# At Booking.com, Innovation Means Constant Failure (Summer Repeat)

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/cold-call-634317/at-booking-com-innovation-means-constant-failure-summer-repeat
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/cold-call-634317/at-booking-com-innovation-means-constant-failure-summer-repeat.md
Podcast: [Cold Call](https://stenobird.com/podcast/cold-call-634317)
Published: 2025-07-08T11:05:41+00:00
Episode link: https://hbr.org/podcast/2025/07/at-booking-com-innovation-means-constant-failure-summer-repeat
Audio file: https://audio.hbr.org/cold-call/20250707141527-AtBooking.comInnovationMeansConstantFailureSummerRepeat.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/cold-call-634317/episodes/at-booking-com-innovation-means-constant-failure-summer-repeat
Duration seconds: 1601

## Resource

During a busy travel season, digital travel platform Booking.com tried a risky experiment that meant changing the site’s landing page. Then CEO Gillian Tans made the decision to lean into the company’s “test everything” culture—even if it meant failure. In this episode from 2019, HBS Professor Stefan Thomke and host Brian Kenny discuss the case Booking.com. They explore how past experience and intuition can be misleading when attempting to launch something novel. Instead, innovative firms embrace a culture where testing, experimentation, and even failure are at the heart of what they do.

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## Transcript

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