INSEAD Professor’s New Book on Leading Transformation Shows Executives how to Take Charge of Their Company’s Future

Imagine if traditional companies reinvented themselves and their futures with tools like science fiction, graphic novels, applied neuroscience, archetypes and artifact trails. These approaches may sound farfetched, but companies like Lowe’s, Pepsi, IKEA, Walmart, and Google are already using them with dramatic results. Now, LEADING TRANSFORMATION: How to Take Charge of Your Company’s Future (Harvard Business Review Press; November 6, 2018) offers the first behind-the-scenes look into how they are doing it, and how other companies can learn from their unorthodox methods.

Comfort with the familiar, fear of the unknown,  an inability to see what doesn’t yet exist—these are all human instincts that are universal to every workforce. But these instincts hold forward-looking companies back from capitalising on their future. LEADING TRANSFORMATION provides organisations with a radical method for breaking through these human behaviour barriers to innovating, adapting, and competing.

Combining their backgrounds in neuroscience, strategy and practice, the authors are INSEAD Professor Nathan Furr, an expert on making complex strategy accessible; Kyle Nel, the executive behind the dramatic transformation of Lowe’s from a conservative home improvement company to a standout retail innovator; and Thomas Zoëga Ramsøy, a trailblazer in applying neuroscience to workplace challenges.

Way back in 2012, when virtual and augmented reality seemed like the stuff of fantasy, Kyle Nel inspired executives at Lowe’s to imagine a world in the near future where such marvels could be used to help customers envision how to remodel a home. Today, less than ten years later, Lowe’s is nationally recognised for pioneering the virtual and augmented reality design experience, as well as other advances like 3D scanning and printing and the use of retail robots in its stores.

Just as the authors have done with leading companies, they will guide readers to effectively open people’s minds to envision the future, ease  fears of navigating the unknown, and unblock bottlenecks by applying unconventional approaches, including:

• Harnessing science fiction to expand beliefs about what is achievable.
• Replacing PowerPoint with comic books to illustrate transformation stories
• Inspiring leaders with archetypes—Hero, Outlaw, Explorer, Magician, and others—that clarify the strengths needed forbold missions into unfamiliar territories.
• Creating KPIs for the future, using experimental design and tools like applied neuroscience, to help identify what’s working while navigating brand new terrain.

Visionary, field-tested and packed with comics, illustrations, and behavioural science, LEADING TRANSFORMATION is a refreshingly different guide to changing any organisation’s outlook on the future.