Corporate Innovator

Innovation is a top priority for all kinds of organizations, of all sizes and shapes, throughout the world. But innovation doesn’t happen only at the executive level. People within an organization come up with great ideas that can propel the company forward. All too often, however, would-be innovators find that their organizations are unreceptive to new ideas. They are stymied by bureaucracy, power dynamics, or any of thousands of barriers that hinder real change. If you have a new idea, how can you advance it through the labyrinth of obstacles in the ranks of the organization?William Duggan—a leading expert on innovation and strategic thinking—offers a guide to navigating the maze from idea to implementation. He unravels the challenges that corporate innovators face, providing practical advice on communicating ideas effectively, getting buy-in from others, winning allies, and overcoming resistance or outright opposition to change. Duggan focuses on the strategy and tactics of building support within the organization, exploring the crucial takeaways from research in psychology about how people react to new ideas. This book features a series of interviews with successful corporate innovators as well as analysis of historical cases that combine lively storytelling with actionable insights. For anyone in an organization who has been frustrated with the lack of change, Corporate Innovator delivers an essential roadmap for going from idea to action.

A common mistake in corporate innovation is that too much focus is placed on generating ideas, rather than on how to effectively communicate these ideas to other key stakeholders. Corporate Innovator performs an invaluable service in filling this gap by offering powerful and practical frameworks that help innovators build support for their ideas within large corporates. Duggan's expertise and insight in creativity and innovation gives him authority to speak on this topic., Corporate Innovator makes existing knowledge more accessible to and legitimizes the efforts of would-be innovators. Duggan brings his academic curiosity and expertise in organizational strategy to bear, offering motivation, actionable advice, and historical context.

William Duggan teaches innovation at Columbia Business School in graduate and executive courses. His previous Columbia University Press books include Creative Strategy: A Guide for Innovation (2012) and The Seventh Sense: How Flashes of Insight Change Your Life (2017). Duggan has given talks and workshops to thousands of executives from companies around the world and has twenty years of experience as a strategy advisor and consultant.