During the growth stage, the innovative entrepreneur may well leave the company, either because she has no interest in scaling the idea (which involves boring and routine work, at least to her) or because she does not have the skills to manage effectively in a large organization. Innovative entrepreneurs are often described as poor managers because they lack the ability to follow through on their new business ideas and are often irrationally overconfident in them. Moreover, they are more likely to make decisions based on hunches and personal biases rather than data-driven analysis.¹¹ Not surprisingly, the conventional prescription for these problems is to replace the entrepreneurs with professional managers—individuals with proven skills at delivering results. At this point in the business life cycle, professional managers who are better equipped to scale the business often replace the entrepreneur founders. When such replacement occurs, however, key discovery skills walk away from the top management team.

      With the founder entrepreneur out of the picture, the ensuing growth and maturation stage of the business life cycle begins. In these stages, managers generally make it to the top of the management pyramid through great execution. This may involve generating incremental (sustaining) innovations for existing customers, but the focus is on execution, not building new businesses. Surprisingly few companies in this stage pay systematic attention to the selection or promotion of people with strong discovery skills. As this happens, the lack of discovery skills at the top becomes even more glaring, but it is still not necessarily obvious. (Contrast these common practices with those of Amazon founder Bezos, who systematically asks any new hire, including senior executives, to “tell me about something that you have invented.” Bezos wants to hire people with an inventive attitude—in other words, people like himself.)

      Eventually, for most organizations, the initial innovations that created the business in the first place complete their life cycle. Growth stalls as the business hits the downward inflection point in the well-known S curve. These mature and declining organizations are typically dominated by executives with excellent delivery skills. Meanwhile, investors demand new growth businesses, but senior executive teams can’t seem to find them because the management ranks are dominated by folks with strong delivery skills. With discovery skills largely absent from the top management team, it becomes increasingly difficult to find new business opportunities to fuel new company growth. The company once again starts to see the imperative for discovery skills.

      In sharp contrast, when entrepreneur founders stay through the growth stage, the company significantly outperforms its peers in growth and profitability.¹² An entrepreneurial founder is far more likely to surround herself with executives who are good at discovery, or who at least understand discovery. Could Apple have built new businesses in music (iTunes and iPod) and phones (iPhone) on top of an older computer business without the return of Jobs? We doubt it.

      The key point here is that large companies typically fail at disruptive innovation because the top management team is dominated by individuals who have been selected for delivery skills, not discovery skills. As a result, most executives at large organizations don’t know how to think different. It isn’t something that they learn within their company, and it certainly isn’t something they are taught in business school. Business schools teach people how to be deliverers, not discoverers.

      For a moment, consider your company’s track record of rewarding and promoting discovery skills. Does your company actively screen for people who have strong discovery skills? Does your company regularly reward discovery skills through annual performance assessments? If the answers are no, then it is likely that a severe discovery skill deficit exists at the top ranks of management in your company.

      Discovery and Delivery Skills Quiz: What’s Your Profile?

      To get a quick snapshot of your discovery-delivery skills profile, take the following self-assessment survey (1 = strongly disagree; 2 = somewhat disagree; 3 = neither agree nor disagree; 4 = somewhat agree; 5 = strongly agree). Remember to answer based on your actual behaviors, not what you would like to do.