Genius at Scale with Linda A. Hill
From Thinkers & Ideas by BCG Henderson Institute
April 28, 2026 · 35 min
About this episode
Linda A. Hill discusses how great leaders drive innovation and the importance of scaling ideas across organizations.
In Genius at Scale: How Great Leaders Drive Innovation , Linda A. Hill argues that innovation fails not because companies lack ideas, but because they struggle to scale those ideas across the enterprise—and that the solution lies not in structure or processes, but in leadership. Hill is the Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, faculty chair of the Leadership Initiative, and one of the top ten management thinkers in the world as ranked by Thinkers50. In her new book, co-authored with Emily Tedards and Jason Wild, she draws on deep case studies of organizations from Mastercard to Pfizer to Pixar to show that scaling innovation requires three distinct but complementary leadership roles: architects, bridgers, and catalysts. In her conversation with Adam Job, senior director at the BCG Henderson Institute, she discusses why innovation labs alone don’t work, the ABCs of innovation leadership, how to build a culture of creative abrasion, and why even senior leaders need coaching to get innovation right. Key topics discussed: 01:28 | Why innovation fails at the point of scaling, not ideation 03:59 | The ABCs of innovation leadership…
People in this episode
Host: Adam Job
Guest: Linda A. Hill
Topics covered
- innovation leadership
- scaling ideas
- leadership roles
- creative abrasion
- innovation metrics
Keywords
- innovation
- leadership
- scaling
- architects
- bridgers
- catalysts
- creative culture
- business administration
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Harvard Business School, BCG Henderson Institute, Mastercard, Pfizer, Pixar
Books & works: Genius at Scale: How Great Leaders Drive Innovation
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