Chris is an expert on making innovation happen in large organizations.
He is a frequent speaker on the topic. He has delivered keynote addresses at major conferences and has also worked with dozens of private clients — including GE, IBM, Microsoft, Thomson Reuters, Fidelity, and the New York Times Company — in roundtable discussions and executive education programs.
Beyond the Idea: How to Execute Innovation in Any Organization by Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble St. Martin's Press, 2013
Companies stumble when they imagine that innovation is mostly about ideas. The reality is that ideas are only beginnings. Indeed, even a company with the world’s best idea still faces a devilish challenge: it must build the business of tomorrow without endangering the business of today.
Beyond the Idea distills more than a decade of research and insight into a practical, accessible, read-at-one-sitting handbook that offers invaluable guidance for anyone charged with making innovation happen: executives, managers, consultants, project leaders, and teams.
By offering specific action steps, Beyond the Idea extends the elegant conceptual insights from How Stella Saved the Farm, by showing exactly how to:
Build a team with a very particular structure, one that makes it possible to simultaneously build something new and sustain what exists.
Manage any innovation initiative as a disciplined experiment.
Implement three distinct models for moving from ideas to action.
Beyond the Idea is an essential book for any business that recognizes that innovation always has been, and always will be, the key to long term growth and vitality.
The Leading Innovation Workshop
This extremely practical one or two day workshop will build the capacity within your organization to convert ideas into impact. It is suitable for senior executives, policymakers, general managers, innovation leaders, innovation teams, and any employee who is expected to take part in companywide innovation programs.
Stop the Innovation Wars
By Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble Harvard Business Review, July-August 2010
An innovation initiative is best organized as a partnership between a dedicated team and the group that handles ongoing operations, the performance engine. Although conflicts between partners are inevitable, they can be managed.
The McKinsey Award recognizes the year's best articles in the Harvard Business Review. This article was awarded second place in 2010.
