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The starting point for the UK-based innovation company, ?What If!, was the belief that corporations unintentionally stifle innovation.
The starting point for the UK-based innovation company, ?What If!, was the belief that corporations unintentionally stifle innovation. It has blossomed into the largest independent innovation company in the world. Julian Birkinshaw and Des Dearlove examine the reality behind the big question.
This article is provided by the Deloitte Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
In 2002, Canadian-born Shelli Baltman joined the company from the consulting firm McKinsey and Company and, in January 2007, became managing director of the company’s UK business.
“I am a bit of an oddball here,” she explains. “I have an MBA, and I was a strategy consultant with McKinsey in London; I did some IT strategy work as well. My CV was absolutely not what we normally hire. So, when they recruited me, my former boss said it was like hiring David Beckham for your cricket team. It’s true, I didn’t have any of the traditional skill sets that they had. I had to learn all about innovation and branding and consumer insight and all of that stuff.”
Baltman was also converted to the new company’s style of managing. What does that mean? ?What If! is all about:
From the start, Kingdon and Allan recognized the need to change management behaviours to help free imagination and encourage innovation in companies.
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