Managing Innovation

Comments
0

Email
Print
Share

Sharpening Your Skills curates a wide range of Harvard Business School's

research and ideas around vital topics in business management.

Should managers lead innovation or get out of the way? It's not an either/or
decision. Executives of some great innovative companiesAmazon's Jeff
Bezos, Facebook's Mark Zuckerbergare active participants in creation,
getting their hands dusty in the digital dirt, writing code or copy, or inspring
employees to raise their creative game.
But Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, has a different approach, creating an
organization that values and rewards innovation rather than attempting to
create it with his bare hands. AG Lafley, P&G's chief executive, revivied the
company by instilling an ethos of "innovation is everyone's job."
Dozens of faculty at Harvard Business School are focused on the subject of
managing innovation. Some look at it by examining processes while others
view through the lens of history. For example, Clay Christensen has pieced
together the "innovator's DNA" while Lynda Applegate teaches "innovation is
not an option."
We've identified articles and working papers covering a wide range of
thinking about innovation management to answer some specific questions
you may have about tapping the creativity buried in your company:

IS WORKPLACE TRANSPARENCY GOOD FOR

INNOVATION?
Hiding From Managers Can Increase Your Productivity

Would you be suspicious of employees who drew a curtain around

themselves? What if you knew the curtain was specifically to block your
prying managerial eyes? Harvard Business School Assistant
Professor Ethan S. Bernstein explains why decreasing workplace
transparency can increase productivity.

Do creative types need to be managed differently?

Culture Changers: Managing High-Impact Entrepreneurs
In her new Harvard Business School course, Creative High-Impact Ventures:
Entrepreneurs Who Changed the World, professor Mukti Khaire looks at
ways managers can team with creative talent in six "culture industries":
publishing, fashion, art-design, film, music, and food.

Can creativity be taught?

Getting to Eureka!: How Companies Can Promote Creativity
As global competition intensifies, it's more important than ever that
companies figure out how to innovate if they are going to maintain their
edge, or maintain their existence at all. Six Harvard Business School faculty
share insights on the best ways to develop creative workers.

Can an alarm clock be innovative?

HBS Cases: Clocky, the Runaway Alarm Clock
There had not been an innovative breakthrough in alarm clock design since
the snooze button until entrepreneur Gauri Nanda created Clocky. Her
runaway hit has been the inspiration for several cases written by
ProfessorElie Ofek.

Should I crowdsource my solutions?

Markets or Communities? The Best Ways to Manage Outside Innovation
No one organization can monopolize knowledge in any given field. That's
why modern companies must develop a new expertise: the ability to attract

novel solutions to difficult or unanticipated problems from outside sources

around the world. A conversation with Harvard Business School
professorKarim R. Lakhani on the keys to managing distributed innovation.

What does NASA's "Faster, Better, Cheaper" teach

about innovation?
Mission to Mars: It Really Is Rocket Science
Do the successful Mars missions mean NASA again has the right stuff?Alan
MacCormack dissects the space agency's "Faster, Better, Cheaper"
program.

To Read More:
ARTICLES
HBS Cases: LEGO
Stephan Thomke on managing creativity for 80 years.
Lean Strategy Not Just for Start-Ups
The power of 'lean' start-ups, according to Scott Cook.
How Small Wins Unleash Creativity
Teresa M. Amabile's big wins from small steps.
Five Discovery Skills that Distinguish Great Innovators
Clay Christensen on "The Innovator's DNA."
WORKING PAPERS
Leading Innovation in Good Times and Bad
Innovation is not a side business, says Lynda Applegate.

Mechanisms of Technology Re-Emergence and Identity Change in a Mature

Field: Swiss Watchmaking
Ryan Raffaelli discovers new markets for old technologies.
Organization Design for Distributed Innovation
Designing organizations ready for distributed innovation, by Carliss Y.
Baldwin.