s educational, but not entertaining."

Victoria: "Your recent book The Innovation Stack shares the early years of founding Square. What advice would you have for other entrepreneurs and innovators, and what do you hope people take away from the book?"

Jim: "The book doesn’t just chronicle Square, it uses Square as one of literally dozens of case studies of companies who were able to dominate their market. The Innovation Stack explains why you have a fundamentally different set of rules when you’re not allowed to copy what everybody else is doing. When you’re forced to invent, a lot of things change. We didn’t know this when we started Square, but we were a beneficiary of a phenomenon that’s been happening for hundreds of years. I was surprised by it, and I wanted to explain how it worked. So, I used Square as one case study, but found dozens of others. And in every case, these companies built 'Innovation Stacks' that fundamentally changed the math of the market. In addition to Square I talk about Ikea, Bank of America, Southwest Airlines, and the phenomena that made these companies super-successful. You might not think Square had anything in common with a furniture company, bank, or airline, but I show how those parallels are all important, and how it results in each company dominating their market. 

I’d like people to learn two things: First, when to innovate versus when to copy. Because most of time we should be copying, but occasionally, we need to innovate. And I see so many people preaching innovation as the savior for everything, when in many cases, it’s worse than just copying what everyone else is doing. But there is a set of circumstances where innovation is the best hope. And we haven’t had a discussion about that. In fact, when I started to write the book, I discovered the English language doesn’t even have a word for a businessperson who is not copying what the rest of the market is doing. There’s no way to differentiate someone doing something original versus something already known. Imagine trying to write a book about innovation and realizing your mother tongue is deficient. But a century ago the original meaning of 'entrepreneur' meant someone in business who was doing new things, not someone who was opening a coffee shop or dental practice. It was a word that was reserved for someone who was building an airplane when everyone thought this was suicide. Or making banking available to farmers and immigrants, radical stuff like that. This is a topic we’ve almost completely ignored in Western culture. So that’s item one.

Secondly, if people choose to innovate, or are forced to innovate (often it’s not a choice), I want them to understand that certain things that work one way in the normal business world work differently, if not the reverse, in an innovation-led company. The way you hire, price, manage, recruit, go to market—it’s all different if your company is based on innovation than if it’s based on a known formula. 

"I dedicated this book to an unnamed person who is immensely talented and who's intimidated by the prospect of doing something that’s never been done before. If you’re going to do something for the first time in human history, you’re not going to be qualified. Nobody is qualified the first time something is done. The first time someone lands a backflip, they aren’t qualified. The first time someone ate a wild mushroom, they weren’t qualified. So, what I want to do with the book, and hopefully this interview can help, is to reach people and say “Look, fine, spend most of your life following other people’s solutions, implementing other people’s formulas or process. But be prepared for those one or two times in your life when you’ll be the only person prepared to solve a particular problem. And that will feel totally different.”

I don’t want people to sit out when they could possibly do something. It’s a message to get off the sidelines. I think the title may not be the best fit, but this is a call to arms when you’re confronted with a problem that is solvable, but which humanity hasn’t figured out yet. So that’s why I want people to read this book, and that is what I want them to understand."

Follow Jim on LinkedIn.

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Next week's guest: Francois Kress

I'm excited to share that next week's guest is Fran?ois Kress. With a background as a former CEO of Fendi, Prada, Bulgari and other luxury companies, Fran?ois made the move to leading in the tech and wellness space as the Co-founder and CEO of Feelmore Labs. With that in mind, here's what I'll be asking him:

• What's been your approach to building your career, and what insights have you gathered along the way?
• How do you approach brand and community building in the wellness space, and what are some key differences with that approach versus traditional luxury brands?
• What kind of response have you and Feelmore Labs received around last year's launch of your inaugural wearable consumer device Cove, and what new innovations in wellness are you most excited about?

Share your thoughts and questions for Fran?ois in the comments below, and thank you for being a part of You've Got This.