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  • Harvard Business Review

Drive Innovation with Better Decision-Making

By: Linda A. Hill, Emily Tedards and Taran Swan
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Abstract

Despite their embrace of agile methods, many firms striving to innovate are struggling to produce breakthrough ideas. A key culprit, according to the authors, is an outdated, inefficient approach to decision-making. Today’s discovery-driven innovation processes involve an unprecedented number of choices, from which ideas to pursue to countless decisions about how to conduct experiments, what data to collect, and so on. But these choices are often made too slowly and informed by obsolete information and narrow perspectives.

To align their decision-making processes with agile approaches, businesses need to include diverse (customer, local, data-informed, and outside) points of view; clarify decision rights; match the cadence of decisions to the pace of learning; and encourage candid conflict in service of a better experience for the end customer. Only then will all that rapid experimentation pay off.

The article suggests best practices for these interventions, drawing on the story of the transformation of Pfizer’s Global Clinical Supply organization, which would go on to play a critical role supporting the rapid development of the pharma giant’s COVID vaccine.

Keywords

Innovation and Invention; Decision Making; Decision Choices and Conditions; Organizational Change and Adaptation

Citation

Hill, Linda A., Emily Tedards, and Taran Swan. "Drive Innovation with Better Decision-Making." Harvard Business Review 99, no. 6 (November–December 2021): 70–79.
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About The Author

Linda A. Hill

Organizational Behavior
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More from the Authors
  • Ed Catmull: Lessons from Leading Pixar Animation Studios By: Francesca Gino, Linda Hill, Gary Pisano and Ruth Page
  • Mastercard Labs (B) By: Linda A. Hill, Sunil Gupta, Emily Tedards and Julia Kelley
  • Mastercard: Creating a World Beyond Cash By: Sunil Gupta, Linda A. Hill, Julia Kelley and Emily Tedards
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