Case Study
In September 2020, Pradeep Kakkattil was facing difficult questions about his team’s
strategic direction. In the two years since he had founded the Office of Innovation at
UNAIDS – the United Nations agency for coordinating global action on AIDS – the
team had grown from two people to six and had established over 100 partnerships
globally. With a dual goal to make UNAIDS more innovative and drive innovation in
healthcare worldwide, their flagship initiative, the Health Innovation Exchange
platform, had brought together innovators, investors/donors and government partners
to support innovation in healthcare. Yet Pradeep, as director, felt they had failed to
overhaul UNAIDS internal culture and processes, prompting him to to question the
existing strategy and structure of an innovation unit within such a bureaucratic
organization. UNAIDS was itself undergoing strategic changes aimed at decentralizing
operations and focusing on gender issues. How would his team fit into the restructured
organization, and if it could not, what were their options?
Faculty
Senior Affiliate Professor of Strategy
