Cold Call cover image

Cold Call

At Booking.com, Innovation Means Constant Failure

Sep 3, 2019
Stefan Thomke, a Harvard Business School professor and expert on business experimentation, explores the innovative mindset at Booking.com. He reveals how traditional intuition can hinder innovation, advocating for a culture of experimentation and learning from failure. The discussion covers bold redesign experiments that echo Google’s simplicity and emphasizes the importance of data-driven decision-making. Thomke illustrates how constant testing and decentralized employee-driven experiments can drive success in the competitive online travel market.
25:51

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Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

  • Innovation at Booking.com is driven by a culture of testing and experimentation, accepting failure as a vital part of the process.
  • The application of the Scientific Method in business enhances decision-making, allowing companies to navigate competitive markets with data-driven insights.

Deep dives

The Scientific Method in Business

The Scientific Method consists of six essential steps: starting with a question, conducting research, formulating a hypothesis, performing an experiment, analyzing results, and drawing conclusions. This structured approach has historically led to significant advancements in the sciences but has been underutilized in the business realm, where many decisions are often determined by intuition. As companies navigate the complexities of the digital economy, there is a renewed interest in applying the Scientific Method to enhance decision-making processes. This shift is particularly vital in the context of increasingly competitive markets, where data-driven insights can help companies like Booking.com to innovate effectively.

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