“How to Let 999 Flowers Die”

When it comes to innovation, most executives place a high value on variation.  They set up formalized systems that encourage employees to generate ideas and submit them to their superiors.  Even firms without a formal mechanism frequently empower their people to experiment without fear of punishment for failure. 

This approach is based on the knowledge that innovation is often a bottom-up process:  Managers should cultivate many promising seeds to let a thousand flowers bloom.

As London Business School associate professor Freek .....