Strategy & Leadership

Purpose – This paper aims to present an interview with Deloitte researcher John Hagel III, the co-author of The Power of Pull and co-chairman of the Deloitte Center for the Edge, which conducts research and develops concepts for new corporate growth.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents the views of Hagel on how to help managers understand how the concept of “pull” – the management model that draws out people and resources as needed to address opportunities and challenges – can be systematically used to shape serendipity and drive more rapid performance improvement.

Findings – Hagel and his research colleagues found that the global center of innovation is shifting from the West to China and India; that the innovation that will matter most in the next wave of competition is neither product nor process innovation, but institutional innovation. This perspective extends the concept of management innovation beyond organizational boundaries to innovation networks.

Practical implications – Hagel foresees that the early phase of transformation will be largely a bottom-up phenomenon and that the full promise of the “pull” concept will be its potential to generate “increasing returns” in performance, and ultimately reshape markets and industries.

Originality/value – The interview identifies the persistent failure of today's organizational forms to generate high-commitment, high engagement cultures as the primary institutional innovation challenge and opportunity. The interviewee, Hagel, warns practitioners to prepare because the transition from a world of “push” management models to one where the “pull” model has an advantage is inevitable.