5 Years of Must Reads from HBR: 2024 Edition (5 Books)

Cultural Innovation

by Douglas Holt

BUILDING THE NEXT billion-dollar innovation is an irresistible goal. To get a leg up, many companies now emulate the innovation model perfected in the tech sector. Procter & Gamble, for example, pursues what it calls constructive disruption. The company has designed its innovation process like a start-up’s, with a venture lab that pulls in tech entrepreneurs and a lean probe-and-learn prototyping process.

That approach is not working. The reality is that in most consumer markets, innovation is a slow, incremental grind—extending master brands, adding a new bell or whistle, tweaking a formula. P&G’s star innovations—such as a smart Pampers diaper that signals when a change is needed—aren’t exactly threatening ...