Managing Continuous and Discontinuous Innovation: A Critical Business Skill

The Pan Am neon sign was a well-known icon of the Manhattan skyline in New York City. For many Americans, Pan American Airways was the national airline. The company started the airline in 1927, but its entrepreneurial roots go much farther back—to the importing of South American guano, bird droppings that could be sold as fertilizer. In 1991, 64 years after its founding, Pan Am declared bankruptcy, and out of the ashes rose a manufacturer of intravenous solutions for the medical sector. Today due to continuous and more frequent discontinuous changes in the environment, companies and other organizations need to update their management models to survive long term. This part of the book focuses on the general key management components of the new model, distilled from the Google case. Further, best practices in how to adopt, implement, and sustain changes of the company’s management model are presented and discussed, as well as some complimentary advice in innovation management.