69: Getting Corporate Innovation Right with Rita McGrath

How come large corporations get innovation so wrong? Rita McGrath is a professor at Columbia Business School, a bestselling author of business books and is currently ranked #2 on Thinkers50's list of the world's top management thinkers.

Rita's dad actually worked at both Xerox and Kodak and saw the digital change coming. He tried to warn management, but to no avail.

In this episode:

What went wrong with Xerox and Kodak?

Xerox Parc in Palo Alto created the modern computer, and how was Apple and Microsoft "inspired" by this work?

Why does large corporations fail?

We discuss Rita's latest book "Seeing Around Corners"

What is an "inflection point"?

How have Rita's worked been affected by Calyton Christen and his book The Innovators Dilema? 

Is there a link between Rita's work and Eric Ries' The Lean Startup?

What can leaders do to be more innovative?

How can CEOs find the time in their calendar to spend on innovation?

How do you get backing from the CEO to spend enough resources on innovation?

And how do you get the CFO on board?

I highly recommend Rita's latest book Seeing Around Corners: How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen

Rita is teaching the Valize Customer Insight Program this fall.  There are six courses in all, with a combination of online lessons, downloadable materials and six live sessions with Rita.  Our listeners can sample a free demo course by following this link.

Find out more about Rita on her website ritamcgrath.com