FranklinCovey On Leadership

Howard Yu: Why Great Companies Perform and Transform

Mar 31, 2026
Howard Yu, LEGO Professor of Management at IMD and author of Leap, studies how companies scale new capabilities to stay competitive. He discusses the knowing–doing gap and why disciplined incremental capability-building beats flashy moonshots. Practical examples like BYD and Google show how performing today while building tomorrow creates lasting advantage.
Ask episode
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
INSIGHT

Knowing Doing Gap Kills Strategy

  • Companies fail more from a knowing–doing gap than lack of foresight; executives often know what's coming but lack disciplined follow-through.
  • Yu stresses daily habits and organizational discipline are what close that gap and scale new capability.
ADVICE

Polish Core And Stack New Capabilities

  • Do preserve and polish your core business while deliberately stacking new capabilities over time.
  • Yu recommends incremental, habitual investments quarter after quarter rather than chasing moonshots then retreating under pressure.
ANECDOTE

Google's Incremental AI Recovery

  • Google rebounded in generative AI by restructuring, stopping silver-bullet searches, and deploying AI across existing products.
  • Yu contrasts that with Matter's fragmented moonshots and shows successful leaps are built from many small experiments.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
Get the app