HAL GREGERSEN

Hal Gregersen (PhD, University of California, Irvine) is the co-creator of Innovator’s Accelerator, a revolutionary new digital program that teaches teams the innovation skills they need to transform organizations. Hal is also the Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank Chaired Professor of Innovation and Leadership at INSEAD and founder of the 4.24 project, dedicated to rekindling the provocative power of asking the right questions in adults to ultimately cultivate and sharpen the curiosity of the world’s children. His trilogy of books, “The Innovator’s DNA,” “Leading Strategic Change” and “Global Explorers,” reflect a lifelong commitment to developing leaders who make a difference. He serves as a board member at Pharmascience and regularly delivers inspirational keynote speeches on innovation and change throughout the world.

Becoming a World-Class Innovator

A common misconception today is that innovators are innately creative people. Specifically, many people think that innovators are born with intuitive skills and views of the world that differsfrom the rest of the population. This is simply not true. Innovators aren’t born, they’re made. But we can learn from a few key attributes that leading innovators share.

Leading an Innovative Company

Having a reputation as an innovator is the ‘holy grail’ in business today. Leaders and companies want to be seen as innovative, and be tied to the many associations that come with it: creative, marketing leading, cutting edge. Leading business publications including Forbes, Fortune and Fast Company celebrate and publish an annual list of companies they consider innovative.But what is it to be innovative, and how do leaders foster it within their company culture?

The Secret of Innovative Companies: It Isn’t R&D

In rejecting the limiting belief that innovation is R&D’s job alone, leaders of highly innovative companies work hard to instill “innovation is everyone’s job” as a guiding organizational mission. In this article, co-creators of Innovator’s Accelerator, Jeff Dyer and Hal Gregersen share insights and examples to follow in order to ensure innovation starts at the top and reaches the bottom of your organization.