Twenty-odd years ago, most big companies would run just a handful of experiments each year. Today, the most innovative businesses run thousands—Intuit: 1,300, P&G: 7,000–10,000, Google: 7,000, Amazon: 1,976, and Netflix: 1,000—thanks to a combination of new technologies and "lean" business approaches. And it isn't just quantity that's rising but the quality and pace of experimentation, too. These days, the true test of how innovative a company can be is how well it experiments.
