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We rarely experience genuine innovation, the author argues, and when we do, it makes us nervous. Our most common reaction to something unprecedented is to prime ourselves for frustration-to throw our hands up and say we simply don't understand it. The lesson for designers and decision-makers alike is that the more innovative a product or service will be, the more familiar it needs to feel. He shows that product categories can be broken down along a familiarity/novelty continuum, and that in most cases, the most successful isn't the one that makes the biggest splash, but the product that correctly balances familiar cues with new benefits.

Innovations often fail due to one simple fact: innovators have a flawed understanding of the psychology of their end user. The author shows that, contrary to the view of traditional Economics, consumers are not driven purely by rational considerations. Real consumers are emotional; they are lazy (both physically and cognitively); and they are systematically influenced by context in making decisions. After describing several common biases, the author provides four recommendations that can help to reverse innovation's dismal success rate to date.

Modern organizations contain a wide variety of tensions that leaders must face every day: collaboration vs. control, flexibility vs. efficiency and profit vs. social responsibility, to name just a few. The authors present an approach for handling these tensions: the paradox perspective. Paradox Theory presumes that tensions are integral to complex systems, and that sustainability depends upon attending to contradictory-yet-interwoven demands simultaneously. The authors introduce a new skill that enables leaders to embrace paradox: 'dynamic equilibrium'.

The former senior deputy governor of the Bank of Canada and new Dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto discusses the ongoing quest for a balanced economy, why service exports should be the next big thing, and the personal challenge that lies ahead for him at the Rotman School.

The author argues that far too many companies continue to focus on a numbers- and data-driven approach to innovation. Strategy and innovation, he says, should not be a mere exercise in analytics, but a qualitative process in which analysis serves the insights born out of individual observation and reflection. He explains why so many business people are uncomfortable with the 'qualitative' world, providing six strategies for improving qualitative judgment in an organization.

Most of the time, the world moves forward in tiny increments, as individuals and organizations hone and refine existing models: governments modify their services in hopes of producing better results, and businesses bring out the next generation of their existing products and services. But every once in a while-backed by revolutionary thinking-the world moves forward in a huge leap to a fundamentally new equilibrium. The authors show that over time, such paradigm shifts have been driven by two entities: government policy innovation and business entrepreneurial creation. But a third driver has emerged between these two poles: social entrepreneurship. The best part: social entrepreneurship makes possible equilibrium shifts that neither government or business could achieve on their own.

The global financial crisis that began in 2007 in the United States has adversely impacted the entire world. The author argues that the main driver of the crisis is global trade and capital imbalances, which, he shows, have unfolded in almost textbook fashion. He warns that if we misunderstand the roots of the imbalances that led to the global financial crisis, it is unlikely that we will choose policies that enable us to work our way out of them.

The late Stanford professor Elliot Eisner echoed Albert Einstein when he said: "Not everything that can be measured matters; and not everything that matters can be measured." In this caution lies a more pointed warning, says the author: when dedicated to the quantity-driven approach of scientific inquiry, we chronically overlook valuable qualitative aspects of our world. Artistic inquiry begins with a person experiencing qualities-then relates, shapes, and creates further qualities to create qualitative forms. Its findings entail personal understandings expressed through stories, prose, speeches, images, compositions, objects, actions and performances. In the end, for those seeking answers to demanding problems, both scientific and artistic are indispensable.

Legitimacy has been defined as "the capacity of a political system to engender and maintain the belief that existing political institutions are the most appropriate and proper ones for society." The author says that what we are witnessing today is a crisis of legitimacy. Young people around the world are disproportionately affected by everything that is going on, and he warns that if they decide that our institutions of democracy are no longer legitimate, we are in for a period of disruption in human history that will make the 1960s and the Arab Spring look like kids' stuff. He describes a new model of multi-stakeholder networks that is emerging to attack global problems. As a result, he shows that leadership can come from anywhere these days, which presents enormous opportunities for each of us.

Marriott, GE, and other traditional companies are finding opportunities to join the so-called collaborative economy--the space best known for start-ups such as Airbnb and Uber. In the process, they are conducting ambitious experiments aimed at fundamentally reevaluating their business models.

Teams that take the time to inventory and discuss each member's relevant knowledge before embarking on a task outperform others. Engaging in such reflection changes the criterion for power on the team from social influence to informational influence and helps members tune out irrelevant factors such as confidence, extroversion, status, experience, tenure, assertiveness, gender, and race.

Some 40% to 80% of mergers fail to meet objectives--and new research shows that human factors, especially collective leadership capability, are a key driver of M&A success.

A new study reveals the powerful effects of perceptions.

The CEO of Campbell's Soup on remaking a "play it safe" culture and nurturing the courage to embrace change.

The former CEO of Kaiser Permanente on the benefits and pitfalls of activating "us versus them" energy.

A look at the history of railroads and the decentralized organizational structure they used to coordinate operations on an unprecedented scale.

The case describes a situation faced by the Starter Motor and Generator (SMG) Division of Bosch Limited in India as a consequence of the global restructuring of the Bosch Group in 2007. The SMG division had not earned profits for 22 years since its inception, but was accommodated as part of the India operations of Bosch Limited as other divisions cross-subsidized the division. However, after the restructuring, the division became part of the global product division which had no incentives to tolerate the continuation of a loss-making division. The local management was forced to make strategic and operational changes to make the division viable to avoid the harsh decision of closing down the operations of the business. The case briefly describes the operational changes that were implemented to improve profitability, and then focuses on the strategic decision related to choice of a new business model which had consequences for the organizational structure that was adopted.

Hemant Luthra, Chairman and Arvind Mehra, Executive Director and CEO, Mahindra Aerospace needed to examine the prospects of the aerospace industry in India and decide on the organization's growth strategy. Mahindra Aerospace was a leader among private sector organizations in India that, in addition to building capacity outside the country, had established manufacturing capacity in India for the aerospace industry. The top executives needed to take stock of how the situation had evolved since its entry into the industry to decide on the next major strategic moves. Luthra and Mehra had to decide the next major strategic moves for the company. The Mahindra Group had already established some relevant capabilities, and Mahindra Aerospace added some focused capabilities by acquisitions, and was well-poised to participate in engineering design, and also be a supplier to some majors. With strong technological capabilities relative to other new players and a relative cost advantage over traditional American and/or European players, Mahindra hoped to be able to chart a strategy that allowed them to move up the value chain. However, the top executives were sensitive to the unique features of the sector - long gestation periods for product development and production and high volatility in the market. Hence, prudent capital investment decisions were very critical for the long-term health of the organization.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation (TAPF), a Bangalore-based Indian non-governmental organization, is hailed globally for running the world's largest school meal programme. It has grown from serving five schools in Bangalore in June 2000 (1,500 children) a day to its current operations of 19 locations in nine Indian states, providing lunch meals to approximately 1.5 million school children every day. This case looks at the operations of one of its larger kitchens, which is located at Vasanthapura in Bangalore. It describes the complete range of activities: procurement, pre-processing, cooking, and finally packaging and dispatch, at this center. The case is rich in data and helps generate discussions around the material planning, procurement, and production planning activities at this kitchen.

Spreadsheet supplement for IMB475.