Productive Tensions

Series Foreword ix
Introduction xi
I Charting a Course
1 The Opportunity Paradox: How Can Organizations Capture New Opportunities Most Effectively? 3
2 Parallel Play: Why the Usual Rules of Competition and Strategy Don't Apply in Emerging Industries and Product Categories 19
II Navigating the Path
3 Defer to or Ignore the Data? How Setting Aside Data (Selectively) Can Enable Pathbreaking Innovations 33
4 Crowd Sequencing: How to Accelerate Innovation and Address Uncertainty 45
5 Rational Heuristics: The "Simple Rules" That Leaders Use to Simplify Complexity 57
III Engaging with Stakeholders
6 Framing Innovations Effectively: Making the New Familiar, Then Novel 73
7 Product versus Purpose: A Productive Tension on the Path to Building Brand Advantage 83
8 When It's Time to Pivot, What's Your Story? How to Sell Stakeholders on a New Strategy 99
Conclusion: From Impossible Trade-Offs to Productive Tensions 111
On Theory and Methodology 127
Notes 129
Index 149

Christopher B. Bingham is Philip Hettleman Distinguished Scholar and Professor and Area Chair of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. Rory M. McDonald is Thai-Hi T. Lee Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.