Do You Have a New Idea?

Read William Duggan’s book, Corporate Innovator, for advice on how to go about implementing your concept.

By
Eve Glasberg
August 14, 2024

Innovation is a top priority for all kinds of organizations, of all sizes and shapes, throughout the world. But innovation doesn’t happen only at the executive level. People within an organization come up with great ideas that can propel the company forward. All too often, however, would-be innovators find that the organization is unreceptive to their new ideas. They are stymied by bureaucracy, power dynamics, or countless other barriers.

Corporate Innovator: A Guide Through the Labyrinth by William Duggan, a senior lecturer at Columbia Business School, provides ways to navigate the maze from idea to implementation. There is practical advice on communicating new ideas effectively, getting buy-in from others, winning allies, and overcoming resistance or outright opposition to innovation. Duggan focuses on the strategy and tactics of building support within the organization, exploring the latest takeaways from research in psychology about how people react to new ideas.

Duggan discusses with Columbia News how his book delivers a road map for going from idea to action, as well as what books he’s currently immersed in, and the three voices he would like to hear around the table at his next dinner party.

Why did you write this book?

There has been a big push for entrepreneurship in undergraduate and graduate programs across the country and around the world. But only a very small percentage of our students strike out on their own and become entrepreneurs. They are much more likely to work for some kind of larger organization—private, non-profit, or government. From that position, they will get new ideas that they want to carry forward, and express their entrepreneurial spirit while still drawing a paycheck.

But the path is not easy, because organizations resist new ideas for myriad reasons specific to each case. I found that there is no one book dedicated to this problem—how to advance a new idea in an existing organization—so I set out to study the subject, and then write that book myself.

Corporate Innovator by Columbia University senior lecturer William Duggan

Can you provide some examples from the book of strategies for how to go about this?

First, recognize that most people won’t understand or like your idea. So you need to seek allies one by one, and develop an informal coalition of supporters before you take any steps toward seeking formal approval. Second, never argue. When people disagree with your idea, don’t tell them they’re wrong or try to out-logic them. Instead, say that you see what they mean, and here’s another way to look at it—that is, your own idea. Arguing just makes other people dig in deeper to defend their ideas.

Third, avoid meetings of more than two people. You have to communicate your idea to each person in a different way that fits that person’s understanding and mode of thinking. If you try to do that in a meeting with several people, they might start disagreeing with each other—and then your idea gets lost in the debate, or worse, overruled. 

What books have you read lately that you recommend, and why?

I read serious matter during the day, and relax with books of pure distraction—mystery novels—at night. I used to know French well, and I’m brushing up on it now, so I’m reading a series about the detective Mary Lester by the French writer Jean Failler. 

What's next on your reading list?

Number five in the series, The Scarlet Manor (Le Manoir Écarlate).

Summer plans?

See my answer to the next question.

What are you teaching in the fall semester?

Over the summer, I will continue to revise my course, Corporate Innovator. I have taught it twice so far, and it takes about five times to get the kinks worked out of a course.

Which three academics/scholars, dead or alive, would you invite to a dinner party, and why?

Simone de Beauvoir, psychologist and author Marsha Linehan, and the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh. They are the wisest people I’ve found with practical advice on how to stay sane in a cold, cruel world.