New, radical, disruptive ideas are the foundation of innovation—at least that’s the common assumption. But what if that’s wrong? If it’s not the new ideas, what distinguishes those individuals and companies that change the world from those that don’t? Looking at the most radical and disruptive idea in modern medicine—the advent of penicillin—Hargadon offers another perspective on what makes innovation work, and what we can do about it.

Dr. Andrew Hargadon is at the forefront of teaching, research, and practice in cross-disciplinary entrepreneurship. He is the founding director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and the Energy Efficiency Center at the University of California. In 2009, he received the Olympus Emerging Educational Leader Award in recognition for his strong entrepreneurship curriculum and success with the two centers.

Dr. Hargadon is the Charles J. Soderquist Chair in Entrepreneurship and Professor of Technology Management at the Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Davis and a Senior Fellow at the Kauffman Foundation. He received his doctoral degree from the Management Science and Engineering Department in Stanford University’s School of Engineering, where he was named Boeing Fellow and Sloan Foundation Future Professor of Manufacturing. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Stanford University’s Product Design Program in the Mechanical Engineering Department. Prior to his academic appointment, he worked as a product designer at Apple Computer and taught in the Product Design program at Stanford University.

Dr. Hargadon is the author of How Breakthroughs Happen: The Surprising Truth About How Companies Innovate and his research focuses on the effective management of innovation and entrepreneurship, particularly in the development and commercialization of sustainable technologies.