Rotman Management

Q&A

You have noted a radical shift in the way value is being created today. Please describe it.

It used to be enough for an organization to focus on getting better at what it does. Today, that isn’t enough; you need to get better at what you do and explore ways to reinvent yourself at the same time. It’s the classic balance between exploitation and exploration. It’s not that one is better than the other; every organization needs both cultures under their roof. The challenge is that the logic of experimentation is completely different. You might invest in 10 projects and only one will actually work out.

As a result, you believe innovation needs to be measured in a whole new way. What needs to happen?

It’s very simple. In the world where you’re managing your existing business, you can continue to measure return on investment (ROI). You can still make projections and expect to achieve them within a certain time frame, at least in part. But when it comes to exploration, you can’t

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