In this episode of The Innovation Show, host Aidan McCullen is joined by Stanford’s Robert Burgelman, one of the foremost thinkers in strategy and organizational evolution.
Together, they explore the idea of strategic dissonance—when a company’s day-to-day decisions conflict with its overarching strategy. Drawing from his research at Intel, Burgelman unpacks how induced and autonomous strategyinteract in complex organizations and how leaders like Andy Grove navigated high-stakes inflection points.
We cover:
00:00 Introduction and Sponsor Message
00:42 Recap of Intel's History and Strategy
02:15 Intel's Early Innovations and Challenges
07:20 The Rise of Microprocessors
09:19 Strategic Shifts and Market Dynamics
14:36 Intel's Strategic Inflection Points
17:26 Internal and External Ecological Systems
24:55 Missed Opportunities and Strategic Inertia
30:23 Analyzing Strategy Models
37:06 Innovative Gel Product Failure
38:49 Forces in R&D and Management
39:30 Resource Allocation and Product Championing
40:50 Strategic Forcing and Market Growth
42:09 Challenges in New Business Development
44:05 Organizational Championing and Strategy
49:36 Cognitive and Political Dynamics
52:39 Navigating Corporate Innovation
01:00:28 Evolutionary Perspective on Strategy
01:01:47 Prospector, Defender, Analyzer, Reactor
01:06:28 Conclusion and Future Discussions
