Harvard Business Review
Innovation in turbulent times
Innovation in turbulent times
Innovation requires leadership teams with both right- and left-brain skills.
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The full version of this article is available on Harvard Business Online (subscription required).
The Idea in Brief
Too few businesses have creative, rightbrain types in leadership positions. That leaves innovation especially vulnerable to unwise cost cutting during hard times. Decisions about slashing versus retaining projects are made by analytic, left-brain leaders unsuited to evaluating innovation portfolios.
Partner Darrell Rigby explains how savvy companies use "both-brain" teams to succeed.
The fashion industry is worth emulating:
- Its businesses are "both-brain," run by pairs of powerful executives with complementary-creative and analytic-styles.
- They are structured to support leftbrain-right-brain partnerships; hiring at all levels seeks a mix of cognitive styles.
- Innovation becomes a way of business life, not a marginal activity.
Both-brain pairs have been found elsewhere: Apple CEO Steve Jobs and COO Tim Cook; Procter & Gamble's chief of global design, Claudia Kotchka, and CEO A.G. Lafley; high-tech engineer Bill Hewlett and business leader David Packard. Such partnerships could help innovation thrive in your business.
Winning in Turbulence
Learn more about how companies can navigate through turbulent times and succeed as the economy improves.
First published in Juni 2009