Innovation in Turbulent Times

When resources are constrained, the key to growth is pairing an analytic left-brain thinker with an imaginative right-brain partner.

by

Kara Gruver,
James Allen,

and

Darrell Rigby

by

Kara Gruver,
James Allen,

and

Darrell Rigby

From the Magazine (June 2009)

Summary.

Reprint: R0906J

During a recession, when many companies face declining revenues and earnings, executives often conclude that innovation isn’t so important after all. According to the authors, that’s because it isn’t integral to the workings of most organizations, so the creativity that leads to game-changing ideas is missing or stifled. Rigby, Gruver, and Allen, all partners at Bain & Company, point to the fashion industry as a model. Every season, successful fashion companies must reinvent their product lines—and thus their brands—or face certain death. They manage this constant challenge by creating unusual partnerships at the top that consist of an imaginative, right-brain creative director and a commercially minded, left-brain brand CEO. The authors call these alliances “both-brain” teams.

Some famous examples exist outside the fashion industry: Steve Jobs and his COO at Apple, Tim Cook; the creative Bill Hewlett and the savvy David Packard; Bill Bowerman, the former track coach who developed Nike running shoes, and his business partner, Phil Knight. But fashion has gone the furthest to incorporate both-brain partnerships in its organizational model. Gucci Group and others have learned to establish and maintain effective partnerships between creative people and numbers-oriented people; to structure the business so that the partners can run it effectively and are clear about which decisions they own; and to foster left-brain–right-brain collaboration at every level in order to continue attracting talent.

What makes these partnerships work? The authors have identified seven characteristics of successful partners: They are aware of their own strengths and weaknesses, have complementary cognitive skills, trust each other, possess raw intelligence, bring relevant knowledge to the team, speak to each other frequently and directly, and are highly committed to the business and each other.

The Idea in Brief

Too few businesses have creative, right-brain types in leadership positions. That leaves innovation especially vulnerable to unwise cost cutting during hard times. Decisions about slashing versus retaining projects are made by analytic, left-brain leaders unsuited to evaluating innovation portfolios.

The fashion industry is worth emulating:

Its businesses are “both-brain,” run by pairs of powerful executives with complementary—creative and analytic—styles.

They are structured to support left-brain–right-brain partnerships; hiring at all levels seeks a mix of cognitive styles.

Innovation becomes a way of business life, not a marginal activity.

Both-brain pairs have been found elsewhere: Apple CEO Steve Jobs and COO Tim Cook; Procter & Gamble’s chief of global design, Claudia Kotchka, and CEO A.G. Lafley; high-tech engineer Bill Hewlett and business leader David Packard. Such partnerships could help innovation thrive in your business.

The Idea in Practice

Traditional, left-brain-dominant business leaders typically can’t tell the difference between good and bad innovations. Nor do they appreciate the skills needed to build and sustain a culture of creativity and constant reinvention. A leadership duo that unites right-brain creative skills and left-brain management skills offers the best way of ingraining innovation in a business, making it valued in all economic climates.

But there’s more to the formula than throwing two people together. What makes for a superlative “both-brain” team? In many ways such a partnership is “truly like a marriage,” says Gucci Group CEO Robert Polet. “It has ups and downs, and you have disagreement, [but] with a common purpose and within a common framework.”

The authors have studied a number of creative-commercial partnerships, both successful and unsuccessful, and identified seven characteristics common to success:

Awareness of strengths and weaknesses. Partners realistically assess what they do well and where they need help. They often joke openly about their own shortcomings to help others see the value of partnership.

Complementary cognitive skills. Partners seek those who balance their own working styles and decision-making approaches. They learn to draw on each other’s capabilities to the proper degree and at the right times.

Trust. Partners trust each other and are willing to put each other’s interests ahead of their own.

Raw intelligence. Partners bring insightful observations and good judgment to the team’s decisions.

Relevant knowledge. Partners bring experience that applies directly to the challenges they face.

Strong communication channels. Partners speak to each other frequently and directly. They often work in the same or adjacent spaces.

Motivation. Partners are highly committed to the success of the business and each other.

Innovation is a messy process—hard to measure and hard to manage. Most people recognize it only when it generates a surge in growth. When revenues and earnings decline during a recession, executives often conclude that their innovation efforts just aren’t worth it. Maybe innovation isn’t so important after all, they think. Maybe our teams have lost their touch. Better to focus on the tried and true than to waste money on untested ideas.

A version of this article appeared in the June 2009 issue of Harvard Business Review.

KG

Kara Gruver leads Bain’s North American consumer products practice.
JA

James Allen is a partner in Bain & Company’s London office and a member of the firm’s global strategy practice. He is a co-author of a number of bestselling books including Profit from the Core and The Founder’s Mentality: How to Overcome the Predictable Crises of Growth (Harvard Business Review Press, June 2016).
Darrell Rigby is a partner in the Boston office of Bain & Company. He heads the firm’s global agile enterprise practice. He is the author of Winning in Turbulence and a coauthor of Doing Agile Right: Transformation Without Chaos (Harvard Business Review Press, 2020).

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