Global by Design: How to Create Innovations That Scale, Travel, and Transform
Amos Winter and Vijay Govindarajan
Harvard Business Review Press (August 2026)

Here is what you need to create innovative solutions that are global by design

To what does the title of this book refer? According to Amos Winter and Vijay Govindarajan, they chose it because it explains the importance of two unique and compelling principles: “First, we are living through an era innovators must turn their sights globally, both to address the most wicked problems facing countries, and to capture the wicked economic opportunities presented by emerging markets. Thoughtful, innovative solutions…can truly be global in nature, providing the value necessary for large-scale impact in poor countries and disrupting equivalent products in wealthy markets by offering high performance at low cost. Second, these solutions can be realized ‘by design’ through following a diligent, targeted design process.”

I cannot recall a prior time when the business world was more volatile, more uncertain, more complex, and more ambiguous than it is today. Winter and Govindarajan provide in Global by Design an abundance of information, insights, and counsel that will prepare leaders in almost any organization — whatever its size and nature may be — to respond effectively to any/all challenges by creating innovations that scale, travel, and transform your organization to take full advantage of attractive economic opportunities that exist in emerging markets.

Just about everything you need to know about the “by design” organizational transformation process is provided in this brilliant book. The material that Winter and Govindarajan provide can help you and your colleagues to achieve strategic objectives that include these, each prefaced by a “HOW to”:

o Visualize the right path to creating innovations that will scale, travel, and transform your organization
o Elucidate the requirements (e.g., identifying appropriate global-by-design opportunities)
o Design and then apply the right solution to each problem
o Scale locally and globally
o Identify and evaluate appropriate opportunities for reverse innovation

Obviously, no brief commentary such as mine can do full justice to the potential value of the material in Global by Design. In fact, the nature and the extent of that value will ultimately be determined by how well you and your colleagues absorb and digest the material, then apply it.

Long ago, Thomas Edison observed that “vision without execution is hallucination.” With all due respect to a compelling vision, a creative innovation must be driven by value creation, or it will never become a reality unless and until it disrupts the economic equilibrium enough to drive adoption. I wholly agree with Amos Winter and Vijay Govindarajan: [page 245] “The business leader who commercializes the technology must devise a viable distribution model but will, likely, have limited influence on crafting the policies that facilitate large-scale adoption. Thus, there is a symbiotic relationship of talents, insights, and resources that must come together to address the most compelling challenges of our time.

“Leverage your strengths, recognize your weaknesses, and continually broaden your perspective as an innovator. You have the power to realize solutions that are global by design.”

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Here are two suggestions while you are reading Global by Design: First, highlight key passages. Also,  perhaps in a lined notebook kept near-at-hand,  record your comments, questions, and action steps (preferably with deadlines). Pay special attention to the superb Introduction as well as to the “Wrap-Up”/”Takeaways” material that concludes each chapter.

These two simple tactics — highlighting and documenting — will expedite frequent reviews of key material later.