How to Navigate the Politics of an Innovation Project
by Brian Uzzi
A MIDDLE MANAGER AT A global technology organization—let’s call her Denise—had a problem.
She’d come up with the idea of revamping the company’s inventory management approach by networking “sleeping” resources. Specifically, she proposed a system that tracked the real-time inventory needs and usage of business units worldwide, located unused inventory in each unit, and arranged delivery of that inventory to where it was needed. The innovation would boost efficiency by taking the excess inventory of one business unit and shipping it to units that had deficits, thereby reducing inventory-carrying costs companywide.
But when Denise approached the business unit executives with ...
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