“Every innovative idea pops out of the innovator's head. . .”

“It's really in my mind emerged as a very useful framework for the process of innovation. So every innovative idea pops out of the innovator's head in half-baked condition, not in the form of a fully fleshed out business plan. And so they then start to put it through the process of getting the support that's required to get funded and developed and launched. And you find out ‘Dang, finance is never going to endorse this idea unless I change the economics so that the margins fit what they're looking for.’ And then you go through it a little bit farther and you say ‘Boy, this just doesn't fit Ned Johnson's concept of what an innovation is, so you make it a little more weird.’ And then you find out the distribution channel won't push this unless we change this, and so on and so forth, so by the time the innovation actually gets introduced in the market, it's been twisted and shaped and morphed to conform to Fidelity's business model. And very often, the reason why companies find they've lost their ability to innovate isn't because there aren't good ideas coming in, but it's that the shaping process conforms everything to what Fidelity is good at doing, as opposed to conforming it and developing a business plan that fits what the market needs. And that's the real challenge as it relates to the process.”