Lead and Disrupt: How to solve the innovators dilemma.
Newly updated second edition from Change Logic co-founders.
Why Do Successful Firms Find It So Difficult to Adapt in the Face of Change – to Innovate?
Is it inevitable for established firms to fail when disruption strikes?
The simple answer is: no, not if you adopt an ambidextrous solution.
In the past ten years, the importance of this question has increased as more industries and firms confront disruptive change. The pandemic has accelerated this crisis, collapsing the structures of industries from airlines and medicine to online retail and commercial real estate. Today, leaders in business have an obligation not only to investors but to their employees and communities. At the core of this challenge is helping their organizations to survive in the face of change.
Drawing on deep research, Change Logic co-founders, Charles O’Reilly and Michael Tushman, describe how a succession of firms have put in place a systematic approach to moving into new market areas, without losing focus on the existing core business franchise. These firms Lead in the core business and Disrupt in the Explore.
New in this edition
The book contains new chapters on Intel, Japanese firm AGC, and another on how to get started on Ambidexterity using the Ideate, Incubate, Scale approach. Since the original edition in 2016, the authors have continued to work with leaders of organizations around the world confronting disruptive change. With updates to every chapter, including new examples and analysis, this fully revised edition incorporates the lessons and insights that the authors have gained in the past five years.
Two new chapters critically examine the role of organizational culture in promoting or hindering ambidexterity and its underlying fundamental disciplines. Using examples from firms such as Microsoft, General Motors, and Amazon, O’Reilly and Tushman illustrate how leaders can align their organization’s cultures to fit the needed strategy, and how ideation, incubation, and scaling approaches, when used altogether, can successfully develop new growth businesses.
About the Authors
Charles A. O’Reilly III
Co-Founder of Change Logic and Frank E. Buck Professor of Management at Stanford Graduate School of Business. His research spans studies of leadership, organizational demography and diversity, culture, executive compensation, and organizational innovation and change. He is the recipient of multiple awards, including the Distinguished Scholar Award by the Academy of Management and the Organizational Behavior Division Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010.
Michael L. Tushman
Co-Founder of Change Logic and Baker Foundation Professor, Paul R. Lawrence MBA Class of 1942 Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus, and Charles B. (Tex) Thorton Chair of the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. His research focuses on senior teams, strategic innovation and change, organizational identity, firm strategy, open innovation and organizational boundaries, and strategic paradox.
This book will do for companies what the lean methodology did for startups— give its leaders the essential playbook for how to transform their organizations to meet the future.
Steve Blank
author of The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Products that Win
Lead and Disrupt is a must-read for any legacy company or startup. Disruption is a constant, and companies must have a passion for growth in a volatile world. This book gives you a framework. The concepts around ideation, incubation and scaling are fresh and well documented. More importantly, I have seen them work in companies large and small.
Jeff Immelt
―Jeff Immelt, former Chairman and CEO, General Electric
Former Chairman and CEO, General Electric
The concepts and ideas in Lead and Disrupt provided valuable guidance for how we approached the transformation of AGC. It helped us understand how to implement ambidexterity and deal with the disruption our business is facing.
Takuya Shimamura
Former CEO and Chairman, AGC (Asahi Glass Company)