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• Article | Harvard Business Review

  The Board's New Innovation Imperative: Directors Need to Rethink Their Roles and Their Attitude to Risk

  Linda A. Hill and George Davis

  As firms scramble for competitive advantage, boards—once the cautious voices urging management to mitigate risk—are now calling for breakthrough innovation. Indeed, avoiding risk is now seen as the riskiest proposition of all. In speaking with CEOs and board members from a range of industries, the authors identified four common obstacles most boards face in governing innovation: an outdated risk agenda, insufficient time, lack of expertise, and a relationship with management that needs retuning. Embracing innovation and its inherent risks requires that boards and senior management develop new ways of working together. To bolster out-of-the-box thinking at their companies, boards should promote diversity among members. They should foster "creative abrasion" to keep ideas flowing and rethink traditional methods of governing. And they must learn to embrace and encourage risk.

  Keywords: Governing and Advisory Boards; Innovation Leadership; Risk and Uncertainty; Corporate Governance;

  Citation:

  Hill, Linda A., and George Davis. "The Board's New Innovation Imperative: Directors Need to Rethink Their Roles and Their Attitude to Risk." Harvard Business Review 95, no. 6 (November–December 2017): 102–109.  View Details

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• Supplement | HBS Case Collection | April 2017

  Q&A with Tom Kalil, Deputy Director for Technology & Innovation

  Linda A. Hill and Allison J. Wigen

  In this video supplement to the HBS case study "Tom Kalil, Deputy Director for Technology & Innovation," case protagonist Tom Kalil discusses leading a team of policy entrepreneurs at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy from 2008-2016.

  Keywords: innovation; government; government innovation; policy; leadership; leadership development; Leading teams; collaboration; cross-sector collaboration; Innovation Strategy; Innovation Leadership; Leadership; Leadership Development; Groups and Teams; Policy; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; United States;

  Citation:

  Hill, Linda A., and Allison J. Wigen. "Q&A with Tom Kalil, Deputy Director for Technology & Innovation." Harvard Business School Multimedia/Video Supplement 417-712, April 2017.  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | February 2013 (Revised February 2017)

  Iz-Lynn Chan at Far East Organization

  Linda A. Hill, Anthony J. Mayo and Dana M. Teppert

  Iz-Lynn Chan, assistant director of retail business group and service quality and vice president of Far East retail consultancy for Far East Organization, a private real estate developer group in Singapore, raises service standards in the company's hospitality portfolio, Far East Hospitality. Chan and her small team in the Service Quality and Standards Department (SQSD) for Far East Organization apply to the Singapore government for the National Customer Centric Initiative (CCI) for Far East Hospitality. After being awarded the CCI, Chan must make some tough decisions about how to carry out the CCI. Despite Far East Hospitality's leading market share in mid-tier hotels and serviced residences, there had been a number of new entrants into the market and competition is fierce in Singapore's hospitality industry.

  Keywords: leadership; change management; hospitality; organizational change and transformation; Leadership; Leading Change; Change Management; Service Industry; Singapore;

  Citation:

  Hill, Linda A., Anthony J. Mayo, and Dana M. Teppert. "Iz-Lynn Chan at Far East Organization." Harvard Business School Case 413-060, February 2013. (Revised February 2017.)  View Details

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