Enterprise 2.0: How a Connected Workforce Innovates

Description

In this conversation with HBR senior editor Anand P. Raman, McAfee, a principal research scientist at the MIT Sloan School of Management's Center for Digital Business, explains why Enterprise 2.0 tools - wikis, tags, Twitter, Google searches, and the like - are transforming companies' innovation processes. Procter & Gamble, for instance, uses its Connect + Develop website not only to publicize what it knows and what it can do but to highlight what it needs. That's radical, says McAfee. And the communities that form around innovation challenges can help sift the ideas, so the best ones quickly rise to the top. Game-changing innovations are rare - always have been, always will be. But, as the stories in this HBR Spotlight demonstrate, the right organizational conditions can make a breakthrough more likely. Strong leadership helps (and innovative leaders behave differently from the rest of us). Breaking down the borders between "inside" and "outside" helps. Creating career paths for innovators makes a difference, as does using social media to pull your whole ecosystem into a creative conversation. Leaders who put all the pieces together will have a huge advantage.

Keywords

Enterprise systems Innovation Managing creativity & innovation Technology