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Conversations with Thought Leaders
As Editor in Chief of Research-Technology Management, I have the opportunity to interview people who are revolutionizing our thinking about innovation and R&D management. Below are links to a few selected interviews.
Digital technology is clearly changing the products and services that we use every day, but Youngjin Yoo sees a much more fundamental change. He believes the rise of digital technology is changing the very essence of products, making them generative. Increasingly, users create their own applications on platforms, rather than consuming a preconceived product in a preconceived way.
Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble have studied why established firms succeed and fail in delivering innovation inside what they call a company's performance engine. In this interview, Govindarajan emphasizes three concepts: forgetting lessons from the past that may inhibit progress on a new venture; focusing on learning and clarifying key assumptions in the early stages of innovation (not on financial metrics); and consciously borrowing appropriate assets from the parent organization.
John Seely Brown has been at the center of many of the most profound shifts in R&D management over the past three decades. As Chief Scientist at Xerox Corporation and director of PARC, co-chair of the Center for the Edge, Silicon Valley board member, and prolific author, he has helped frame leading-edge thinking about the effective management of research and innovation for decades.
Clay Christensen defined the term disruptive innovation after studying why companies fail while listening to their best customers and making what seem like good business decisions. In this interview, he discusses how to identify, think about, and manage disruptive innovation.
Paul Polak has dedicated himself to the proposition that corporations can help the 2.6 billion people in the world living on less than $2 a day—and make a profit doing so. His various ventures are all dedicated to finding practical solutions to attack poverty at its roots, designing and pricing those solu- tions to meet the needs of the $2-a-day market, and scaling them to profitability. In this interview, he discusses his theory and the impact it has had on poverty.
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