Over her career as a business executive, Norwegian Anita Krohn Traaseth became a seasoned mentor for emerging professionals, guiding them through the complexities of navigating promotions, salary negotiations, and leadership development. Recognizing the demand for accessible and practical advice, she leveraged her expertise into various channels, including podcasts, books, and eventually clothing - encapsulating her wisdom in the form of discreet t-shirt messages worn under professional attire. As her innovative approach gained traction, Traaseth expanded her vision, designing a signature red suit intended to inspire confidence and self-assurance in the wearer. The KROHN ""slow fashion"" house was born. This engaging case study examines the foundations of KROHN's success through the lens of Blue Ocean Strategy. Professors seeking to enrich their classrooms with a captivating, real-world example of entrepreneurial innovation and strategic execution will find it to be a valuable resource for discussions on personal branding, unconventional marketing strategies, and the art of creating differentiation at low cost.
Imagine a shadowy future, hovering at the edges of the present state of things; a map of all the various ways in which the present can reinvent itself. This, say the authors, is the ever-present state known as 'the adjacent possible'. In this excerpt from their book (The Upside of Uncertainty), they explain how to tap into this expansive field of opportunity. Their six principles for achieving this include questioning assumptions, considering the worst-case scenario and purposely recombining things. They argue that the adjacent possible is always expanding, both in terms of our own personal creativity and in terms of global innovation. In the end, they show that discovering adjacent possibles requires two things: a willingness to look for them and the courage to pursue them.
Compared with start-ups, established corporations have many resources and capabilities that ought to give them a head start: customers, products, operations, licenses, distribution, marketing, and capital. But corporations lack one critical capability: the entrepreneurial muscle to take an idea from small to big, from zero to one. The authors describe a new model-the hybrid start-up-which differs from typical internal corÂporate ventures. It combines the best of people, processes, and resources from both inside and outside the company. They show how many big companies are creating their own hybrid start-ups to unlock the value of their assets and defend their markets while becoming digital leaders. They draw on lessons from more than 190 such ventures launched over the past eight years with the help of BCG Digital Ventures, including those created by companies such as UPS (Ware2Go), Mercedes-Benz (RepairSmith), Volkswagen (Heycar), First American (Endpoint), AIA (Snackbox), Airbus (UP42), and others. The data provides strong evidence both that the model works and that hybrid start-ups are two or three times as likely to succeed as independent start-ups.
Fostering psychological safety isn't enough to succeed at innovation if managers don't pay particular attention to creating conditions for healthy debate. If leaders can balance psychological safety with open, honest debate, they gain the benefits of both. The authors describe the factors most important to establishing this balance and outline what leaders can do to create a high-performance learning and innovation culture.
The case discusses different steps which Mastercard has followed in its digital transformation journey. They involve opportunity framing, creating innovation pathways, finding digital transformation opportunities, and innovation with partners within adaptive ecosystems. With the objective to stop competing with other payment processing firms (like Visa or Amex) and start competing with cash, Mastercard has moved from an undifferentiated processor of payments to a builder of unique technological platforms. The case has two parts, A and B.
People tend to think the biggest innovation challenge is finding great ideas. But many great ideas die when entrepreneurs fail to persuade others of their potential. Indeed, the more novel the idea, the harder it is to get resources for it.
Managers struggle to understand what digital transformation actually means for them in terms of which opportunities to pursue and which initiatives to prioritize. It's not surprising that many of them expect it to involve a radical disruption of the business, huge new investments in technology, a complete switch from physical to virtual channels, and the acquisition of tech start-ups. To be sure, in some cases such a paradigm shift is involved. But the authors' research and work suggest that wholesale disruption is often quite unnecessary. Some companies have successfully responded to the digital challenge by making major changes to their manufacturing processes, distribution channels, or business models, but many others have fared equally well using a more incremental approach that leaves the core value proposition and supply chain essentially unchanged.
At the BMW Group, Gregor Gimmy, a serial entrepreneur and former consultant, introduces the Venture Client (VCL) model to engage with start-ups and boost corporate innovation. The case discusses its initial success at BMW and the rationale that drove Gimmy to establish a new model of external corporate venturing (ECV). It also provides background information on the key forces shaping the auto industry today, the challenges faced by legacy automakers as technological developments accelerate, and the emergence of new rules and new players.
The case discusses different steps which Mastercard has followed in its digital transformation journey. They involve opportunity framing, creating innovation pathways, finding digital transformation opportunities, and innovation with partners within adaptive ecosystems. With the objective to stop competing with other payment processing firms (like Visa or Amex) and start competing with cash, Mastercard has moved from an undifferentiated processor of payments to a builder of unique technological platforms.
In an increasingly digital and connected environment, leaders of established companies frequently find themselves facing opportunities that they--or even their industries--cannot seize alone. Instead of relying on start-ups to create innovations and then buying in to them, organizations are taking part in a process that the authors call "ecosystem innovation," collaborating to develop and then commercialize new concepts. Cisco Hyperinnovation Living Labs (CHILL) differs from seemingly similar approaches, such as R&D alliances, because it focuses on the fast and agile commercialization of ideas without a complicated intellectual property agreement. It also differs from traditional partnership efforts, because it brings multiple partners together at a very early stage all at once. In this article the authors discuss how large companies can develop their own ecosystem innovation capabilities, using Cisco's process as an example. They describe the basic principles and the process, identify the most common traps, and explain how leaders can capture valuable opportunities. The process allows companies to bring extremely diverse ideas, skills, and resources together to solve ecosystem-level problems at an astonishing speed.