6. Where Should We Place Our Big Bets?

The ability to scale innovation is far more important than being the most innovative, Collins said.

The best companies take a good, small idea and make it really big, which Collins likened to firing bullets to calibrate a line of sight, then firing cannonballs.

The three most common errors associated with this tend to be: not firing enough bullets as a hedge against uncertainty; firing big, uncalibrated fireballs and depleting resources; and failing to go from a bullet to a cannonball once things are calibrated.

"There comes a point where you've got to go big," Collins said. "Without a big bet, it's very hard to get 10X results."