When you're building a team to generate radical innovation, make sure you include a few conformists among the radical thinkers and rule-breakers. Conformists are crucial because they support the creatives and strengthen group cohesion, according to research on a high-tech company by Ella Miron-Spektor, Miriam Erez, and Eitan Naveh of Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.

Israel’s prowess in developing successful, cutting-edge high-tech companies is well known. But such success overshadows the failure of traditional Israeli industry to be more agile and innovative. With this in mind, the Israeli government has established several key programs that aim to facilitate and accelerate innovation in Israel’s less successful industrial firms. Readers will learn about these programs — including an R&D grant fund, cooperation between companies and academic research institutions, and a forum where low- and high-tech firms share best practices — by two people who have been instrumental in building Israel’s reputation for innovation.