HBR's 10 Must Reads for New Managers Collection

10 Rules for Managing Global Innovation

by Keeley Wilson and Yves L. Doz

COMPANIES ARE WELL AWARE that hidden in their dispersed, global operations is a treasure trove of ideas and capabilities for innovation. But it’s proving harder than expected to unearth those ideas or exploit those capabilities in global innovation projects. Some of the challenges of global projects are familiar: figuring out the right role for top executives, for example, or finding a good balance between formal and informal project management processes.

But although the challenges may be familiar, the solutions are not; what works for an innovation project conducted in a single location doesn’t necessarily work for one dispersed across many sites around the world. That’s ...