MIT SMR: Managing Innovation's Productive Tensions

Why do most corporate innovation efforts fail to pay off, with 3 out of 4 new product releases failing to gain traction in the marketplace? Christopher Bingham and Rory McDonald argue that leaders are using dated methods to manage the innovation process - and failing to skillfully adapt to today's dynamic environments. In their new book, Productive Tensions: How Every Leader Can Tackle Innovation's Toughest Trade-Offs (MIT Press), Bingham and McDonald illuminate the competing aims inherent in innovation, such as whether to pursue efficiency or flexibility? consistency or change? product or purpose? They suggest that these conflicts, when navigated well, can provide as much opportunity as challenge.