Strategic Innovation: Embedding Innovation as a Core Competency in Your Organization

CULTURAL CHANGE AT WHIRLPOOL: DIGGING DEEPER INTO RISK TAKING

Let's come back now to what happened at Whirlpool. To our surprise, embedment changed our culture. During the innovation effort, we experienced a combination of positive changes in our culture. Some of these were surprising because efforts in the past to adapt or change these aspects of Whirlpool's culture had been met with mixed reviews. At best, many of the culture change efforts described above became a series of events that moved the needle but largely did not result in deep change. This time, some culture changes that had been tried without much change before were more successful, because they were undertaken as part of innovation embedment.

We want to take one aspect of culture ...