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Innovation Anthology

2008 anthology

Cultivating innovation

Feature articles

Leadership and innovation
Joanna Barsh, Marla M. Capozzi, and Jonathan Davidson

Succeeding at opensource innovation: An interview with Mozilla’s Mitchell Baker
Lenny T. Mendonca and Robert Sutton

10 Innovation has become a primary force driving the growth, performance, and valuation of companies. Our research reveals a wide gap between the aspirations of executives to innovate and their ability to execute. Many companies make the mistake of trying to spur innovation by turning to unreliable best practices and to organizational structures and processes. Our research shows that executives who focus on stimulating and supporting innovation by their employees can promote and sustain it with the current talent and resources—and more effectively than they could by using other incentives. Three approaches can help executives mount innovation efforts. First, senior management should actively support behavior that promotes innovation. Second, network analysis can identify where the capacity for innovation already exists within an organization and help it build more innovative networks. Finally, executives should seed innovative thinking by focusing on selected managers and projects. The McKinsey Quarterly, 2008 Number 1

22 Few organizations have as much experience harnessing the talents of people outside their corporate walls as does Mozilla Corporation, the developer of the open-source Firefox Web browser. The company depends on volunteers for productdevelopment decisions, software coding, distribution, and promotion. Mitchell Baker has helped lead the project to develop the browser since its origins, in the late 1990s. In this interview, she talks about the balance between maintaining control and letting motivated people run with their passions. As the Firefox browser has gained market share, it has become a prominent example of a successful open-source project. Baker says that a traditional...