Gary Pisano’s masterful book, Creative Construction, is...a welcome addition...both an analysis of how many large companies are innovative and a playbook for what they can do to become even more innovative. Pisano ... provides a detailed roadmap for how large organizations can become and stay innovative. As such, this book is not for everyone, although it is well written and a compelling read. But anyone involved in managing any organization, large or small, is likely to find much to appreciate in Creative Construction ... In closing Pisano rightly asks, '...The question is whether we are up to the task of innovation in the current century.' If more people, especially organizational managers, read Creative Construction, the odds of the answer to this question is yes, will go up significantly.
Using well-known examples, he illustrates why 70 percent of organizational change has failed, and how those that succeeded did so ... Business leaders will find inspiration here.
Driven by his use of vivid examples, the narrative covers the types of innovation, from routine (ready-to-eat salad) to outside the home court (Honda creates HondaJet) to disruptive business model (Uber vs. traditional taxis); details what goes into them; and urges companies to pursue a balanced portfolio of approaches. Especially valuable is the author’s discussion of problems faced by multidivisional companies whose expertise is dispersed in independent silos that prevent them from bringing ideas together to exploit opportunities ... A useful manual for fostering a sustainable culture of change.
Pisano is particularly insightful on dealing with the uncertain initial stage of selecting one particular project to pursue from among different options. He concludes with possibly the trickiest task: creating the right culture for nurturing innovation. Incisive and relevant, Pisano’s primer will give executives much to consider.
