The Innovation Strategy Most Companies Miss
About this episode
The episode discusses how designing products for the toughest constraints can lead to better global innovations.
Companies often build products for wealthy markets first and then try to adapt them for the rest of the world. But according to Dartmouth Tuck professor Vijay Govindarajan and MIT professor Amos Winter, designing for the toughest constraints first—whether that's affordability, portability, or limited infrastructure—can lead to products that perform better everywhere. They explain how leaders can identify high-impact opportunities, uncover customer needs through deep field research, and design solutions that balance performance with cost. They also discuss why organizational mindset—not technology—is often the biggest obstacle to global innovation, and where AI can (and can't) accelerate the design process. Together they wrote the book Global by Design: How to Create Innovations That Scale, Travel, and Transform.
People in this episode
Guests: Vijay Govindarajan, Amos Winter
Topics covered
- innovation strategy
- global markets
- product design
- customer needs
- organizational mindset
- AI in design
Keywords
- innovation
- product design
- global markets
- affordability
- organizational mindset
- AI
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Dartmouth Tuck, MIT
Books & works: Global by Design: How to Create Innovations That Scale, Travel, and Transform
More episodes of HBR IdeaCast
- A Leading Restaurateur on What It Takes to Scale a Winning Culture
- Are Great Leaders Truly Great—or Just Lucky?
- How People Without Formal Power Gain Influence
- Living and Working in the Age of Longevity
- Why Great Turnarounds Start with Culture, Not Strategy
- Introducing The Founder Mindset: Tim Ferriss on Experiments, Risk, and Freedom
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the HBR IdeaCast podcast page.