Beware the siren voices of innovation

Anthony Freeling

Large marketing companies are seldom good at radical innovation, because this process is inherently unpredictable, and as likely to be as due to luck as much as to skill.

Beware the siren voices of innovation

Anthony FreelingAshridge Strategic Management Centre and a freelance consultant

It is a funny thing that people who write and think about strategy and about marketing almost never seem to read each other's books and articles. This means that the two areas of management thought have diverged much further than an outsider could have believed possible. But one topic that both parties write about extensively is innovation – perhaps because marketers think it is a marketing topic, and strategists think it is a broader strategic topic.

Whatever the reason, the facts from the strategic...

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