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- Article
What Evolution Can Teach Us About Innovation
By: Noubar Afeyan and Gary P. Pisano
Many people believe that the process for achieving breakthrough innovations is chaotic, random, and unmanageable. But that view is flawed, the authors argue. Breakthroughs can be systematically generated using a process modeled on the principles that drive evolution in...
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- 16 Jun 2021
- Interview
Harvard Business School: How to Build Fearless Organizations
By: Amy C. Edmondson and Ron Lovett
Our guest is Amy Edmondson - Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School. Amy has authored multiple books, including her most recent, The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation and...
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- 2020
- Working Paper
The Evolutionary Nature of Breakthrough Innovation: Re-Evaluating the Exploration vs. Exploitation Dichotomy
By: Dominika K. Sarnecka and Gary P. Pisano
Over the past few decades, a consensus has emerged that breakthrough innovations emerge from exploration of novel terrain while more routine innovations are the product of exploitation. In this paper, we revisit this explore versus exploit dichotomy with an analysis...
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- September 2020
- Case
Hot Wheels: Launching The Mixed Play Experience
By: Elie Ofek, Andres Terech and Nicole Tempest Keller
Chris Down, Global Brand General Manager for Hot Wheels, and his team from the Advanced Play Group within Mattel, Inc., had developed an entirely new “mixed play” product experience that blended familiar Hot Wheels play in the physical world with breakthrough play in...
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- 2020
- Book
Think Outside the Building: How Advanced Leaders Can Change the World One Smart Innovation at a Time
Over a decade ago, renowned innovation expert Rosabeth Moss Kanter co-founded and then directed Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Initiative. Her breakthrough work with hundreds of successful professionals and executives, as well as aspiring young entrepreneurs, identifies...
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Keywords:
Leaders;
Advanced Leadership;
Advanced Leadership Initiative;
Community;
Change Leadership;
Innovation;
Problem Solving;
Cross-sector Collaboration;
Institutional Change;
Leadership;
Change;
Leading Change;
Communication;
Innovation Leadership;
Collaborative Innovation and Invention;
Organizational Change and Adaptation;
Business and Community Relations;
Civil Society or Community
- May 2019
- Case
The United States Air Force: 'Chaos' in the 99th Reconnaissance Squadron
By: Francesca Gino, Jeff Huizinga and Nicole Keller
In the spring of 2019, Lt. Col. Matthew “Chaos” Nussbaum is nearing the end of his two-year term as commander of the U.S. Air Force's 99th Reconnaissance Squadron. In this position, he has focused the majority of his energy on finding new ways to organize, train, and...
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- March 2018
- Case
X: The Foghorn Decision
In February 2016, Kathy Hannun--a project leader at X, Alphabet Inc.'s so-called "moonshot factory--had to prepare a recommendation for the senior leadership of X regarding the future of Foghorn, a project she was leading to develop a carbon-neutral process for...
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Keywords:
Innovation;
R＆D Project Management;
Radical Innovation;
Clean Technology;
Innovation and Management;
Technological Innovation;
Energy;
Research and Development;
Projects;
Management;
Decision Choices and Conditions;
Technology Industry;
Energy Industry;
Green Technology Industry;
California
- January 2018
- Case
Flying into the Future: HondaJet
By: Gary P. Pisano and Jesse Shulman
This cases examine Honda’s diversification into the light jet market. In 1985, Honda initiated a secret program to develop a small jet. Over the years, the program had many ups and downs (it was almost canceled several times). Then, a breakthrough in the configuration...
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- Article
The Board's New Innovation Imperative: Directors Need to Rethink Their Roles and Their Attitude to Risk
By: 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...
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- May 2017 (Revised October 2017)
- Case
Hyperloop Transportation Technologies: Building Breakthrough Innovations in Crowd-Powered Ecosystems
By: Lynda M. Applegate, Terri L. Griffith and Ann Majchrzak
Dirk Ahlborn, co-founder and CEO of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Inc. (HTT) looks back at the evolving organizational design and community that allows HTT to be crowd-powered. Since the founding in 2013, HTT has dealt with building an organization with less...
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- 2017
- Chapter
Entrepreneurship in Larger Companies
By: William R. Kerr
Entrepreneurship in large and established companies is vital for their long-term success. Incumbent firms face many challenges ranging from global competition to digitization. In times past, being caught flat-footed might have set a company back several years, but it...
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Keywords:
Corporate Entrepreneurship
- December 2016
- Background Note
Reaching Beyond Your Organization: Empowering Innovation
By: William R. Kerr
Forward-thinking established companies utilize new routes for external innovation with start-ups and crowds. The reading reviews strategic partnerships, strategic investments, strategic acquisitions, and crowd-based collaborations. Case examples include Google, SK...
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- November 2016 (Revised April 2018)
- Case
reMarkable: e-Writing the Future
By: Elie Ofek and Curtis Hsu
Magnus Wanberg is the creator of reMarkable, a breakthrough e-writer device set apart from similar products on the market by having solved the frustrating “slow ink” problem typically experienced on pen-based electronic devices, thus providing a “pen and paper” like...
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Keywords:
Entrepreneurial Marketing;
Innovation Management;
Go To Market Strategy;
Marketing Plan;
Target Market;
Digital Devices;
Consumer Electronics;
Forecasting;
Technology;
Marketing Strategy;
Innovation and Management;
Marketing Channels;
Entrepreneurship;
Forecasting and Prediction;
Product Marketing;
Product Development;
Electronics Industry
- May–June 2015
- Other Article
The Challenges of Ambidextrous Leadership: An Interview with Michael Tushman
By: Michael Tushman and Jim Euchner
Michael Tushman talks with Jim Euchner about the challenges of managing breakthrough innovation in established companies.
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Keywords:
Innovation and Management
- 2015
- Working Paper
Scale and Innovation During Two U.S. Breakthrough Eras
By: Tom Nicholas
The relationship between scale and innovation is central to R&D-based growth. This paper uncovers new empirical evidence using comprehensive data on U.S. R&D firms active during the interwar and post-WWII eras. Variability in the nature of innovation is shown to be a...
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- July 2013
- Case
Novozymes: Establishing the Cellulosic Ethanol Value Chain
By: Willy Shih and Sen Chai
As the world's largest producer of industrial enzymes, Novozymes had invested heavily for many years to bio-engineer enzymes that could break down cellulose into fermentable sugar. In 2010, the company had launched what it thought would become a breakthrough product... View Details
Keywords:
System Complexity;
Industrial Enzymes;
Ethanol;
Collulosic Ethanol;
Fermentation;
Genomics;
Genetic Engineering;
Value Chain;
Assembling Value Chain;
Energy Sources;
Renewable Energy;
Collaborative Innovation and Invention;
Innovation and Management;
Innovation Strategy;
Technological Innovation;
Management;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Industry Growth;
Production;
Research;
Research and Development;
Science;
Genetics;
Natural Environment;
Environmental Sustainability;
Science-Based Business;
Business Strategy;
Commercialization;
Vertical Integration;
Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry;
Biotechnology Industry;
Energy Industry;
Denmark;
United States
- Article
Experiments in Open Innovation at Harvard Medical School
By: Eva C. Guinan, Kevin J. Boudreau and Karim R. Lakhani
Harvard Medical School seems an unlikely organization to open up its innovation process. By most measures, the more than 20,000 faculty, research staff and graduate students affiliated with Harvard Medical School are already world class and at the top of the medical...
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- April 2013
- Article
In Search of a Second Act: Riding the Popularity of a Great First Product Is Easy; Finding the Next One Is Hard
By: Elie Ofek and Jill Avery
The article presents a fictional case study on new product development and improvement after the successful launch of a first breakthrough product. Topics include business planning for brand name products, finance and investment for the development of educational toys,...
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Keywords:
Innovation;
Growth Strategy;
Consumer Marketing;
Marketing;
Brand Management;
Market Research;
New Product Development;
Marketing Management;
Technology Commercialization;
Technology;
Brands and Branding;
Marketing Strategy;
Product Marketing;
Consumer Products Industry;
Electronics Industry;
Technology Industry;
North and Central America;
United States
- March 2013 (Revised May 2013)
- Case
Omar Ishrak: Building Medtronic Globally
By: Bill George and Natalie Kindred
Omar Ishrak, Medtronic's first non-American CEO, aims to reinvigorate the medical device maker's growth by focusing on emerging markets, therapy innovation, and creative business models. In 2012, budget constraints in mature economies, the lack of new medical therapies...
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Keywords:
Healthcare;
Medical Devices;
Medtronic;
Globalization;
Innovation;
Reverse Innovation;
Leadership;
Multinational Firms and Management;
Globalized Markets and Industries;
Management Teams;
Business Model;
Emerging Markets;
Global Strategy;
Health Care and Treatment;
Acquisition;
Innovation and Invention;
Manufacturing Industry;
Medical Devices and Supplies Industry;
China
- June 2012
- Supplement
Foro Energy (B)
By: Joseph B. Lassiter, William A. Sahlman and James McQuade
Foro Energy developed proprietary and patent-pending fiber-laser technologies that could disrupt existing processes and services for the exploration and production of oil and natural gas. These breakthrough laser technologies were protected by a strong intellectual...
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