Prof. Bill Fischer
What first drew you to the field of innovation management, and how has your understanding of innovation evolved over time?
I was attracted to innovation in my doctoral dissertation work because, as an engineer, innovation spoke to me of technical issues within a managerial framework. I have never regretted that choice!
You’ve worked across cultures — from China to Europe to the U.S. How have different cultural contexts shaped your views on innovation?
It certainly has reaffirmed my belief that seeing the world through other people’s eyes changes everything. This is the power of diversity.
As far as innovation goes, while the processes may appear to be the same, the applications are different. My work with Haier has opened up a multitude of organizational and managerial innovations that I had not seen at such scale before.
Your keynote during the upcoming IEDC Global Alumni Forum 2025 challenges the idea that innovation is synonymous with technology. Could you elaborate on what “innovation without technology” looks like in practice?
In this keynote, I am going to talk about how business model innovation is changing our world, in industry after industry. Amazon, Airbnb, the Olympics, Zoom, IMD, and even IEDC, are all variations of business model innovation. Is Technology involved? Yes, sure, but it is not the biggest headline.
I believe that the next frontier of innovation will be “organizational innovation,” also enabled by technology, but, again, that’s not the big story. The big story is autonomy, smaller rather than bigger units, more democracy in idea-work. These are things that any organization can pursue, without having to hire expensive scientists or running big R&D groups.
Can you share examples where innovation in business models or organizational culture has had more impact than technological breakthroughs?
I think that we are intoxicated with new devices, and we overlook that so much of innovation is about the “social side.” Apple’s original culture under Steve Jobs; Toyota’s success in breaking into the global autoindustry; Sony’s extraordinary success, and failure, and renaissance, are all culture issues; as are Boeing’s past success and present dilemmas.
What do you see as the most underestimated non-technological innovations happening today?
I think that EdTech and the integration of health-care services would rank among the most underestimated non-tech innovation efforts today. The “jobs to be filled” in these sectors are many, and the efforts meager in comparison. The potential payoff, however, is enormous.
You describe innovation as a ‘leadership lifestyle’. What does that mean, and how can leaders actively embody this mindset?
For the past one hundred years, what we knew about leadership was applied to innovation, and it worked reasonably well. This period was characterized by leadership relying upon past experience to make similar choices for the future. Today is different. We are no longer in a situation where forecasting, optimization and satisficing make sense. Increasingly, we are facing the unknown, rather than the uncertain. Innovation is better at dealing with the unknown than traditional leadership knowledge has been. Experimentation, partnering, boldness, speed, and teams are all part of how innovation works. Leadership can learn a lot by paying attention to innovation’s experiences.
In your experience, what are the biggest barriers preventing leaders from embracing innovation as part of their daily behavior rather than a one-off initiative? Organizational complexity is the biggest barrier to innovation, especially in large, successful, market-leading organizations. It inevitably results in organization sclerosis that ultimately robs the organization of vitality, curiosity and responsiveness.
How can organizations foster a culture where innovation is everyone’s responsibility—not just the R&D team’s?
I think recognizing, appreciating, rewarding and celebrating all forms of innovation, technical or not, is the first step in making an organization full of innovators. Putting business model innovation on the same level of visibility as technical innovation will help educate the work-force that everyone, no matter what their role, can be an innovator.
You stress that innovation isn’t just for specialists. How can companies empower employees at all levels to think and act innovatively?
In my mind, small, autonomous, work units not only empower employees to be innovative, but demand it as well. If innovation starts at such modest levels, it is hard to not be aware of it, and engaged in it, especially for those at the microenterprise level.
What advice do you give to mid-career professionals or alumni in more traditional roles who want to become change agents within their organizations?
Just do it! But, do it smart. Being a change agent is a learnable skill. I always begin with the notion that innovation is all about better conversations, and then begin to help create those conversational occurrences. Also, being a catalyst for serendipitous introductions. Remember, conversations move ideas, and managerial choices shape the chances for those conversations to be more novel, value-adding and effective.
One way to make a big difference is to get customers and/or users involved in these internal conversations as early as possible.
Given the current pace of global change — from economic shifts to sustainability challenges — where do you see the biggest opportunities for innovation without technology in the next 5–10 years?
Early involvement in ecosystem innovation in order to offer more sophisticated customer experiences, earlier, and thus provide a better chance of disrupting incumbent market leaders, who will still be offering traditional value-propositions.
Do you think business education is keeping up with this broader definition of innovation? What changes would you like to see in how future leaders are taught?
No, not at all. I would like to see the addition of more experimental and experiential project thinking to complement the core basic courses.
If you could go back and give your younger self one piece of advice about innovation or leadership, what would it be?
Seize the moment, be experimental, dream big, retreat fast; and, most of all, engage with the customer, client or user early and often, let them be co-creators.
What’s a book, thinker, or experience outside of the business world that’s influenced your views on innovation?
At the risk of appearing immodest, writing “Virtuoso Teams,” with Andy Boynton, was a revelation for me. The leadership stories of Miles Davis, Sid Caesar, Roald Amundsen, Leonard Bernstein, etc., really reinforced everything that I had believed about innovative leadership, but showed me how it should be done in practice. Writing that book changed my life.
What’s one non-technological innovation — past or present — that you personally admire or find particularly inspiring?
Edward R. Murrow invented modern broadcast journalism, and that story is such a powerful illustration of how it can be done. I’ve written two article for Forbes about Murrow’s Boys, and their innovations that address the lessons from their work: We Need Good Teamwork, Not Good Luck and Revolution In News Broadcasting: Invention And Leadership.