Even the most innovative businesses should understand their limitations, according to Joel Mokyr. Their strengths lie not so much in dreaming up new ideas but making use of them.

One of the world’s leading economic historians and a professor at Northwestern University in Chicago, Prof Mokyr argues that those companies that want to gain the most from new concepts should not necessarily seek to hire the most original thinkers, but instead tweak their management structures so they are as receptive as possible to outsiders with something new to say.