Idea in Brief
The Problem
As start-ups grow into larger, more bureaucratic companies, they’re more likely to favor safe, incremental, innovation over riskier, potentially groundbreaking work.
The Solution
Leaders often point to their culture as the key to driving innovation in their organizations. But structural levers can also help growing companies avoid the shift from truly innovative to incrementally so. These include the extent to which compensation reflects the outcome of projects as opposed to rank within the organization; ratio of project-skill fit (how suited employees are to the tasks they’re assigned) to return on politics (the benefits accrued by networking and politicking); management span (the number of direct reports per leader); and salary step-up (the financial benefits of rising in the hierarchy).
When I first became a CEO, at age 33, I read everything I could find about legendary business leaders and the companies they created. I was trying to discover the secret to building an innovative organization that would empower employees, deliver on our bold mission to develop a new cancer drug, and reward stakeholders. The answer, according to many, was corporate culture:
