10 Rules for Strategic Innovators

It’s a chronic dilemma: investors demand growth—yet the older a company gets, the harder it is to deliver the kind of innovations that younger startups are known for. Most companies are full of creative people with imaginative ideas for new businesses, but ideas only get you so far. The real challenge is executing innovation.

So how can companies that have been shaped for excellence in an old business, build a new one with different rules for success? It requires a near-impossible balancing act—but it’s one that many accomplished companies see as a necessity. Examples include General Motors, which launched the cutting edge OnStar in-vehicle communication system; Procter & Gamble, currently reaching out to the coveted teen market with word-of-mouth marketing service Tremor; and the Walt Disney Company, which recently introduced MovieBeam to break into the lucrative in-home video rental market.

Large established companies don’t have to be the underdog when it comes to innovation. But how to start? How can executives manage new high-growth-potential businesses inside established organizations? 10 Rules for Strategic Innovators includes instructive, real-world stories of innovation in action. Case studies include Corning’s behind-the-scenes entry into the high-risk biotechnology industry, Hasbro’s aggressive pursuit of interactive video games—and the hurdles it faced in getting there, and the contentious rise of New York Times Digital.