Gary Pisano

More than ever before, economic progress is guided by creative destruction. Companies innovate or die. Conventional wisdom says only small, nimble startups are true innovators. Gary Pisano challenges the widely held belief that large enterprises are doomed to be disrupted, and offers leaders of large and fast-growing companies practical advice and principles for how to leverage the benefits of scale in innovation, a process he terms “creative construction.”

Drawing from his book, Creative Construction (2019), Pisano addresses the challenges and opportunities big companies face in the innovation game. He also discusses how large firms can create a strategy that focuses on the future while minding the present, and how to foster a culture that allows innovation to thrive. And if they don’t succeed, Pisano contends that it likely has little to do with scale and much to do with management and leadership.

It is indeed the age of algorithms. The question is no longer will machine learning and artificial intelligence change business as we know it. Now, it’s how do corporations change their organizational models to make the most of technology.

It wasn’t long ago that machines automated tasks. Today, they’re automating learning. And that is profoundly reshaping companies’ approach to talent and organizational learning. Average is no longer good enough, says Gary Pisano. Instead, there’s an increasing demand for the exceptional. Companies need superstars to pick up where machines leave off – to manage what algorithms cannot. He discusses how business leaders must transition from the organizational learning model of the past – centered on managing people – toward one focused on managing machines.

Shareholders demand it; business media and “the street” closely watch the companies driving it; and executives seek out gurus to help engineer it. Growth is the #1 mandate for all businesses, big and small. And yet, there’s little written and known about growth – how to predict it, manage it or maintain it.

Pisano busts the myth of small company dynamism vs. big company lethargy, proving that growth rates have no correlation with size. He also introduces his growth framework – the first in the academic field of business management – and helps business leaders put it to work. And he asks – and helps answer – the questions on the minds of senior leaders: When is growth harmful or helpful? When has a company grown too large for its own good? Pisano unpacks decades of experience analyzing the decisions and paths of companies ranging from Amazon to Virgin, revealing the decisions that fostered, and are now sustaining their growth.

Why is successful innovation so hard? It’s not because of failure to execute; the problem is lack of innovation strategy, believes Gary Pisano. Drawing from his popular Harvard Business Review article, “You Need an Innovation Strategy,” Pisano outlines the process, starting with a clear understanding and articulation of specific objectives. He characterizes the four categories of innovation and delves deep into the three pivotal questions a robust innovation strategy must answer:

1. How will innovation create value for potential customers?
2. How will the company capture a share of the value its innovations generate?
3. What types of innovations will create and capture value, and what resources are needed?

Because innovation cuts across functions, only senior leaders can determine the right innovation recipe and set the strategy, says Pisano. And “like the process of innovation itself, an innovation strategy involves continual experimentation, learning and adaptation.”