15 Posts found for Author: Erik Roth

What makes a high-performing innovation team is a diversity of perspectives and experiences, but in a psychologically safe space so that team members can actually share openly, come up with a common vocabulary, and look at the problem through very different lenses.

Content: Quotation | Author: Erik Roth | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Innovation, Organizational Behavior, Teamwork

A great innovator knows when something that’s being asserted is actually an assumption. Understanding the difference is important, because when you’re dealing with a certainty, you’re less likely to challenge it. It’s an assertion, and, therefore, you may follow it blindly and it may run you into a ditch. A great innovator will treat that same statement as an assumption, which lets them respond differently. … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Erik Roth | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Innovation

Innovation, at its simplest, is identifying a valuable problem to solve, using a technology to solve that problem, and putting it inside a business model that allows it to scale as quickly as possible to create value. If you have that mental model in mind, how easy or difficult is it for those pieces to come together end to end in your organization? We often … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Erik Roth | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Innovation

Worries about failure, criticism, and career impact hold back many people from embracing innovation. Here’s how to create a culture that accounts for the human side of innovation.

Content: Article | Authors: Alex Morris, Erik Roth, Laura Furstenthal | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Best Practices, Innovation, Organizational Behavior

Driving sustainable, inclusive growth requires the right mindset, strategy, and capabilities. Here are some steps that could help foster successful growth.

Content: Article | Authors: Andre Gaeta, Biljana Cvetanovski, Erik Roth, Greg Kelly, Ishaan Seth, Jill Zucker, Michael Birshan, Rebecca Doherty, Tjark Freundt | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Strategy

High failure rates, in our experience, are often correlated with inattention to assumptions, which underlie all innovation initiatives. Companies often confuse assertions with assumptions, stating confidently what “should be true” for an innovation concept (for example, the price premium that customers will pay) instead of acknowledging that it is merely a strong hypothesis that needs to be validated. We therefore encourage management teams to place … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Brian Quinn, Daniel Cohen, Erik Roth | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Innovation

The age of the insular R&D organization is over. To serve as a company’s innovation engine, R&D strategy needs to be equipped for today’s fast-moving world.

Content: Article | Authors: Erik Roth, Joshua Katz, Philipp Ernst, Tom Brennan | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Operations

A company needs to be really clear on why they’re acquiring something. If it’s an acqui-hire, then it’s the talent. If it’s a business-model acquisition, it’s the business, the technology, and the IP [intellectual property]. There are lots of different reasons. So first, be super clear on why you’re acquiring something. And then, I always like to say, there’s pitchers and catchers. The pitcher is … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Erik Roth | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Mergers & Acquisitions

We’ve done a lot of research around what really makes for a high-performance innovation team. What we’ve found is that, if you go to Silicon Valley or Berlin or Singapore or Israel and look for the entrepreneurs—individual founders—they overweight slightly on the vision and the collaborations and underweight slightly on the execution and learning. But again, it depends on the individual.

But in a corporate environment, … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Erik Roth | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Innovation, Organizational Behavior

One of the questions we often get asked is, “How do I get the best innovation talent into my organization?” It’s an interesting question because of course we all want to find the most talented individuals and the most high-performing individuals to drive some of our most important endeavors.

But as we look at innovation, what we’re finding is there just aren’t that many people who … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Erik Roth | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Innovation

To catalyze breakthrough growth, leaders must set bold aspirations, make tough choices, and mobilize resources at scale.

Content: Article | Authors: Brian Quinn, Daniel Cohen, Erik Roth | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Innovation

For innovation initiatives to succeed, they must be staffed with the right combination of talent.

Content: Multimedia Content | Authors: Erik Roth, Matt Banholzer, Sean Brown | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Innovation, Organizational Behavior

Don’t overlook the insight that two simple metrics can yield about the effectiveness of your R&D spending.

Content: Article | Authors: Erik Roth, Guttorm Aase, Sri Swaminathan | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Innovation

Some ideas, such as luxury goods and many smartphone apps, are destined for niche markets. Others, like social networks, work at global scale. Explicitly considering the appropriate magnitude and reach of a given idea is important to ensuring that the right resources and risks are involved in pursuing it. The seemingly safer option of scaling up over time can be a death sentence. Resources and … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Erik Roth, Marc de Jong, Nathan Marston | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Innovation, Management, Operations, Strategy

Strategic and organizational factors are what separate successful big-company innovators from the rest of the field.

Content: Article | Authors: Erik Roth, Marc de Jong, Nathan Marston | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Innovation