Rethinking the organization: leadership for game‐changing innovation

The paper aims to identify the lessons CEOs of large established organizations need to learn to make continuous innovation a part of the firm's DNA. Instead of innovation and organizational learning being the responsibility of a few iconoclastic, courageous and rare individuals or departments, it needs to become institutionalized as an organization‐wide capability.

The author has drafted a lesson plan for top managers based on the best practice suggestions for introducing and fostering an innovation culture – pull management, authentic and interactive communication and putting the customer value zone at the center of the organization.

Pull management poses the complex challenge of delivering steadily increasing value to customers and engaging employees and customers in conversations. This is a radically different business environment. It requires understanding and mastering a radically different kind of management.

The management lesson plan: learn the skills required to practice pull management, authentic and interactive communication and putting the customer value zone at the center of the organization.

The paper postulates that organization‐wide continuous innovation, which will be vital to survival in the coming years, requires a radically new approach to management and the learning of a completely new set of skills.