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  • 2022
  • Book

Productive Tensions: How Every Leader Can Tackle Innovation's Toughest Trade-Offs

By: Chris Bingham and Rory McDonald
  • Format:Print
  • | Pages:184
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Abstract

Why is leading innovation in nascent business environments so distressingly hit-or-miss? More than 90% of high-potential ventures don’t reach their projected targets. Surveys show that 80% of executives consider innovation crucial to their growth strategy, but only 6% are satisfied with their innovation performance. Should leaders aim for Steve Jobs-level genius, shower their projects with resources, or lean in to luck and embrace uncertainty? Drawing on cutting-edge inductive research and probing interviews with hundreds of leaders across three continents, we propose that the most effective leaders and successful innovators embrace the tensions that arise from competing aims: efficiency or flexibility? consistency or change? product or purpose? We spotlight eight critical tensions that every innovator must master, and spell out, with dozens of detailed examples of both success and failure, how to navigate them. How do you excite customers about a product they’ve never imagined? When is it wise to accept what the data is telling you, and when should you ignore the data and plow forward anyway? How can you maintain stakeholders’ trust and support during radical unforeseen course corrections? We investigate innovation’s thorniest tensions, using examples drawn from the experience of organizations as varied as P&G, Instagram, the U.S. military, Honda, In-N-Out Burger, Slack, Under Armour, and the snowboarding company Burton.

Keywords

Growth and Development Strategy; Innovation and Management; Organizational Culture; Leadership Style; Decision Making

Citation

Bingham, Chris, and Rory McDonald. Productive Tensions: How Every Leader Can Tackle Innovation's Toughest Trade-Offs. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2022.
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About The Author

Rory M. McDonald

Technology and Operations Management
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • October 2023
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    Managing Innovation at Atrium Health: 'Never Let a Good Crisis Go To Waste' (Abridged)

    By: Derek van Bever, Rory McDonald and Anibha Singh
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    Shaping Nascent Industries: Innovation Strategy and Regulatory Uncertainty in Personal Genomics

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    • October 2022
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    How Leaders with Divergent Visions Generate Novel Strategy: Navigating the Paradox of Preservation and Modernization in Swiss Watchmaking

    By: Ryan Raffaelli, Rich DeJordy and Rory M. McDonald
More from the Authors
  • Managing Innovation at Atrium Health: 'Never Let a Good Crisis Go To Waste' (Abridged) By: Derek van Bever, Rory McDonald and Anibha Singh
  • Shaping Nascent Industries: Innovation Strategy and Regulatory Uncertainty in Personal Genomics By: Cheng Gao and Rory McDonald
  • How Leaders with Divergent Visions Generate Novel Strategy: Navigating the Paradox of Preservation and Modernization in Swiss Watchmaking By: Ryan Raffaelli, Rich DeJordy and Rory M. McDonald
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