TEI 046: Building a Global Innovation Capability at a Large Enterprise

Global Product Management Talk is pleased to bring you episode 046
of... The Everyday Innovator with host Chad McAllister, PhD.
The podcast is all about helping people involved in innovation and
managing products become more successful, grow their careers, and
STANDOUT from their peers. About Our Guest: When it comes to
innovation, there are significant distinctions between startups and
large enterprises. Startups have the advantage of agility and
ability to rapidly change directions because they are not
encumbered with legacy systems and organizational constraints.
Large enterprises have access to greater resources and an
established brand but also have erected barriers to innovation over
time and inertia to change has set in. Such enterprises often reach
a point where they realize that their existing culture, processes,
and structure have limited their innovation to the point of harming
the organization. I frequently have conversations with leaders of
companies about these very issues. What should large companies do
that wish to be more innovative? A place to start is benchmarking
the actions Caterpillar is taking to overcome innovation
barriers they created over many years and turn the
organization into an innovation machine. To explore their actions,
I had the sincere pleasure of talking with Ken Gray, Caterpillar’s
global Director of Innovation. Ken has worn many hats at
Caterpillar, including mechanical engineer, product manager, global
product manager, and leader. He is well suited for the Innovation
role. We discussed many aspects of creating an innovation group in
a large established company, including the three innovation
categories that structure their work.