Decentralized acquirer Amitech maintains a central team of "black belts," who are experts in operational excellence. These specialists are deployed to subsidiaries to run "Kaizen events," helping them eliminate waste and improve processes. This model combines the autonomy of decentralization with the benefits of centralized expertise.

To reignite growth, Supercell created two distinct operating models. Teams managing existing hit games adopted a 'scale-up' playbook, focusing on iteration with larger teams. Teams developing new titles operated like independent 'startups,' focused on high-risk innovation with small, agile teams.

For D2C fashion brands, the inability of third-party suppliers to quickly fulfill reorders on trending products is a key trigger for vertical integration. Larroudé's co-founder realized the cost of one large factory order was equivalent to buying the machinery himself, enabling them to meet demand in weeks, not months.

Instead of starting with a blank slate, Nike's team prototypes new ideas by physically cutting and modifying existing products. This "cobbling" method enables rapid, low-cost testing of core concepts before investing in new designs and expensive molds, allowing them to fail fast and forward.

As part of their annual strategy refresh, a top CEO leads her team in a "blank sheet" exercise: designing a new company from scratch to compete with them. This proactive self-disruption forces them to identify their own weaknesses and market gaps, generating fresh ideas to incorporate into their actual business strategy.

Business model innovation is a third, often-overlooked pillar of success alongside product and go-to-market. A novel business model can unlock better unit economics, align incentives with customers, and dictate the entire product and operational strategy.

To launch new products and compete with agile startups, embed a small "incubation seller" team directly within the technology organization. This model ensures tight alignment between product, engineering, and the first revenue-generating efforts, mirroring the cross-functional approach of an early-stage company.

PepsiCo's R&D head created global "flavor banks" to catalog both successful and failed experiments from around the world. This system allowed disparate teams to build on shared institutional knowledge instead of starting from scratch. It fostered productive internal competition and dramatically increased the speed and success rate of new product development.

Public company constraints don't kill innovation; they change its nature. Instead of building solutions from scratch, PMs must prioritize reusing existing internal capabilities and tech stacks from other products within the company. This "plugin" approach maintains velocity while managing resources under public scrutiny.