Judy Estrin, CEO of JLabs LLC and a serial entrepreneur discusses why innovation is so important and what it takes to be an entrepreneur. Estrin was involved in the development of TCP/IP and is a former Cisco CTO. A Stanford Engineering alum, she spoke at the school's annual eDay event.

1. Judy Estrin
CEO, JLabs, LLC
COPYRIGHT © JLABS, LLC 2011 Copyright © Judy Estrin 2008 1

2. Changing the World Through
Innovation and Engineering
• One engineer’s path
• Innovation
• Opportunities and challenges
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3. Shaping My Career (and Attitudes)
• Academic/scientific family - strong role
models
• Fell in love with computer science -
appealed to my problem solving skills
• Involved in early development of TCP/IP
and the Internet with Vint Cerf
• First job with a small company: early move
into management – interacting with people,
applying technology
• Never imagined I would become an
entrepreneur or write a book on innovation
• My most important and fullfilling
‘achievement’ is my 21 year old son
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4. Range of Experiences
Academic Entrepreneurial Corporate
Computer science • Bridge • CTO Cisco
• UCLA Communications Board member of:
• Stanford • NCD • Disney (current)
• Early networking • Precept • FedEx
research • Packet Design, LLC • Rockwell
Advisory Boards • Sun Microsystems
• Mother!
Author - Closing the Innovation Gap, McGraw-Hill, 2008
Over 100 interviews with innovators, leaders, educators
COPYRIGHT © JLABS, LLC 2011 Copyright © Judy Estrin 2008

5. Entrepreneurship is a State of Mind
• Many types of entrepreneurship - VC funded start-up,
small business, within large company, academic,
social
• Entrepreneurship does not require any special degree
- however engineering education does provide a good
foundation for entrepreneurship
• Entrepreneurship = passion, flexibility, intelligent risk,
operating lean, identifying needs and disruptive
approaches, discipline and drive
• Entrepreneurs are:
• Willing to tackle seemingly impossible problems
• Able to balance a strong vision and persistence
with assessment and flexibility
• Comfortable with ambiguity - often need to make
decisions without hard data
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6. Imagine Our World Without……
Dustbuster, HDTV, home
Safe buildings or bridges gyms, video games……
New forms of clean energy
Mobile devices or GPS and transportation
Advances in healthcare
The Internet, web, New materials for bikes,
facebook, twitter….. clothes, packaging
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7. All Brought to You by Engineering and
Other Types of Innovation
• Engineering: “practical application of
the knowledge of pure science” or
building things that solve problems.
Engineers truly can change the world
• Innovation: “something new or
different” – in science, engineering,
arts, social sciences, business....or all
of the above
COPYRIGHT © JLABS, LLC 2011 Copyright © Judy Estrin 2008

8. Once is Not Enough
• Sustainable innovation drives economic growth,
quality of life and is the only hope of addressing
the major challenges that we face – energy/
environment, healthcare, security, education….
• It is also very personal, impacting our lives at
home, school and work
• Innovation is about identifying human needs –
sometimes before people realize they have them
• Innovation is messy - you need to be willing to
invest without knowing the outcome. It doesn’t
just happen, but needs to be nurtured like a
garden
COPYRIGHT © JLABS, LLC 2011 Copyright © Judy Estrin 2008

9. Core Values = Capacity for Change
Questioning
Curiosity, self-assessment, non-judgmental, free flowing
Risk
Vulnerability, attitude toward failure, fail early, learn from failure
Openness
To imagine, new data, sharing, surprise, change
Patience
Tenacity, patient capital
Trust
In oneself, in others, safety net (bankruptcy, healthcare, education)
Values need to be in balance.
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10. Fear Works Against Change
• Fear comes in many forms: safety, failure, not fitting
in, criticism, funding, litigation, political agendas….
• It is a hard time to trust:
• Ability to get a good education, affordable
healthcare, a job
• Banks, government, business leaders doing the
right thing
• Need to rebuild foundation one step at a time
through innovation and leadership at individual,
organizational, national and global level
• Key is to turn threats into challenges that inspire,
engage and motivate action
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11. Many Opportunities for Innovation
Healthcare:
Energy Expanding to include
independence and wellness, delivery of care
sustainable to sick, elderly or
environment disabled and additional
Creation of new focus on affordability
industries
Disruption of existing
mature industries
(edu, commerce,
food, health,
Technology: transportation,
entertainment…) Infrastructure
Focus on affordability,
upgrade
security, mobility
requirements:
Intersection of
Physical and Digital
disciplines: bio, nano,
US and Globally
IT, social sciences, Changing demographics:
design
Age, ethnicity, economic
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12. Inevitable Unintended Consequences
• Cars – accidents, Oil refineries – climate change,
High fructose corn syrup – obesity/diabetes, email –
spam/phishing
• Powerful and positive advances in information
technology are molding our culture but with unknown
and unintended social consequences
• The world is flat but….
• It is uneven – increasing income gaps
• It is increasingly shallow and impatient – depth of
thought and depth connections decreasing (quantity
over quality, number of vs substance of interactions)
• The online world only involves sight and sound –
impact on our emotional development if smell, touch
and taste are “under-developed”?
• Awareness and balance vs denial or rejection
• Consequences = problems that drive new innovation
COPYRIGHT © JLABS, LLC 2011 Copyright © Judy Estrin 2008

13. 21st Century Talent
• Education system and popular culture are currently
working against innovation – undermining core values
• Create the right soil and plant seeds for the future:
• Adaptive - ability to learn, capacity for change
• Framing questions, not just answering them
• Playfulness, exploration, experimentation
• Active patience
• Collaborative
• Interdisciplinary: deep and wide foundation
• Scientific and technologic literacy
• America needs more engineers, scientists, innovators
– we have fallen behind
COPYRIGHT © JLABS, LLC 2011 Copyright © Judy Estrin 2008

14. Many different measures of success
Wants and needs may differ at
various stages of your career and life
• Money - Enough to be comfortable? Always more?
• Impact - On the world? On a community? On
individuals?
• Power - Over others? To effect change?
• Happiness - Challenged? Pleasure? Personal/career
balance? Service to others? Service to oneself?
• Recognition - Among peers? As the best - celebrity?
• Realizing your potential - Measurement? Never
enough?
• Always moving up? Always taking the next step?
• ???
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15. What Does Success Mean For You?
• Think about your definitions of success -
don’t automatically subscribe to what you
think is “expected”
• If you have the interest – engineering
provides a great foundation for many
different paths
• Balance your focus on making things
happen and being open to serendipity
• Not everyone wants to, or can be, a leader of
other people, but each of us is our own
leader - responsible for our path
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16. What can you do?
jestrin@jlabsllc.com
www.theinnovationgap.com
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