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Abstract

The challenge of managing the fuzzy front-end of the innovation process is particularly acute for large, multi-brand, R&D-intensive firms. Poor performance at generating radical innovations has resulted in many large organisations seeking to innovate how they organise for innovation. This paper presents an inductive, longitudinal study of an organisational experiment that sought to get ‘game-changing, radical ideas’ into the new product development funnel of a Top 3 pharma. The immediate outcomes of a team based internal innovation tournament included thirty three new product ideas, fourteen of which were radical. The medium term outcome of the experiment was a re-organisation of how the firm now pursues radical innovation activities. We link these outcomes to team leadership, contrasting innovation processes, including decisions about how to incorporate the ‘voice of the consumer’. The inductive, longitudinal study suggests causal interconnections between innovation team leadership, innovation team processes, and innovation outcomes.

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• Innovating the innovation process: An organisational experiment in global pharma pursuing radical innovation. (deposited 25 Mar 2015 14:27) [Currently Displayed]