You're not failing.
You're optimizing for a game
that no longer exists.
Innovation initiatives underperform. Leaders struggle with AI disruption. Growth stalls despite strong execution. Most executives treat these as separate problems. Better strategy. Smarter technology. Stronger execution.
But the real problem isn't strategy, technology, or execution. It's really about leadership and culture. The companies that lead in the future won't just adapt. They'll change how they innovate.
We are an unmatched group of innovation experts with experience globally and in every industry. Passionate and committed to innovation, leadership, and our client's success. A partner on every engagement. You'll work with us, not a junior team.
Dr. Linda
A. Hill
Co-founder and Partner
Wallace Brett Donham Professor at Harvard Business School. Co-author of Genius at Scale, Collective Genius, and Being the Boss. Ranked #4 worldwide by Thinkers50 (2025).
Greg Brandeau
Co-founder and Partner
Former CTO of Pixar and NeXT, and former SVP of Technology at Disney. Co-author of Collective Genius. Led technology for six Oscar-winning films, including Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles.
Jason Wild
Partner
Former SVP/VP of Innovation at Microsoft, Salesforce, and IBM. Co-author of Genius at Scale and Thinkers50 Innovation Award finalist (2025). Led award-winning Ignite and innovation initiatives across 40 countries.
Taran Swan
Partner
Former EVP at Nickelodeon and Viacom (later Paramount), leading international channel development and digital operations, planning, and governance. Executive passionate about creativity and growth.
Dr. Linda A. Hill
Co-founder
Wallace Brett Donham Professor at Harvard Business School. Co-author of Genius at Scale, Collective Genius, and Being the Boss. Ranked #4 worldwide by Thinkers50 (2025).
Greg Brandeau
Co-founder and Partner
Former CTO of Pixar and NeXT, and former SVP of Technology at Disney. Co-author of Collective Genius. Led technology for six Oscar-winning films, including Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles.
Jason Wild
Partner
Former SVP/VP of Innovation at Microsoft, Salesforce, and IBM. Co-author of Genius at Scale and Thinkers50 Innovation Award finalist (2025). Led award-winning Ignite and innovation initiatives across 40 countries.
Taran Swan
Partner
Former EVP at Nickelodeon and Viacom (later Paramount), leading international channel development and digital operations, planning, and governance. Executive passionate about creativity and growth.
We work at the intersection of culture and leadership. One can't be transformed without the other. Every engagement is tailored to your context, your opportunities.
A global bank subsidiary faced existential pressure: 1,000+ branches, 20,000 employees, eroding market share, digital disruption, post-crisis leadership transition.
New Bank CEO
The group responsible for the global supply chain for all of Pfizer's clinical trials, including COVID-19. The ambition: become the premier clinical supply chain in the world.
Senior Vice President
Head of Global Clinical Supply
A global bank subsidiary faced existential pressure: 1,000+ branches, 20,000 employees, eroding market share, digital disruption, post-crisis leadership transition.
New Bank CEO
We diagnosed what others missed: the leadership team knew how to drive performance but not how to build performance-driving capability. They could execute strategy but couldn't evolve the organization to keep generating new strategies and innovations that truly mattered.
The paradox they needed to navigate: Drive transformation while building the capacity to keep transforming and innovating.
We worked with 50 top executives to develop this capability.
Not in workshops. In the actual work of redesigning structure, redefining purpose, and rebuilding culture.
18 months later:
TANGIBLE AND INTANGIBLE RESULTS
· Bottom-line growth accelerated 20% in a mature, regulated industry
· Regional CEO promoted to Global CEO based on demonstrated innovation and transformation leadership
· 20,000 employees aligned around unified purpose they helped create
· Leadership pipeline rebuilt with executives who can navigate ongoing change
The insight competitors missed: The 20% growth wasn't the achievement. Building an organization that could generate that growth repeatedly was.
The group responsible for the global supply chain for all of Pfizer's clinical trials, including COVID-19. The ambition: become the premier clinical supply chain in the world.
Senior Vice President
Head of Global Clinical Supply
GCS needed to become more efficient, effective, and agile – not easy given the complexity of scaling a global clinical supply chain.
One paradox they needed to navigate: build a proactive digital supply chain while maintaining hundreds of active drug trials.
Through a multi-year partnership, Paradox diagnosed the Pfizer system with re:Route, then worked with L1 and L2 leaders to build innovation capabilities. Real culture change.
The partnership continues today – GCS runs re: Route every two years to track progress and recalibrate.
TANGIBLE RESULTS
· Created cross-functional “tetrads” with decision-making rights, increasing decision velocity
· Completed a “Data Marketplace” to track every dose end-to-end globally
· Launched a 44,000-patient COVID trial while also running nearly 400 other trials around the world”
· First vaccine to receive FDA emergency use authorization
INTANGIBLE RESULTS
· Leaders equipped to engage in constructive debate
· Created a shared, global language to accelerate collaboration
· Democratized definition of innovation (“New + Useful”) unleashed ideas from new areas
· Organization learned to say no – closing and adjusting pilots without ego
· A culture that could do in 7 weeks what usually took 7 years
What does it really take to build a culture of innovation?
Twenty five years of researching leaders of organizations who got it right. We've studied innovation, and we've done the work.
We found interesting patterns and activate them in engagements to ignite innovation.
Why do your best people and partners struggle to innovate together?
Creative Abrasion generates ideas through constructive debate. Creative Agility tests and refines them fast. Creative Resolution makes the hard calls to move forward.
Can you unleash and harness the individual talents of your team?
Leading innovation means managing tensions, not resolving them. Be patient and urgent. Improvise while structuring. These paradoxes are what separate good managers from leaders who build innovative cultures.
What makes a great leader?
How do you scale innovation?
Three roles every innovation leader plays. Architects design the systems and structures. Bridgers connect people, ideas, and resources. Catalysts ignite movements and keep momentum alive.
We've deeply studied breakthrough innovation at Pixar, Google, Mastercard, Cleveland Clinic, Pfizer, Delta, and dozens of other organizations. One pattern emerges consistently: the best leaders don't resolve paradoxes. They navigate them. While AI handles routine decisions, leaders must master increasingly complex tensions:
The organizations building this capability will be the market makers who reshape their industries. Those that don't will be shaped by them.
We've been honored to collaborate with and study some of the world's most admired organizations.
Recognized by Thinkers50 as one of the top global management thinkers, highlighting her influential contributions to leadership and innovation at scale.
Innovation is not about ideas - it's about leadership. Our book is the lead title published by Harvard Business Review Press on March 3, 2026.
But "what about our leadership capabilities and culture actively prevents the innovation we need?"
