s+b: How to Bring Innovations to Market
An interview with strategy+business' Theodeore Kinni.
An example:
S+B: Why do companies find it difficult to execute new ideas?
GOVINDARAJAN: In a sense, the problem is about people doing the right thing. Every organization has a core business, which we call its performance engine. Its main job is efficiency: By making every task repeatable and predictable, the core business obtains scale and makes a lot of money. Innovation is just the opposite. It is nonroutine and unpredictable. Therefore, there is an inherent and fundamental inconsistency between what companies do to pursue scale and what they need to do to execute on innovation. It is not that people are doing the wrong things and killing innovation. In fact, people are doing exactly what they should be doing to keep the performance engine running — and that is killing innovation.