Scaling Up Business with Bill Gallagher Jason Wild — Building Category-Leading Companies Through Strategic Acquisitions
Apr 15, 2026
Jason Wild, author and innovation leader who led strategy teams at IBM, Salesforce, and Microsoft, shares his playbook for building category-leading companies through strategic acquisitions. He discusses finding the right targets. He explains integrating teams and scaling operations after a deal. He reflects on collaborative innovation, culture, and moving from invention to broad impact.
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Lone Genius Model Often Sabotages Innovation
- Lone-genius innovation fails often because leaders double down on their ideas and suppress broader team input.
- Jason Wild saw teams shut down when a single leader's imperfect vision ruled, prompting a shift to collaborative innovation.
Listening Beats Prescribing In Big Bets
- Listening and co-creating with clients beats pitching a pre-baked list of solutions.
- The mayor of Rio chose IBM because Jason's team asked about his aspirations instead of prescribing ten actions to sign.
Avoid Command And Control Under Pressure
- Avoid defaulting to command-and-control when under pressure; encourage experimentation instead.
- Jason warns micromanagement kills organizational thinking and turns innovation into 'not my job'.
