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Innovation|Scaling Up Transformational Innovations
Innovation

Scaling Up Transformational Innovations

Lessons for the C-suite by Peter Koen, Ananya Sheth, Mike DiPaola and Linda A. Hill

From the Magazine (November–December 2024)
Andy Price

Summary.   

For large companies operating in mature sectors—such as Procter & Gamble in consumer goods, Apple in consumer electronics, and Adobe in cloud software—driving growth is a perennial challenge. Growth through acquisition is always an option, but companies often quickly find that the costs outweigh the benefits. According to the authors, the only reliable path to maintaining market leadership is transformational innovation: major changes to products and services that redefine what customers expect by delivering significantly improved performance, providing new kinds of value, resolving long-standing trade-offs, and/or radically reducing manufacturing costs. To understand what makes transformational innovations successful, the authors studied two of them at Procter & Gamble: Oral-B iO, a “smart” electric toothbrush that step-changed the experience of oral hygiene, and Always Infinity, a best-in-class menstrual pad that resolved the long-standing tension between comfort and protection. In this article the authors present a playbook for scaling up transformational innovation, organized around four major challenges: providing sufficient leadership, building the right team, mobilizing resources and capabilities, and making big-bet decisions.
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For large companies operating in mature sectors—such as Procter & Gamble in consumer goods, Apple in consumer electronics, and Adobe in cloud software—driving growth is a perennial challenge. Growth through acquisition is always an option, but many companies quickly find that the costs outweigh the benefits.

Read more on Innovation or related topics Design thinking, Customer-centricity, Teams, Decision making and problem solving, Leadership, Organizational change and Change management
A version of this article appeared in the November–December 2024 issue of Harvard Business Review.
Read more on Innovation or related topics Design thinking, Customer-centricity, Teams, Decision making and problem solving, Leadership, Organizational change and Change management

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