10 years of Harvard Business Review articles to get your corporate innovation lab ready toward 2030
Updated: Mar 31, 2021
Since 2011 til end of 2020, we have observed a decade of acceleration of digitalisation and customer centricity, an increase of world politic polarity, the emergence of key science and engineering (see my blog article), a consolidation of start-ups ecosystem, attracting the best talent and increasing investment from Venture Capital. To keep up with such a fast pace, It has become more and more challenging for large industry players to establish efficiently their corporate innovation activities and practices.
To explore further, I recommend the body of knowledge on corporate innovation management developed by the Swedish hub of innovation professionals:
https://www.innovationsledarna.se/bodyofknowledge
During the last 10 years we see a trend of corporate innovation management adoption and struggle, particularly moving from high level concepts to daily implementation in dedicated companies departments. This has evolved during 4 overlapping short periods:
The heritage of great theories for innovation
Start-up practices and customer centricity reshape corporate rules
Corporate struggle in adopting innovative practices
Culture as an answer to bridge corporate and start-up mindsets
to come... some successful corporate innovation use cases
Here are more than 25 articles from the Harvard Business Review covering the 2011-2020 period aiming to get corporate innovation fitted for the next decade. This is a long list and you may get lost, I recommend you read the one highlighted in bold that I found the most inspiring in my corporate innovation daily job.
Illustration: Harvard Business School campus
2011 to 2015 - The heritage of great theories for innovation
Corporate innovation has become a sub-field of corporate strategy. In the late 90's, early 2000 many major innovation have been established for innovation (see my blog). At the beginning of 2011, you see some more theories of innovation taking place or continuous refinement of the most popular one.
2011 - The innovation catalysts by Roger Martin
https://hbr.org/2011/06/the-innovation-catalysts
2011 - For growth, new ideas aren't enough by Rita McGrath
https://hbr.org/2011/09/for-growth-new-ideas
2011 - The big idea before you make that big decision by Daniel Kahneman
https://hbr.org/2011/06/the-big-idea-before-you-make-that-big-decision
2012 - Managing your innovation portfolio by Geoff Tuff
https://hbr.org/2012/05/managing-your-innovation-portfolio
2012 - Accelerate! by John Kotter
https://hbr.org/2012/11/accelerate
2013 - A new model for innovation in big companies by Beth Altringer
https://hbr.org/2013/11/a-new-model-for-innovation-in-big-companies
2015 - What is disruptive innovation by Clayton Christensen
https://hbr.org/2015/12/what-is-disruptive-innovation
2015 - You need an innovation strategy by Gari Pisano
https://hbr.org/2015/06/you-need-an-innovation-strategy
2012 to 2017 - Start-up practices and customer centricity reshape corporate rules
From 2012, many research are conducted around entrepreneurship as a tool for corporate innovation. The main idea is for large companies to adopt start-up best practices and mindset. In a few years, successful entrepreneurial ventures have been studied and methods have been derived such as effectuation, the lean start-up, the business model canvas, the Job to be Done...
2012 - Everyone should learn the entrepreneurial method by Saras Sarasvathy
https://hbr.org/2012/03/everyone-should-learn-the-entr
2013 - A better way to think about your business model by Alex Osterwalder
https://hbr.org/2013/05/a-better-way-to-think-about-yo
2013 - Why the lean Start-up changes everything by Steve Blank
https://hbr.org/2013/05/why-the-lean-start-up-changes-everything
2015 - The innovative mindset your company can't afford to lose by Simone Ahuja
https://hbr.org/2015/10/the-innovative-mindset-your-company-cant-afford-to-lose
2015 - How to break up with an innovation project by Scott Anthony
https://hbr.org/2015/08/how-to-break-up-with-an-innovation-project
2016 - Know your customers's Jobs to be Done by Clayton Christensen
https://hbr.org/2016/09/know-your-customers-jobs-to-be-done
2016 - The innovative power of criticism by Roberto Verganti
https://hbr.org/2016/01/the-innovative-power-of-criticism
2017 - What your innovation process should look like by Steve Blank
https://hbr.org/2017/09/what-your-innovation-process-should-look-like
2016 to 2019 - Corporate struggle in adopting innovative practices
Embracing the start-up mindset and copycat of their practices seems to not work very well in large corporation. Start-up and large corporations are too different for easily integrate each others rules and specificity. Organisations start to emerge with an inherent friction. An hybrid model needs to emerge.
2016 - 5 Mistake employees make when challenging the status quo by Carmen Medina
https://hbr.org/2016/11/5-mistakes-employees-make-when-challenging-the-status-quo
2017 - The boards new innovation imperative by Linda Hill
https://hbr.org/2017/11/the-boards-new-innovation-imperative
2018 - If your innovation effort isn't working, look at who's on the team by Nathan Furr
https://hbr.org/2018/11/if-your-innovation-effort-isnt-working-look-at-whos-on-the-team
2018 - The myth of the intrapreneur by Andrew Corbett
https://hbr.org/2018/06/the-myth-of-the-intrapreneur
2018 - The two questions to ask before set-up an innovation by Alessandro Di Fiore
https://hbr.org/2018/07/two-questions-to-ask-before-you-set-up-an-innovation-unit
2019 - Real innovation requires more than an R&D budget by Gina O'Connor
https://hbr.org/2019/12/real-innovation-requires-more-than-an-rd-budget
2019 - Why companies do innovation theater instead of actual innovation by Steve Blank
https://hbr.org/2019/10/why-companies-do-innovation-theater-instead-of-actual-innovation
From 2019 - Culture as an answer to bridge corporate and start-up mindsets and better deal with uncertainties
While making a new corporate innovation hybrid model emerge, many solutions look at a deep culture change for bridging the start-up and large corporations mindset. Instead of blaming the organization for its lack of agility, we start to reshape the myth, beliefs and mental models using culture change approaches.
2019 - 3 ways to build a culture of collaborative innovation by Deborah Ancona
https://hbr.org/2019/08/3-ways-to-build-a-culture-of-collaborative-innovation
2019 - The hard truth about innovative cultures by Gari Pisano
https://hbr.org/2019/01/the-hard-truth-about-innovative-cultures
2020 - Cultural innovation by Douglas Holt
https://hbr.org/2020/09/cultural-innovation
2020 - Every company needs an entrepreneur in the c-suite by Tendayi Viki
https://hbr.org/2020/10/every-company-needs-an-entrepreneur-in-the-c-suite
2020 - Your company is too risk averse by Daniel Khaneman
https://hbr.org/2020/03/your-company-is-too-risk-averse
2020 - Building a culture of experimentation by Stefan Thomke
https://hbr.org/2020/03/building-a-culture-of-experimentation
2020 - Rescuing scientific innovation from corporate bureaucracy by Jeff Karp
https://hbr.org/2020/05/rescuing-scientific-innovation-from-corporate-bureaucracy