Is Your Company Choosing the Best Innovation Ideas? Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

There is absolutely no dearth of guidance or resources on how to turn corporations into fountains of creative ideas. Nevertheless, as veteran leaders of invention efforts understand, the issue for most large organizations typically is not the shortage of ideas - it is figuring out how to dig out the good ones. As experienced executives know, delegating vital choices comes with risks. The corporation may end up encouraging notions senior management does unworthy; instead, it may not pursue projects top management would have boosted had they known about them.

This post, predicated on research on more than 10,000 invention proposals from within a large multinational corporation, analyzes what happens when ideas are screened through a big organization. Senior managers have to design systems, or funnels, where the notions they are likely to favor are either (a) chosen by subordinate supervisors for additional assessment at their degree or (b) if the ideas are of sufficient value or guarantee, flagged to the eye of top management for additional assessment. In a sense, the actual challenge in picking good ideas is optimizing the trade-off between the direct choice prices on the one hand and also the prices of both missing out on great thoughts and executing the incorrect thoughts on the other. The author describes seven "setscrews"that senior managers can adjust to their special context to make sure that the most promising innovation propositions -and only those -stand an excellent possibility of being implemented.

PUBLICATION DATE: July 01, 2011 PRODUCT #: SMR388-PDF-ENG

This is just an excerpt. This case is about STRATEGY & EXECUTION