UT president encourages systems to be open to innovation

In one anecdote, Powers said the Navy SEALs were running 18 missions a month in Afghanistan with high rates of success. They had a culture of high performance and excellence.

The SEALs worked at making structural and cultural changes to how they did their jobs. The result, Powers said, was that they were able to complete 300 missions a month with the same rate of success.

"They became more effective, and the ecosystem was changed," he said.

Powers said the changes worked because they grew organically from the people involved, and no one outside of their organization had told them to change.

Powers said that ownership is a powerful motivator in innovation, whether it is ownership of an idea, intellectual property or investments.

"If you want innovation, create an ecosystem that lets people from the bottom up capture the incentives for that innovation," he said.

Having an initial public offering or the promise of profits on the horizon spurs innovation, he said.

He referenced Ted Turner's quest to colorize classic films he had purchased in the 1980s.

A Congressional committee asked Turner why he thought it was a good idea to colorize old movies, Powers said.

"He said, 'Because I want to, and they're mine,'" according to Powers.

Powers said some innovation does come from working for the common good or on projects whose timelines are longer than two to four years.

Public education is an example of a public good, Powers said. He gave a few examples of how UT is a supportive ecosystem for innovation.

He said UT professor James Pennebaker had changed how he taught psychology and reached more students in a more interactive way. UT also runs the Jon Brumley Texas Venture Labs, a startup accelerator and trainer of future entrepreneurs.

It is difficult to force innovation, he said. He closed his speech with an analogy.

"Falling in love has huge psychological benefits. But if you try to fall in love in order to get those benefits, you will not fall in love," he said. "If you try to innovate to see the benefits, you won't innovate and you won't get the benefits."