Innovation to the Core

INTRODUCTION

In 1995 I, along with a band of young colleagues, founded a new company, Strategos. Our goal was not to build just another consulting company—that was simply a means to an end. Instead, we wanted to test a hypothesis: that with effort and persistence, large, bureaucratic organizations could become as good at game-changing innovation as they were at disciplined execution. My partners and I were not naive. We knew that it might take us a decade or more to develop the materials, tools, metrics, processes, and IT systems that would allow our clients to embed the DNA of innovation deep within their management systems and organizational cultures. We knew we would struggle to find corporate partners who were willing to venture out beyond ...