Deborah Perry Piscione

Secrets of Silicon Valley

While the global economy languishes, one place just keeps growing despite failing banks, uncertain markets, and high unemployment: Silicon Valley. In the last two years, more than 100 incubators have popped up there, and the number of angel investors has skyrocketed. Today, 40 percent of all venture capital investments in the United States come from Silicon Valley firms, compared to 10 percent from New York. In Secrets of Silicon Valley, entrepreneur and media commentator Deborah Perry Piscione takes us inside this vibrant ecosystem where meritocracy rules the day. She explores Silicon Valley’s exceptionally risk-tolerant culture, and why it thrives despite the many laws that make California one of the worst states in the union for business. Drawing on interviews with investors, entrepreneurs, and community leaders, as well as a host of case studies from Google to Paypal, Piscione argues that Silicon Valley’s unique culture is the best hope for the future of American prosperity and the global business community and offers lessons from the Valley to inspire reform in other communities and industries, from Washington, DC to Wall Street.

Changing Mindset

We know we need to change mindsets within our organization…but HOW?

Deborah Perry Piscione is an authority on how leaders are changing the mindsets of their companies and driving unprecedented innovation and growth as a result.  Her intriguing work stems from the stark differences between old-school power and new school leadership. Having worked as an insider at the White House and Capitol Hill, and then moving into the center of Silicon Valley, Deborah was struck by the vast differences in mindsets between the two coasts. She became fascinated by the collaborative cultures of innovation that dominate the Silicon Valley region, especially the voracious appetite for growing value from ideas. Provocative and wonderfully entertaining, Deborah’s presentations are a prerequisite for leaders looking to shake the status quo.

Through her years of research and hands-on work with many of Silicon Valley’s pioneer companies, she has found the keys to building organizations into innovation machines and preparing leaders for the future.

Improvisational Innovation: Two words that democratize the opportunity for anyone in any part of the company to bring forth new ideas

Every business leader knows that the key to growth is innovation—if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got. Deborah Perry Piscione and David Crawley argue that ultimately the key to innovation is people. After all, creativity is a uniquely human function, something that can’t be automated. So how do you design an organization so that it provides the elements that will bear new thinking and bring forth bold ideas? Through The People Equation.

Based on examples from their consulting work and research into successful business practices, Perry’s The People Equation enables leaders to create a culture where psychological safety is a given, risk-taking is embraced, and collaboration between highly competent people is nurtured. When experiments and new initiatives look promising, Perry Piscione and Crawley’s Improvisational Innovation process provides a roadmap to quickly develop ideas and bring them to market. All this requires upending the usual organizational pyramid and instilling a completely new mindset throughout the organization.

Perry Piscione shows that in our rapidly changing world, the top is not where the really disruptive ideas are going to come from. And if people are afraid to take chances, even fail, you’re never going to get those ideas—playing it safe means you’ll be out of the game.

 T-Shape People: Tapping into your People’s Passions, Interests & Hobbies

Part of Silicon Valley’s innovative success is to seek out T-shape people. This means that you may hire someone based on their expertise or education (the vertical part of the T), but also seek to engage someone’s passions, interests and hobbies (the horizontal part of the T) so you can harness all the talent of your workforce.  Perry Piscione proves through many company case studies when you give T-shape people the freedom to experiment, the company can often grow new revenue streams in unexpected ways, and simultaneously develop talent to reach new heights.