Outthinkers (Outthinker)
Explore every episode of Outthinkers
| Pub. Date | Title | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Jun 2022 | #52—James Stavridis: Nine Lessons in Making High-Risk Decisions Under Pressure | 00:19:43 | |
Admiral James Stavridis, USN (Ret.) spent more than thirty years in the U.S. Navy, rising to the rank of four-star admiral. He was Supreme Allied Commander at NATO and previously commanded U.S. Southern Command, overseeing military operations through Latin America. At sea, he commanded a Navy destroyer, a destroyer squadron, and an aircraft carrier battle group in combat. He holds a Ph. D. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, where he recently served five years as dean. He received fifty medals in the course of his military career, including twenty-eight from foreign nations. James is the author of To Risk It All: Nine Conflicts and the Crucible of Decision, which he shares insights from here. He has published nine other books, including 2034: A Novel of the Next World War, with Elliott Ackerman. He is chief international analyst for NBC News and a contributing editor for Time magazine. He is currently the Vice Chair, Global Affairs of the Carlyle Group and the Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Rockefeller Foundation In this podcast, he shares:
__________________________________________________________________________________________ "You have to be willing to bet on yourself in the hardest situations and be determined even when things appear to be going against you." -Admiral James Stavridis __________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing James + The topic of today’s episode 2:22—If you really know me you know that... 3:18—What is your definition of strategy? 3:40—What do people get wrong with strategy? 4:30—Can you outline the topics in your book, To Risk it All? 7:31—Could you tell us about the nine core principles and lessons from your stories? 11:00—Could you talk about how your ideas aren't about having a structured set of contingency plans, but more a cultural shift in mindset to be prepared—could you talk about that? 12:50—How do you keep a clear eye on the right target, the "north star" so to speak? 14:48—What's something you've changed your mind about? 17:17—Could you tell us about your novel, 2034: A Novel of the Next World War? 18:38—What put you on the path of entrepreneurship that led you to Village Global, your venture capital firm? 18:43—Where can people follow you and your work? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Personal Page: https://admiralstav.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/stavridisj Books: https://admir Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 03 Jun 2022 | #50—Salim Ismail: Why Exponential Organizations Outperform Others | 00:21:21 | |
Salim Ismail is the lead author of the bestselling business book, Exponential Organizations. A renowned technology strategist and serial entrepreneur with ties to Yahoo!, Google, and Singularity University, he consults with governments and the world’s top Fortune 500 companies on innovation and growth. His work has been featured in premier media outlets like the New York Times, Bloomberg Business Week, Fortune, Forbes, WIRED, Vogue, and the BBC. Salim founded ExOWorks in 2016 to help transform global business by catapulting organizations into the world of exponential thinking. He travels extensively sharing a global perspective on the impact of breakthrough technologies and how organizations can leverage these disruptions to grow 10 times faster than their peers. He is co-founder and Chairman of OpenExO and an active Board Member of the XPRIZE Foundation. In this podcast, he shares:
__________________________________________________________________________________________ "We've never seen this much innovation hit us at the same time globally, ever. That means, every piece that you thought about the world before is gone." -Salim Ismail __________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing Salim + The topic of today’s episode 1:51—If you really know me you know that... 2:10—What is your definition of strategy? 2:58—Could you tell us about your journey with ExO, and what it is? 5:54—Could you explain exponential technology to us? 8:45—How can you function as an ExO organization (the ExO business model) 10:45—Could you give us a breakdown of the tool set you use to transform a business into an exponential one? 12:01—How can you overcome the existing business organization functions to get ideas from being just ideas to reality? 14:26—How do you disrupt your organization's own immune system? 16:55—How are companies branding themselves differently in light of this new wave of businesses? 18:05—What is your opinion on all the newer technologies that have surfaced in the last few year (blockchain, crypto, etc.)? 20:27—Where can people follow you and your work __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Personal Page: https://salimismail.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/salimismail ExOworks Site: https://www.exo.works/salim-ismail LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/salimismail Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 24 Jun 2022 | #53—Emmanuel Probst: Branding Hacks to Stay Competitive | 00:26:11 | |
Emmanuel Probst is Global Lead, Brand Thought-Leadership at Ipsos, adjunct professor at the University of California at Los Angeles, and the author of Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestseller Brand Hacks: How to Build Brands by Fulfilling the Human Quest for Meaning Emmanuel’s background combines over 16 years of market research and marketing experience with strong academic achievements. At Ipsos, Emmanuel supports numerous Fortune 500 companies by providing them with a full understanding of their customer’s journey. His clients span across a wide range of industries, including consumer packaged goods, retail, financial services, advertising agencies and media outlets. Emmanuel also teaches Consumer Market Research at UCLA and writes about consumer psychology for numerous publications. He holds an MBA in Marketing from the University of Hull, United Kingdom and a Doctorate in Consumer Psychology from the University of Nottingham Trent, United Kingdom. In this podcast, he shares:
__________________________________________________________________________________________ "What people care about is find something that is fulfilling and something that contributes to building their personality and who they and their family and their world. And brands can help with this. What feels really important to me is the hero is the audience whom becomes the consumer. The hero is not the brand." -Emmanuel Probst __________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing Emmanuel + The topic of today’s episode 2:35—What is your definition of strategy? 2:57—You write a lot about meaning, can you define what you mean by meaning? 5:20—Is brand purpose different than meaning? 8:38—While the principles we've talked can work on the B2B side, they are more consumer-focused. How do you make them work to your advantage in B2B? 10:39—A brand often has a customer brand and an employer brand—do you think establishing an "ecosystem" brand to appeal to potential partners? 13:11—How do you approach segmenting the different needs various partners may have? 17:09—Is developing a brand for an ecosystem different than developing a brand for a product or company? 21:20—We're shifting towards attracting partners that can help complement the overall customer experience, not just product. What are your thoughts on that? 23:45—Do you have any last thoughts you'd like to share? 24:34—Where can people follow you and your work? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmanuelprobst Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 08 Apr 2021 | #2—Rita McGrath: Strategic Planning Amidst Uncertainty | 00:22:35 | |
In this episode of The Outthinker Podcast, Kaihan welcomes Rita McGrath, a best-selling author, a sought-after speaker, and a longtime professor at Columbia Business School. She is widely recognized as a premier expert on leading innovation and growth during times of uncertainty. She received the number one Achievement Award for Strategy from the prestigious thinker's 50 and has been consistently named one of the world's top 10 management thinkers in its biannual ranking. As a consultant to CEOs, her work has had a lasting impact on the strategy and growth programs of Fortune 500 companies worldwide. She is the author of numerous books, including The End of Competitive Advantage, Discovery Driven Growth, and her latest book, Seeing Around Corners: How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen. In this episode, Rita talks about her discovery-driven planning approach, which has transformed the traditional strategic planning approaches companies used to design strategies and gave birth to the now popular agile and lean startup approaches. She's going to give us some practical tips to get smarter at predicting and preparing for the inflection points that will inevitably disrupt your industry. __________________________________________________________________________________________ “I realized that I was falling victim to something I warn people about. Just because that's the future you prefer, does not mean that's the only future you should be preparing for.” -Rita McGrath __________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:24 – Introducing Rita McGrath + The topic of today’s episode 02:22 – If you really know Rita, you know that… 02:42 – Rita’s definition of strategy 04:08 – What initially got you interested in strategy? 06:22 – Explaining levels of experimentation, trial, and learning as part of a strategy 07:46 – Explaining the discovery-driven planning 10:08 – Where would a strategist start? 12:50 – Does the balance of portfolio change with greater or lower degrees of uncertainty? 14:02 – Explaining the Use of the Term Arena instead of Industry 16:06 – Talking about Her Book, Seeing Around Corners and Strategic Inflection Points 19:12 – What is something that you've changed your mind about? 20:05 – Opportunity of a New Social Contract, Applying Models and Seeing Your Corners __________________________________________________________________________________________ Resources Mentioned:
Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 24 Mar 2023 | #82—Nina Mažar: Employing Behavioral Science in Your Company's Strategy | 00:20:46 | |
Nina Mažar is Professor of Marketing at Questrom School of Business at Boston University and author of the book Behavioral Science in the Wild (with Dilip Soman). Nina was the 2019 president of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making and has been named one of "The 40 Most Outstanding B-School Profs Under 40 In The World” (2014). With her focus on behavioral science she examines ways to help individuals and organizations make better decisions and increase societal welfare. Popular accounts of her work have appeared among others on NPR, BBC, Wired, and various NYTimes Bestsellers. Nina is the co-founder of BEworks and former inaugural Senior Behavioral Scientist of the World Bank’s behavioral insights team (eMBeD) in Washington, DC. She has served as advisor on boards of various government (e.g, Austria and Canada) and organizations (e.g., Irrational Labs in San Francisco, CA). She holds a Dr. rer. pol. in Marketing from the University of Mainz in Germany. In this podcast, she shares:
_________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Highlight from today's episode 00:59—Introducing Nina + The topic of today’s episode 2:21—If you really know me, you know that... 4:33—What is your definition of strategy? 5:46—What is an insight you can share when it comes to honesty? 8:29—Could you tell us about your work with the Ontario government on projects affecting human behavior? 11:03—Can you share an experience where the attempt to influence human behavior backfired? 12:42—How do you approach designing a behavioral science experiment as a company? 16:14—What do organizations get wrong when they are looking to scale behavioral science and shape behavior? 20:00—How can people follow you and keep learning from you? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Personal Page: https://ninamazar.com/ Thinkers50 Profile: https://thinkers50.com/biographies/nina-mazar/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ninamazar/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ninamazar Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 21 May 2021 | #8—Michael Raynor: Disruptive Innovation & the Urgency of Climate Change Intervention | 00:21:14 | |
Disruptive innovation is a term heard around every corner these days. But our default way of thinking about it may have holes in it. In this episode, Michael Raynor discusses a new way of looking at it, in addition to other timely topics. Michael is a Managing Director with Deloitte LLP where he is part of the team working on developing and implementing Deloitte’s two-track response to the global climate crisis. The first track focuses on reducing and eventually eliminating the firm’s carbon emissions, while the second track comprises a portfolio of efforts designed to mobilize larger ecosystems of organizations—commercial enterprises, NGOs, governments, etc.—to generate an impact on the scale of the problem. His book "The Strategy Paradox" (2007) was named by Strategy + Business as one of its top five picks in strategy, and BusinessWeek named it one of that year’s 10 Best Business Books. Michael co-authored The Innovator’s Solution with the late Clayton Christensen and collaborated extensively with Christensen over the years. Another of his books, The Innovator's Manifesto, released in 2011, became a Canadian bestseller, which prompted the Financial Times to call Raynor, "one of the most articulate and interesting of…strategists.” In addition to discussing the discussing what people assume wrongly about disruptive innovation, Michael also leads us through understanding his concept of the "Strategy Paradox," and to understand the urgency of climate change and what our role is within this near future. __________________________________________________________________________________________ I'm of a mind that although there's obviously an appropriately increasing awareness and concern about the climate crisis, I continue to believe that for the most part, we have really not come to terms with the urgency and severity of the problem face." "So you're disruptive as a consequence of your impact on an industry rather than you are disruptive as a consequence of the way in which you have attempted to have an impact. And that's a critically important distinction because what it means is that disruptive innovations are not necessarily successful." -Michael Raynor __________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing Michael Raynor + The main idea of today’s episode 2:00—If you really knew me, you know that... 2:38—What is your definition of strategy? 3:31—Explaining the concept of tradeoffs 6:15—What got you interested in strategy? 9:07—What are you most known for? 9:50—What are the most important things strategists should know about your work? 12:50—How should the climate question be incorporated into strategy? 16:28—Are we past the point of remedying the global climate change crisis? 17:43—What can a company do to start engaging productively in whatever ecosystem they're in to this common cause? 20:00—Concluding remarks __________________________________________________________________________________________ Resources Mentioned: The InnovaThank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 18 Mar 2022 | #42—Verne Harnish: Proven Insights into Mastering Strategy | 00:20:20 | |
Verne Harnish is founder of the world-renowned Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO), with over 16,000 members worldwide, and chaired for fifteen years EO’s premiere CEO program held at MIT, a program in which he still teaches today. Founder and CEO of Scaling Up, a global executive education and coaching company with over 200 partners on six continents, Verne has spent the past four decades helping companies scale up. He’s the author of the bestseller Mastering the Rockefeller Habits, authored The Greatest Business Decisions of All Times for which Jim Collins wrote the foreword; and wrote Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0) which has been translated into 22 languages and has won eight major international book awards including the prestigious International Book Award for Best General Business book. His latest book, Scaling Up Compensation, rocketed to the #1 HR book on Amazon. Verne also chairs the annual ScaleUp Summits and serves on several boards including vice chair of The Riordan Clinic; co-founder and chair of Geoversity; and board member of the social venture Million Dollar Women, and is a private investor in many scaleups. In this podcast, he shares:
__________________________________________________________________________________________ "We have the framework: right people doing the right things right. So, it’s figuring out the right things for people to do, and that those right things are different than what everyone else in your industry is doing. That is the essence of strategy: doing it different. " -Verne Harnish __________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing Verne + The topic of today’s episode 2:23—What is your definition of strategy? 4:02—What do you say to CEOs about going after a big market share vs. a niche market? 5:23—How can a company figure out what their niche is? 7:23—Examples of companies that have dominated their niche 8:22—How to "blackmail" a market 11:00—How have you seen the field of strategy evolve in the last few decades? 12:03—The importance of organizing a council 13:48—Why all great thinkers have a physical space for creative thinking 15:55—What is an important framework you'd highly recommend? 19:04—How can people connect with you? 16:55—How can people connect with you? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Company Page: https://scalingup.com/verne-harnish/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/agilescaleup LinkedIn: https Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 13 May 2022 | #47—Pete Newell: Lessons in Accelerating Innovation | 00:20:50 | |
Pete Newell is a nationally-recognized innovation expert whose work is transforming how the government and other large organizations compete and drive growth. He is the CEO of BMNT, an innovation consultancy and early-stage tech accelerator that helps solve some of the hardest real-world problems in national security, state and local governments, and beyond. Pete is a founder and co-author, with Lean Startup founder Steve Blank, of Hacking for Defense (H4D)®, an academic program that focuses on solving national security problems. It has in turned created a series of sister courses—Hacking for Diplomacy, Hacking for Oceans, Hacking for Sustainability, Hacking for Local and others—that use the H4X® framework to solve critical real-world problems Pete is also the Co-Founder and Board Director of The Common Mission Project, a 501c3 non-profit responsible for creating an international network of mission-driven entrepreneurs, including through programs like H4D®. Pete served as the Director of the US Army’s Rapid Equipping Force (REF). Reporting directly to the senior leadership of the Army, he was charged with rapidly finding, integrating, and employing solutions to emerging problems faced by Soldiers on the battlefield and was responsible for the Army’s first deployment of mobile manufacturing labs, smart phones merged with tactical radio networks, and tactical drones. In this podcast, he shares:
__________________________________________________________________________________________ "Part of the beauty of a pipeline is that you start with a lot of volume and you make hard decisions about the things that go through it. So that increases the velocity, both in terms of speed and pressure, because it allows you to focus your resources on a smaller and a smaller group of things until you pile everything you own on the things that you know are going to win, but you can't get there without having a large pool of things you're sourcing." -Pete Newell __________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing Pete + The topic of today’s episode 2:11—If you really know me you know that... 3:04—What is your definition of strategy? 3:44—Could you tell us a little bit about your background and what led you to your work? 6:15—Could you walk us through the key 10 steps of your process of innovation? 9:27—Where do you think large organizations most often falter in this process? 11:00—How does an organization flip failure to seeing it as learning? 15:20—Could you share an example of an organization that gets this process more right than others? 17:18—How do you balance speed and killing ideas off? 17:57—What are the first steps a Chief Strategy Officer should take in their organization? 19:08—How can people connect with you and learn more about what you're working on? _____________________________________________________________________ Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 12 May 2023 | #89—Linda Yates: Building Your Corporate Ventures Growth Machine | 00:31:08 | |
Linda Yates is the founder and CEO of Mach49, the growth incubator for global businesses with clients including Goodyear, Gundersen Health, Hitachi, Intel, Pernod Ricard, Schneider Electric, Shell, and many more. She is a seasoned CEO and board member with over thirty years of experience bridging Silicon Valley and the Global 1000, creating global strategy, building companies, and driving innovation for large multinationals worldwide, and the author The Unicorn Within: How Companies Can Create Game-Changing Ventures at Startup Speed. She is a seasoned CEO and board member with over thirty years of experience bridging Silicon Valley and the Global 1000. With her firsthand e experience in one largest geographic incubators of unicorns in the world—Silicon Valley—Linda has fine-tuned a proven framework for building and sustaining corporate ventures. As heard in the highlight clip, Linda believes that incumbent enterprises CAN unlock their innovative capabilities. Contrary to commonly held dogma of large, established companies as being stagnant, and slow, the reality is that it is these large companies have many advantages to launch transformative projects that start-ups can only dream of. In this episode, she shares:
_________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Highlight from today's episode 00:46—Introducing Linda + The topic of today’s episode 2:48—If you really know me, you know that... 3:49—What is your definition of strategy, and what got you interested in it? 8:29—What are your thoughts on the idea that incumbent companies are too slow, too archaic? 9:00—Could you talk us through the four pillars that companies need to build their growth engines? 12:15—How do you overcome the reticence of companies to invest in new riskier investments and be willing to invest in new ventures? 13:20—Could you lead us through how to really get to the heart of understanding customer pain? 17:50—Could you talk to us about the need to understand customers' perspectives, and what we overlook around this topic? 19:55—How do you go about conducting customer development interviews? 23:10—Can you lead us through building a portfolio of opportunities in the pipeline? 17:09—Do you have any advice to which pathway should a company commit to? 29:40—How can people follow you and keep learning from you? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Mach 49 Page: https://www.mach49.com/ Linkedin: https://www.l Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 01 Oct 2021 | #22—Richard D'Aveni: Gaining Competitive Advantage—with TEMPORARY Advantages | 00:19:26 | |
Professor Richard D'Aveni is the Bakala Professor of Strategy at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business. He is considered one of the premier competitive strategists of his time. His research looks for the winning competitive strategies used by corporations, governments, and militaries. He writes regularly for Harvard Business Review and Forbes and is a frequent commentator on strategic and technological developments. Fortune Magazine has described Professor D’Aveni as modern-day Sun-Tzu, the ancient Chinese master of the strategic arts. Marketing News says, “Today's Internet marketers’ worship at the competitive altar of D'Aveni.” Thinkers50 awarded him its 2017 Strategy Award, and nominated him for the 2019 Breakthrough Ideas Award. He has since been inducted into the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame, along with Peter Drucker, Clay Christensen, and many other groundbreaking innovators. His diverse background includes a Ph.D. from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University, as well as a law degree and MBA, bringing a unique perspective into business. His most recent book, The Pan-Industrial Revolution, examined the impact of 3D printing on manufacturing, global competition, and society. In this podcast he shares:
__________________________________________________________________________________________ "You know, life is about temporary advantages, not about sustainable advantages. Those days are gone with the 1950s and ‘60s. So that's hypercompetition in a nutshell." -Richard D'Aveni __________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing Richard D'Aveni + The topic of today’s episode 2:48—If you really know me, you know that... 3:33—What is your definition of strategy? 5:33—Could you summarize your concept of hypercompetition? 8:28—What do people get wrong when it comes to 3D printing? 11:39—How will Wall Street be impacted by the adoption of 3D printing? 14:00—Are there any capabilities or strengths that incumbents can realistically hold on to to keep ahead? 16:58—What's the next shift in strategy; what should leadership in strategists be focusing on? 18:22—How can people find you or follow you and learn from you? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Direct line to his office at Dartmouth: 603-646-2921 Personal Website: http://daveni.tuck.dartmouth.edu/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-d-aveni-5169749/ Most recent book: http://daveni.tuck.dartmouth.edu/resea Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 19 Nov 2021 | #29—Dan Toma: Implementing, Managing and Measuring Innovation in the Corporate Startup | 00:19:29 | |
Dan Toma is an innovation thought leader and the co-author of two of my favorite books on innovation. The award-winning book The Corporate Startup, (awarded "Management Book of the Year for Innovation and Entrepreneurship" by Chartered Management Institute and The British Library in 2018) and his latest, Innovation Accounting. Dan started his career in entrepreneurship, being involved with technology startups across the world. Puzzled by the questions "Why are innovative products mainly launched by startups?," together with his team at the consultancy company OUTCOME, he focuses on enterprise innovation transformation. Specifically on the changes blue-chip organizations need to make to allow for new ventures to be built in a corporate setting. A big proponent of the ecosystem approach to innovation, Dan has also worked with various government bodies, in Asia and Europe, helping develop national innovation ecosystems and implement national innovation strategies. Most noteworthy is his work in the economic aid program of the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Vietnam where he helped design and manage a nationwide business acceleration program and supported the capability development activities. Dan was also featured on the Thinkers50 2020 Radar list of "Management Thinkers to Watch," while also being a member of the World Economic Forum’s working group on accelerating digital transformation. In this podcast he shares:
__________________________________________________________________________________________ "There's a gap in the market. There's a lot that talks about employees.There's a lot that talks about customers, and then loosely we'll talk about them together. But what is the value? We went out and did some primary research, and we found that brands that do that really well in the U.S. is 1.8X faster growth rates. For a billion-dollar brand, it's a $40-million impact." -Dan Toma __________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing Dan Toma + The topic of today’s episode 2:32—If you really know me, you know that... 2:50—What is your definition of strategy? 4:40—What got you interested in strategy? 5:27—What are you most known for? 5:56—Could you tell us about how Covid-19 has shifted companies' approach to innovation? 8:59—What are some of the pitfalls of financial accounting? 11:10—Can you give us an indicator or metric that can help us gauge how much we're learning? 12:50—How do you measure a learning? 13:30—What do people get wrong? 14:50—What's the error in measuring innovation of "moon shot" ideas? 16:00—What's something you've changed your mind about? 17:13—Could you describe the fram Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 03 Feb 2023 | #75—Tony O'Driscoll: Reconciling Humanity and Technology | 00:23:34 | |
Tony O’ Driscoll is a Professor, Research Fellow and Academic Director at Duke University. His central message emphasizes that the key digital-age differentiator is not technology, but people. Tony is the co-author of the new release, Everyday Superhero: How You Can Inspire Everyone and Create Real Change at Work. His role as adjunct professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and Pratt School of Engineering afford him the unique opportunity to apply cutting-edge academic research to increasingly complex business challenges. He has spent the bulk of his professional and academic career at the nexus of business, innovation, technology, change, and learning, creating and implementing strategies that enable organizations to realize the full potential of their most valuable asset: human beings. There are few people in the world who have thought as deeply about the interface of technology and human organizations and imagined what the future models might be for how organizations will evolve than Tony. In this podcast, he shares:
_________________________________________________________________________________________ "I started to realize at the end of the day, organizations are nothing without humans. The humans literally breathe life into every organization on this planet. And if they don't understand the why behind something or as they disagree with the premises or assumptions upon which any strategy has been formulated, you're going to have a really hard time. It'll be executed in the wrong way; it'll be killed rather than done. And that's where I became really interested in the human part of the system." -Tony O'Driscoll _________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Short preview of Tony's episode 00:58—Introducing Tony + The topic of today’s episode 2:37—If you really know me, you know that... 3:55—What's the difference between productive learning vs. creative learning? 5:10—How AI has changed the new capabilities to change the human-machine interface 7:13—Why is this level of technological revolution with AI and machine learning happening now, and how is it different, and how can we learn what will unfold? 10:15—Why do 60-70 percent of strategies fail? 11:39—Why humans are at the center of systems and technology 12:53—What should strategists be thinking about human-centered transformation? 15:48—How do you build accountability alongside trust? 19:00—Could you explain how we are shifting paradigms as a global culture? 20:39—How can people connect and learn from you? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Personal Page: http://tonyodriscoll.com/ Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 17 Feb 2023 | #77—Lele Sang: Lessons on Competing in China | 00:17:37 | |
Lele Sang is Globe Fellow at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and coauthor (with Professor Karl Ulrich) of Winning in China: 8 Stories of Success and Failure in the World’s Largest Economy (Wharton School Press, 2021). She is also a contributor to Harvard Business Review and writes about international business. A formal journalist and editor, She has interviewed world leaders from prime ministers to Fortune 500 company CEOs. In addition to journalism, she had stints at startups and multinational corporations as a marketer in both the United States and China. Lele was a visiting scholar at the University of California - Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism. She holds an MPA degree from the University of Pennsylvania. In this podcast, she shares:
_________________________________________________________________________________________ "One characteristic of the Chinese market is consumers are open-minded, they always want to try new products and new services. So that actually provides an opportunity for global companies to create demand for their offerings." -Lele Sang _________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Short preview of Lele's episode 00:48—Introducing Lele + The topic of today’s episode 2:04—If you really know me, you know that... 4:09—What is your definition of strategy? 5:04—Can you tell us how you went from being a journalist to where you are now? 5:58—Can you explain what caused you to expand the focus of your book from being about the failure of tech companies entering China, to a broader focus? 6:20—Can you give us an example of how competing in China is different than other markets? 8:18—Can you give us examples of companies that successfully did enter the Chinese market, and what we can learn from them? 10:41—What do you think we have to learn about Amazon's attempt to enter the Chinese market, which wasn't the most successful? 12:49—What do you find that people most get wrong that doesn't work in the China context? 14:00—You talk about five key managerial decisions you have to make to compete in China—can you brief us on those? 16:16—How can people connect and learn from you? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Personal Page: https://www.lelesang.com/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lelesang Wharton Faculty Page: https://wsp.wharton.upenn.edu/book_author/lele-sang/ Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 18 Jun 2021 | #12—David Duncan: Understanding Customers through a Detective Lens | 00:20:08 | |
Along with a varied background with a degree in psychology from Duke and a PdD in Physics from Harvard, David Duncan has also worked at career at McKinsey & Company, then Innosight, and collaborated with Clayton Christensen on Competing Against Luck. This has given him a systems perspective and the ability to really understand customers from a unique lens. He is also the co-author of two other books and a number of influential articles, including a groundbreaking book which introduced a simple yet profound idea: customers don’t buy products and services; they hire them to do a job. Building a Growth Factory," co-authored with Scott Anthony, and the Harvard Business Review articles, “Knowing When to Reinvent” and “Build an Innovation Engine in 90 Days." In this episode, David discusses with Kaihan why so many companies, business leaders, and strategists mistake the reasons their customers buy from them, and why this can be fatal, why focusing on jobs to be done can help you avoid this trap, and why you should start with “small data” before your you get to “big data." __________________________________________________________________________________________ "Because oftentimes, the most useful aspects of [customer] conversations are unexpected, and they ramble around a little bit, often into the rambling that leads to the greatest insights. And when you see one done well, it often seems a little chaotic and even not that helpful until you learn the underlying principles that were guiding the interview, and that were guiding the insights that they got out of it. " -David Duncan __________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing David Duncan + The topic of today’s episode 2:02—If you really know me, you know that... 2:39—What got you interested in strategy? 4:32—What is your definition of strategy? 6:14—You come at problems with this multi-point solution look, can you tell us a little bit about that? 10:03—Explain to us the concept of your new book, The Secret Lives of Customers 12:30—Writing the book in an unorthodox format from a detective's perspective 16:12—Thinking of customers in the concept of "jobs to be done" 17:25—Big data versus qualitative research 19:10—How to connect with David __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: www.marketdetective.com Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 14 Oct 2022 | #63—Julia Boorstin: Why Women Leaders Excel, and What We Can Learn | 00:24:33 | |
Julia Boorstin is the author of recently released book, When Women Lead. CNBC’s Senior Media & Tech Correspondent and has been an on-air reporter for the network since 2006. She also plays a central role on CNBC’s bicoastal tech-focused program “TechCheck” delivering reporting, analysis, and CEO interviews with a focus on social media and the intersection of media and technology. In 2013, Julia created and launched the CNBC Disruptor 50, an annual list she oversees, highlighting private companies transforming the economy and challenging companies in established industries. She also helped launch the network’s ‘Closing the Gap’ initiative covering the people and companies closing gender and diversity gaps. A graduate of Princeton University, she has been a reporter for Fortune magazine, as well as a contributor to CNN and CNN Headline News. She was also an intern for Vice President Gore’s domestic policy office. In this podcast, she shares:
_________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing Julia + The topic of today’s episode 1:59—If you really know me, you know that... 5:06—What is your definition of strategy? 6:32—You talk about listening to diverse opinions. How do women bring this to leadership? 8:55—Can you talk about the unique leadership approaches by women? 12:22—Can you explain what the psychological term "pattern matching" means? 14:36—What are some other leadership trips we haven't discussed yet that women bring to the workplace? 16:16—Could you describe empathy in your own words? 19:40—Of all the strategic advice you've gotten, what has really stuck with you? 20:38—What is something we haven't covered you'd like to share? 21:25—What is your suggestion for where to start for people dealing with these double standards? 23:41—How can people connect with you? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Personal Page: https://juliaboorstin.com Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliaboorstin/ Newest Book: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1982168218 Twitter: https://twitter.com/JBoorstin Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 18 Feb 2022 | #38—Jonathan Knee: Creating Your Competitive Advantage in the Age of Platforms and Ecosystems | 00:21:35 | |
Jonathan Knee is a of Professional Practice in Media and Technology and Co-Director of the Media and Technology Program at Columbia Business School, where he has taught Media Mergers and Acquisitions and Strategic Management of Media. He serves as a Senior Advisor at Evercore, an investment banking advisory firm. Before joining here as Senior Managing Director in 2003, he was a Managing Director and Co-head of Morgan Stanley’s Media Group and was previously Publishing Sector Head in the Communications, Media and Entertainment Group at Goldman Sachs. Jonathan also serves on the boards of New Alternatives for Children, the National Women’s Law Center, and the Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York and is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and The Atlantic. He is the author of Class Clowns: How the Smartest Investors Lost Billions in Education, The Accidental Investment Banker: Inside the Decade that Transformed Wall Street, co-author of The Curse of The Mogul: What’s Wrong With the World’s Leading Media Companies? and his most recent book, The Platform Delusion: Who Wins and Who Loses In the Age of Tech Titans, packed with real-word insights, gathered on the streets, from decades of feasting or fasting based on the accuracy of his prediction of which companies will thrive and which will fall. *Note: We condensed this original hour-long discussion into a format to fit this podcast series, but be on the lookout for the full-length version in the coming weeks. In this podcast, he shares:
__________________________________________________________________________________________ " [An] Ecosystem is really about the overall business environment. Who are the constituents? How do they interact with each other? Platform is a specific business model that connects some part of an ecosystem. But to me what's most interesting about the connection between the structure of the ecosystem and the question that we were just talking about...is: Is the platform a good business or not?" -Jonathan Knee __________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing Jonathan + The topic of today’s episode 2:46—If you really know me, you know that.... 3:20—What is your definition of strategy? 5:09—Could you talk to us to your ideas behind "platform delusion"? 7:49—What makes a business have a competitive advantage? 9:32—What exactly is a platform, and what is its core value? 12:19—Network effects vs. scale 14:18—Creating customer captivity as a digital company Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 07 Apr 2023 | #84—Andrew Winston: Achieving Net Positive Impact as a Business | 00:20:22 | |
Andrew Winston is one of the world's most widely read writers and leading thinkers on sustainable business. His books on sustainability strategy, including Green to Gold and The Big Pivot, have sold more than 150,000 copies in seven languages. Winston has also written cover stories for Harvard Business Review and published hundreds of articles in HBR, MIT Sloan Management Review, and other top publications. He was recently selected for the Thinkers50 Radar 2020, a list of 30 thinkers to watch out for in the coming year. His views on strategy have been sought after by many of the world's leading companies, including 3M, DuPont, HP, Ingersoll Rand, Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly-Clark, Marriott, PepsiCo, PwC, and Unilever. Andrew has spent much of his career helping business leaders understand how to put sustainability at the forefront of their strategy—which will inevitably affect all industries and companies. In this podcast he shares with us:
_________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Highlight from today's episode 00:45—Introducing Andrew + The topic of today’s episode 2:05—If you really know me, you know that... 3:26—What is your definition of strategy? 4:48—What got you interested in strategy, and particularly in ESG and sustainability strategy? 6:03—Why do companies care about sustainability now where they didn't as much in the past? 7:59—Why is ESG and sustainability a smart place to invest right now? 11:00—Do you think there is a fundamental mindset shift happening in leadership? 13:34—Could you tell us about how UPS adopted sustainable practices in a surprising, yet effective way? 15:10—Could you talk about the future of various industries, using agriculture as an example? 17:44—Where should strategists start with net positive practices? 20:00—How can people follow you and keep learning from you? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Personal Page: https://andrewwinston.com/ Newest Book, Net Positive: https://netpositive.world/book/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewwinston/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/andrewwinston Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 02 Jul 2021 | #14—Whitney Johnson: Disrupt Yourself by Mastering Your Own S Curve | 00:21:38 | |
Whitney is the CEO of human capital consultancy WLJ Advisors, a2020 Inc. 5000 fastest-growing private company in America. She is an expert at helping high-growth organizations develop high-growth individuals, and recognized as one of the 50 leading business thinkers in the world (#14) as named by Thinkers50. Having worked at Fortune 100 companies, been an award-winning equity analyst on Wall Street, invested with Harvard’s Clayton Christensen, and coached alongside the renowned Marshall Goldsmith, Whitney understands how companies work, how investors think, and how the best coaches coach–––all of which she brings to her work in coaching CEOs and C-Suite executives. Whitney works with high-growth, venture-backed start-ups and Fortune 100 companies across a variety of sectors including consumer goods, technology, higher education and financial services. In 2017, she was selected from more than 16,000 candidates as a “Top 15 Coach” by Dr. Marshall Goldsmith. She is an award-winning author, world-class keynote speaker, and frequent lecturer for Harvard Business School's Corporate Learning. She is a popular contributor to the Harvard Business Review, has 1.8 million followers on LinkedIn, where she was selected as a Top Voice in 2018, and her course on Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship has been viewed more than one million times. In this podcast...Whitney shares with us how to apply disruption theory to your career and your life, why sometimes it is a smart move to step back in order to get onto a faster growth curve, and why doing that is often so difficult (and it's not just because of what is going on your mind, but because of what others around you are thinking.) __________________________________________________________________________________________ "With people around us, what we have to remember is that whenever you disrupt yourself, you are disrupting the people around you, your disruption precipitates, their disruption." -Whitney Johnson __________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing Whitney Johnson + The topic of today’s episode 3:01—If you really know me, you know that... 3:35—What is your definition of strategy? 4:08—What got you interested in strategy? 4:50—What would you say you are most known for? 5:34—How does the traditional concept of the J curve apply to one's own career? 7:25—How then does the S curve apply to people's persona life and career? 9:30—Where does "following your gut" fit into all of this? 10:40—Why is it so hard to disrupt yourself? 12:10—What would you say to someone who's scared of losing their identity in disrupting themselves? 14:49—What are other aspects that hold people back from personal disruption? 15:54—What do people usually get wrong? 16:12—What's one of the most important things that you've changed your mind about? 17:47—What's been most impactful for you or something maybe you wish you'd learned earlier? 18:41—What are you working on now? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 04 Nov 2022 | #66—Hermann Simon: Pricing Strategies in Uncertain Times—through Inflation and Beyond | 00:27:16 | |
Hermann Simon is the Founder and Honorary Chairman of Simon-Kucher & Partners, today the world’s leading price consultancy with 41 offices and 1600 employees. From 1995 to 2009 he served as the CEO and is the firm’s Honorary Chairman today. He is an expert in strategy, marketing and pricing and the only German in the “Thinkers50 Hall of Fame” of the most influential management thinkers in the world. In German-speaking countries he has been continuously voted the most influential living management thinker. The magazine Cicero ranks him in the top 100 of the 500 most important intellectuals. Hermann was a professor of business administration and marketing at the Universities of Mainz and Bielefeld (and a visiting professor at Harvard Business School, Stanford, London Business School, INSEAD, Keio University in Tokyo and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Hermann has published over 40 books in 30 languages, including world bestsellers on Hidden Champions and Price Management. His most recent books are True Profit! No Company Ever Went Broke from Turning a Profit, and Hidden Champions in the Chinese Century: Ascent and Transformation, both published by Springer Nature, New York. The new book Beating Inflation will be out this fall of 2022. In this podcast, he shares:
__________________________________________________________________________________________ "How does the willingness to pay change for customers [during inflation]? Do you have the pricing power to increase your prices without losing volume and customers?" -Hermann Simon _________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing Hermann + The topic of today’s episode 2:12—If you really know me, you know that... 2:47—What is your definition of strategy? 3:30—What do companies typically get wrong when it comes to pricing? 4:35—How do you approach communicating value when you are competing against many other bidders in the same industry? 6:09—What is a "hidden champion?" 7:05—What do you do when your competitors are behaving irrationally and engage in price wars? 8:56—What do companies get wrong when it comes to pricing in an inflationary environment? 11:26—How do you know by how much to change prices given a change in input prices during inflation? 13:06—Could you explain your term "phantom profits" that helps people understand if they're ahead or behind a wave? 14:37—Could you explain any pricing models that come to mind that are emerging that you recommend to clients? 17:57—What are your thoughts on transparency in pricing? Is it a growing trend? 20:59—There is the question of "fairness" when it comes to pricing (who puts in value vs. how much they extract when many players are involved). What are your thoughts on the topic? 24:47—Is there anything we ha Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 19 Aug 2022 | #55—Anna Tavis: Preparing for the Future of Work | 00:22:12 | |
Dr. Anna Tavis is Clinical Professor and Academic Director of Human Capital Management Department at NYU School of Professional Studies, Senior Fellow with the Conference Board, and the Academic in Residence with Executive Networks. Anna has been named to Thinkers50 Radar for 2020. Her latest book, Humans at Work. The Art and Practice of Creating a Remote Workplace, was published in the spring of 2022. Anna publishes regularly and has been quoted by the Washington Post, Bloomberg, The Human Resources Executive, and Training Magazine. Her Harvard Business Review articles with Peter Cappelli "HR Goes Agile" ( 2018) and "The Performance Management Revolution" (2016) were reprinted in HBR's Must Reads and in Agile: The Insights You Need from Harvard Business Review (2020). She has navigated a diverse global career in academia, business and consulting, and was the Head of Motorola’s EMEA OD function based in London, Nokia’s Global Head of Talent Management based in Helsinki, Chief Learning Officer with United Technologies Corp based in Hartford, CT and Global Head of Talent and Organizational Development with AIG Investments based in NYC. Her work on the topics of Future of Work, People Analytics and Technology, Employee Experience and Intelligent Automation in the Workplace are truly at the cutting edge. In this podcast, she shares:
__________________________________________________________________________________________ "With culture, you're dealing with changes in values, but I think even more important: changes in behaviors, how we do things around here." -Anna Tavis __________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing Anna + The topic of today’s episode 2:29—If you really know me, you know that... 3:38—What is your definition of strategy? 4:43—How do you define work? 5:47—How is work changing? 9:37—Could you give us a visual of how this re-emergence of the era of creative work is happening? 11:05—How is the role of society and companies for employees going to change in light of how work is changing? 13:50—Is culture defined by value or behaviors? 16:22—You talk about the phases of an effective culture transformation—could you talk about those? 21:15—Where can people follow you and your work? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annatavis/es Columbia University Page: https://sps.columbia.edu/speaker/anna-tavis-phd Twitter: https://twitter.com/annatavis Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 01 Sep 2023 | #99—Daniel Trabucchi: The Evolution of Platforms: Creating Value Beyond Digital Archetypes | 00:24:06 | |
Daniel Trabucchi is the co-author, with Tommaso Buganza, of Platform Thinking: Read the past. Write the future. He is Senior Assistant Professor at the School of Management of Politecnico di Milano where he fosters research and teaches at the intersection between innovation management and leadership, with a strong focus on platform thinking and the human side of innovation. He is the co-founder of Symplatform, the international symposium on digital platforms that aims to match managers and academics coming from various disciplines and he is the co-founder and scientific director of Platform Thinking HUB the observatory that aims to help established firms in finding innovation opportunities through platforms. Finally, he co-hosts with Philip Meier “Talking About Platforms,” the podcast where the latest research on platforms is featured and spread. His work has been featured by outlets such as Journal of Product Innovation Management, Technovation, Technological Forecasting and Social Change and many others, but he aims to make scientific research as accessible as possible, so—in addition to the book—his platform knowledge can be found also on Coursera in four courses under the title of “platform thinking." The idea of value creation has come a long way—where we used to think of providing value along a linear chain for stakeholders, platforms open up an incredible amount of possibilities in making customers and other stakeholders active participants—not only the end-receivers—of value creation. _________________________________________________________________________________________ "This is the power of platform thinking. You've got the brand. You've got the customers. You've got resources. If you find the right idle assets in your organization, you could actually use platforms as a new way to perceive a value creation." -Daniel Trabucchi _________________________________________________________________________________________ In this episode, he shares:
_________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Highlight from today's episode 1:08—Introducing Daniel + The topic of today’s episode 2:42—If you really know me, you know that... 3:51—What is your definition of strategy? 4:21—Let's start with the foundation—how do you define a platform? 8:07—Could you describe the four types of platforms? 13:12—What are some of the mindset changes that need to happen for people to see these different ways to use platforms in value creation? 19:04—What are the first steps to take in creating or plugging into a platform? Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 10 Nov 2023 | #104—Andy Binns & Ellie Amirnasr: Paving a Path of Success for Corporate Explorers within Your Organization | 00:32:37 | |
In this episode, Andy Binns, co-founder and Director of Change Logic, and an award-winning author who publishes articles on innovation strategy and execution in established firms is joined by an additional guest, Ellie Amirnasr, director of digital ventures at MANN+HUMMEL, who was a chapter author, alongside Andy, of Corporate Explorer Fieldbook: How to Build New Ventures In Established Companies. Their work with this just-released 2023 book brings to the forefront the corporate explorer: the individuals within your organization that have the prowess to lead innovation. In this episode, we delve deep into these pioneers brimming with new ideas. _________________________________________________________________________________________ In this episode, they share:
_________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Highlight from today's episode 1:18—Introducing Andy & Ellie + The topic of today’s episode 2:34—If you really know me, you know that... 5:33—What is your definition of strategy? 8:30—Could you talk to us about your organization, qlair? 9:52—Could you define a "corporate explorer" for us? 11:20—What are some of the aspects that an organization needs to have in place to enable corporate explorers? 13:59—What are some shifts that leaders need to make to allow for corporate explorers? 17:53—Could you lead us through the stages of a new venture and how it relates to decision-making and funding? 26:44—What is the mechanism that makes it more likely to be successful if you state your goals and metrics at the beginning? 29:13—What is the biggest mistake you see corporate explorers make that you could advise them on? 31:14—How can people follow you and connect with you to continue learning from you? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Book Website: https://www.thecorporateexplorer.com/ LinkedIn: Ellie Amirnasr, Andy Binns Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 07 Oct 2022 | #62—Michael Schrage: Re-examining Human-Machine Collaborations | 00:22:08 | |
A research fellow with MIT Sloan School's Initiative on the Digital Economy, Michael Schrage’s research, writing and advisory work focuses on the ‘behavioral economics’ of models, prototypes and metrics as strategic resources for managing ‘innovation risk’ and opportunity. He is author of award-winning The Innovator’s Hypothesis [MIT Press 2014], Who Do You Want Your Customers To Become? [Harvard Business Review Press 2012] and Serious Play [Harvard Business Review Press 2000]. His most recent MIT Press book, Recommendation Engines, was published Fall 2020 as part of its "Essential Knowledge" series. He runs design workshops and executive education programs on innovation, experimentation and ’strategic measurement' for global organizations. Currently pioneering work in ‘selvesware’ technologies—he coined the word—Schrage’s design research looks to augment aspects, attributes and talents of productive individuals. Ongoing research efforts also examine the interplay of ’network effects’-driven innovation, such as recommender systems, and human capital creation for the enterprise. His work exploring the future of KPIs, digital ‘performance management’ dashboards and machine learning - in collaboration with Google, McKinsey, Deloitte and the Sloan Management Review – builds on that theme, i.e. what happens when 'essential metrics' become ’software agents.' He is particularly interested in the future co-evolution of ‘expertise,’ ‘advice' and human ‘agency’ as technologies become ‘smarter’ than the people using them. In this podcast, he shares:
__________________________________________________________________________________________ "What kind of selves do our innovations, our products, our services, our user experiences, our customer experiences, our client experiences, facilitate, enable and empower? -Michael Schrage __________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing Mark+ The topic of today’s episode 1:59—If you really know me, you know that... 3:09—What is your definition of strategy? 3:45—What is a 5x5 experiment? 6:48—You look at AI and predictability, how does it change the 80/20 strategy that so many strategists abide by? 10:00—You wrote a book on the concept of what a customer becomes. Could you explain what you mean by this? 12:23—Could you talk to us about the idea of how we all have multiple selves, and how as a strategist that plays a part? 15:47—Do people follow algorithmic recommendations, and what happens with algorithms becomes smarter than us? 18:16—Do you think these machines we've been talking about help us become better selves? 20:12—How can people connect and follow you to keep learning from you? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 03 Mar 2023 | #79—Miklos Dietz: Preparing for the Shift to an Ecosystem Economy | 00:21:26 | |
Miklós Dietz is a senior partner at McKinsey & Company, where he leads McKinsey’s banking strategy and innovation work globally and is the managing partner of the Vancouver office. Miklos’s specialty is in helping financial services companies and other organizations harness digital technology and stay ahead of emerging trends. He is the author of The Ecosystem Economy: How to Lead in the New Age of Sectors Without Borders, a compelling and practical books I’ve read on this shift strategists have been tracking now for a decade of the erasing of barriers and growing cross-section competition . He is the founder and chair of the Panorama research group and the Ecosystem Hub, and has served over 450 clients in 40+ countries across multiple industries. Prior to joining McKinsey, he worked at Merrill Lynch and Reuters. Miklós is a certified financial analyst, a member of the CFA Institute, and a founding member of the Hungarian Society of Investment Professionals. In this podcast, he shares:
_________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Highlight from today's episode 00:51—Introducing Miklos + The topic of today’s episode 2:51—If you really know me, you know that... 4:15—What is your definition of strategy? 5:15—What is the argument for 'why now'? Why is this the time from an economic perspective for a shift to ecosystems? 9:55—What do you think is the future of data? 11:27—How many sectors are there now, and if they reconfigure into ecosystems, can you give us an example of what that looks like? 14:38—If a company wants to start building capabilities to work within an ecosystem rather than a sector—where do they start? 18:23—Does migrating an ecosystem economy reduce startup costs and risk for experimentation? 20:12—Do you have any last advice on how companies can start migrating into an ecosystem economy? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Personal Page: https://www.mckinsey.com/our-people/miklos-dietz Linkedin: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/miklosdietz Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 30 Sep 2022 | #61—Bruce Usher: The Role and Impact of Business in Climate Change | 00:19:37 | |
Bruce Usher is professor of professional practice and the Faculty Director of the Tamer Center for Social Enterprise at Columbia Business School. He teaches on the intersection of finance, social and environmental issues, and is a recipient of the Singhvi Prize for Scholarship in the Classroom, the Lear Award, and the Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence. In 2019, Bruce published Renewable Energy: A Primer for the Twenty-First Century, the first in the Earth Institute’s sustainability series of books. His latest book is Investing in the Era of Climate Change. Bruce has written numerous cases for use in business school courses, with a primary focus on climate change and business. Prior to joining Columbia University, Bruce was CEO of EcoSecurities Group plc, which developed greenhouse gas emission reduction projects in developing countries. EcoSecurities completed an IPO in 2005 and was acquired by JPMorgan in 2009. He was previously the co-founder and CEO of TreasuryConnect, which provided electronic trading solutions to banks and was acquired in 2001. Prior to that, he worked in financial services for twelve years in New York and Tokyo. He is an active investor and advisor to entrepreneurial ventures focused on climate change and clean energy, and is Chair of the Tamer Fund for Social Ventures. In this podcast, he shares:
_________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing Bruce + The topic of today’s episode 2:23—If you really know me, you know that... 3:43—What is your definition of strategy? 4:15—What got you interested in strategy? 4:58—What was your main motivation to use capitalism to solve social and environmental problems? 6:50—How can this recent capitalistic interest "doing good" help us deal with climate change, and why now? 8:30—Just to clarify, when we talk about climate change, is it inevitable or is it preventable? 10:12—Could you give us examples of some of your favorite inventions or technologies 12:35—Expanding on your last point, some countries are already moving toward a hydrogen-based energy plan. Could you tell us about this? 13:50—What should I be thinking about climate change in terms of its impact on business? 15:44—What do most people get wrong about everything we've talked about in this podcast? 17:08—How can people connect with you and your work; what's the next step? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Columbia Faculty Page: https://www8.gsb.columbia.edu/cbs-directory/detail/bmu2001 Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 15 Apr 2022 | #45—Amy Webb: Using Foresight—Not Prediction—to Guide Strategy | 00:22:23 | |
Amy Webb is a quantitative futurist and a bestselling, award-winning author. She is a professor of strategic foresight at the NYU Stern School of Business and the Founder of the Future Today Institute, a leading foresight and strategy firm that helps leaders and their organizations prepare for complex futures. Amy has advised CEOs and heads of strategy of some of the world’s largest companies, three-star generals and admirals and executive government leadership on strategy and technology. She was also a Delegate on the former U.S.- Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission, where she worked on the future of technology, media and international diplomacy. She is the author of several popular books, including The Big Nine: How the Tech Titans and Their Thinking Machines Could Warp Humanity, which was longlisted for the Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the Year award, shortlisted for the Thinkers50 Digital Thinking Award, and won the 2020 Gold Axiom Medal for the best book about business and technology. She also wrote The Signals Are Talking: Why Today’s Fringe Is Tomorrow’s Mainstream, which won the Thinkers50 Radar Award, was selected as one of Fast Company’s Best Books of 2016, Amazon’s best books 2016, and was the recipient of the 2017 Gold Axiom Medal for the best book about business and technology. Amy was named by Forbes as one of the five women changing the world, listed as the BBC’s 100 Women of 2020, and the Thinkers50 Radar list of the 30 management thinkers most likely to shape the future of how organizations are managed and led. In this podcast, she shares:
__________________________________________________________________________________________ "If you're on a three-year strategic planning cycle, typically...you're marking milestones and KPIs...on that corporate strategy. The problem is that it doesn't account for uncertainty. This is where a lot of companies fall short, and they don't have the ability to recalibrate. So I do not use a line, I use a cone it's a different shape. So the intersecting vectors where that cone begins on the left that represents today. And the further out in time, you go, the wider, the angle becomes on the inside of that cone. And that represents uncertainty over time." -Amy Webb __________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing Amy + The topic of today’s episode 2:10—What is your definition of strategy? 3:32—A model for thinking about time and foresight 6:05—What's a tip or go-strategy for getting people to appreciate the importance of thinking of long-term horizons? 8:15—Could you explain the difference between predicting the future vs. being ready for many possible futures. Could you explain the difference? 10:22—Using data and evidence to model out plausible next-order impacts 12:24—The term and history of the futurist 13:50—Could you describe your work in Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 28 Apr 2023 | #87—Sally Susman: Insights from Pfizer's Chief Corporate Affairs Officer in Crafting Public Discourse | 00:21:39 | |
Sally Susman is Executive Vice President and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Pfizer. She is also Vice Chair of the Pfizer Foundation. Sally leads engagement with all of Pfizer’s external stakeholders, overseeing communications, corporate responsibility, global policy, government relations, investor relations, and patient advocacy. Before joining Pfizer in 2007, she held several senior communications and government relations roles at Estée Lauder Companies and the American Express Company. Through these extensive career experiences, Sally has honed an acute sense of how to navigate the delicate conversation that an organization must perpetually engage in with their stakeholders. And her work and expertise are more needed now than ever. With the growing interest among consumers, investors, and the community in the companies they support doing the right thing, your corporations’ success depends, more so than perhaps any time in history, on your ability to strategically approach the complex challenges of when to take stand, what stand to take, and how to authentically community your corporate stance to the world. In this episode, she shares:
_________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Highlight from today's episode 00:52—Introducing Sally + The topic of today’s episode 3:00—If you really know me, you know that... 4:14—What is your definition of strategy? 4:37—Can you tell us about a document Pfizer has developed called a "purpose blueprint"? 6:00—What made you make the career shift from a government to corporate role? 7:27—It seems that there is now a more pronounced expectation for corporations to channel their impact in the world, why do you think this is taking place, and why now? 9:47—What are some suggestions you can share from the experience of navigating really high-stakes, fast moving moments? 12:20—Could you tell us about how Pfizer navigated the Russian/Ukraine crisis? 13:45—How does a leadership team approach creating a communication plan so that it's coming from authority? 15:07—Could you talk about the personal story in chapter two of your book regarding approaching difficult moments with courage and candor? 17:48—Is there something you've changed your mind about? 18:45—Any advice for being effective at using communication for informal influence? 22:21—How can people follow you and keep learning from you? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 04 Mar 2022 | #40—Ken Blanchard: Becoming a Servant Leader | 00:17:57 | |
Ken Blanchard is one of the world’s most influential leadership experts. A prominent, sought-after author, speaker, and business consultant, Ken is respected for his lifetime of groundbreaking research and thought leadership that has influenced the day-to-day management and leadership of people and companies throughout the world. In 2005, he was inducted into Amazon’s Hall of Fame as one of the top 25 bestselling authors of all time. He is the co-author of more than sixty-five books, including the iconic The One Minute Manager, with combined sales of over 23 million copies in forty-seven languages. He and Randy Conley are also co-authors of Simple Truths of Leadership. He is co-founder of The Ken Blanchard Companies, a leading international training and consulting firm. In this podcast, he shares:
__________________________________________________________________________________________ "People think to think that reason to be in business is to make a profit. No, profit is the applause you get for creating a motivating environment for your people so they take good care of your customers." -Ken Blanchard __________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing Ken + The topic of today’s episode 1:58—If you really know me, you know that.... 2:28—What is your definition of strategy? 4:20—How has your business model changed over time? 5:00—Could you tell us about servant leadership? 7:15—How can a leader know that they're not using their title and position as a servant leader? 8:45—Do you have any advice for someone who doesn't have a ton of influence, but is a leader? 10:20—Are there any highlights about trust you could point us to from your book? 11:28—Do you have any frameworks or tips you like to point to in transforming company culture? 12:31—What's something that you've changed your mind about? 14:01—What's something you wish you had learned earlier? 15:48—What are you working on now? 16:55—How can people connect with you? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Personal Page: https://www.kenblanchard.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/kenblanchard Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 09 Jun 2023 | #93—Rob Cross: Reducing the Effects of Microstress through Organizational Networks | 00:22:56 | |
Rob Cross has studied the underlying network dynamics of effective organizations and the collaborative practices of high performers for more than 20 years. Through research and writing, speaking and consulting, and courses and tools, Rob’s network insights are transforming the way people lead, work and live in a hyper-connected world. He is the Edward A. Madden Professor of Global Leadership, Babson College and co-founder and current research director of the Connected Commons, a consortium of over 100 leading organizations accelerating network research and practice. In his latest book, The Microstress Effect, co-authored with Karen Dillon, Rob delves into findings that show that our interactions with other people – even those we care most about – trigger an avalanche of small stresses that snowball to the point where it affects our personal well-being. This is a growing issue as companies move toward smaller teams and greater collaboration across teams. In this episode, he shares:
_________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Highlight from today's episode 00:49—Introducing Rob + The topic of today’s episode 2:30—If you really know me, you know that... 3:21—What is your definition of strategy? 3:47—Can you start by defining a microstress to us? 5:54—Why do microstresses have such a lasting impact? 7:55—Could you break down the different types of microstresses outlined in your book? 11:16—What can an individual do to reduce the impact of microstresses? 13:12—What do high-performing happy people do differently? 14:51—Should we as leaders be looking to create moments of connection in org structure? 18:45—Does mission or purpose allow us to coordinate behavior without requiring as much interaction between people? 20:27—What do people get wrong about understanding microstresses? 21:49—How can people follow you and connect with you to continue learning from you? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Personal page: https://www.robcross.org/ Newest Book: https://www.robcross.org/resources/books/the-microstress-effect/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crossrob Twitter: https://twitter.com/RobCrossNetwork Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 17 Mar 2023 | #81—Lindsey McInerney: The Metaverse, NFTs and Tech as Part of Your Brand Strategy | 00:26:59 | |
Whether building hyper-growth startups or advising Fortune 500 companies, the Royal Family or the United Nations, Lindsey McInerney has spent her career helping people understand the impact of cutting-edge technologies and adopt them early. An internet nerd and tech futurist, Lindsey has launched multiple projects in the metaverse and web3 space and remains excited about the ways crypto, blockchain, NFTs, and extended reality (XR) will change our digital and physical landscape. As Global Head of Technology and Innovation at AB InBev (Anheuser-Busch), the world's largest brewer, she launched Stella Artois into the metaverse in an explosive partnership with ZED RUN, a crypto horse racing game.One of the first major brand executions in the space, the Cannes Lion award- nominated campaign, put Stella Artois on the map as the first beer brand and FMCG company in the metaverse and was well received by traditional and crypto media alike. McInerney was named to the 2023 ‘Thinkers50 Radar List’, a cohort of 30 thinkers whose ideas are predicted to make an important impact on management thinking. She has also been named one of ‘The 30 Most Influential People in the Metaverse’, one of ‘The Most Prominent Digital Futurists to Watch Out For in 2022’, one of the ‘Top Players of the Metaverse' and an 'Adweek Pride Star class of 2022'. As Founder and CEO of Black Sun Labs, Lindsey works with executives, teams and personalities on their web3 and metaverse strategies. She is also the CEO of Sixth Wall, a technology and entertainment company co-founded with actor/producer Mila Kunis and producer Lisa Sterbakov. In this podcast, she shares:
_________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Highlight from today's episode 00:45—Introducing Lindsey + The topic of today’s episode 2:19—If you really know me, you know that... 3:41—What is your definition of strategy? 4:47—Could you start off with a simple definition of the metaverse? 10:10—Would you say the physical technology of modern devices have an impact on their adoption? 14:17—What kind of applications do you see for companies that are in more traditional industrial and infrastructure industries? 16:01—How does blockchain or NFTs fit into this bigger picture? 20:05—How do you transfer a brand and its essence to the metaverse? 23:06—How should a company structure their team to move into this new space of technology? 25:56—How can people follow you and keep learning from you? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Thinkers50 Profile: https://thinkers50.com/biographies/lindsey-mcinerney/ Linkedin: https://uk.link Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 01 Apr 2021 | #1—Scott Anthony: Innovate by Overcoming Inertia | 00:17:54 | |
In this episode of The Outthinker Podcast, Kaihan welcomes Scott Anthony, Managing Partner at Innosight, a consulting firm founded by the late Clayton Christensen. Scott is the author of several books about business management and has been rated one of 2019’s top 10 management thinkers in the world. Listen in as Scott highlights practical actions you can take right now to boost innovation in your organization and start shifting your company’s culture and behaviors to allow for the kind of innovation that your future depends on. Scott shares what his children have taught him about innovation and divulges his ‘Beans framework’, which can be leveraged to effectively break down barriers to innovation. He then shares his candid thoughts on ambidexterity and what it really takes to be an innovative thought leader in 2021 and beyond. __________________________________________________________________________________________ “One of the greatest enemies inside organizations is what I call the plague of the zombie project, the walking on dead, the projects that suck all the innovation life out of the organization… if you start saying cheers to failure, you put the zombies down, you create the energy, you create space to be more psychologically safe, and lots of good things happen.” -Scott D. Anthony __________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00 – Introducing Scott Anthony + The topic of today’s episode 01:25 – If you really know Scott, you know that… 02:32 – Scott’s definition of strategy 03:21 – What initially got you interested in strategy? 05:03 – Explaining the core concept of his book, Dual Transformation 07:00 – What Scott’s kids have taught him about innovation + How to shift company culture and behavior to drive innovation 10:27 – What’s something that you have changed your mind about? 12:17 – Discussing How Leaders Delude Themselves About Disruption 13:43 – What we’re learning about innovation + Why implement the Beans framework 15:45 – Practical steps you can take to boost innovation in your organization __________________________________________________________________________________________ Resources Mentioned: Dual Transformation: www.innosight.com/insight/dual-transformation Article: How Leaders Delude Themselves About Disruption: www.sloanreview.mit.edu/article/how-leaders-delude-themselves-about-disruption Eat, Sleep, Innovate: www.innosight.com/insight/eat-sleep-innovate Find more of Scott’s books: www.innosight.com/team_bio/anthony-scott-d Connect with Scott Anthony on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/scottdanthony Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 04 Feb 2022 | #36—Martin Reeves: Employing an Imagination Cycle to Keep Your Strategy Fresh | 00:19:59 | |
Martin Reeves is a Managing Director and Senior Partner in BCG’s San Francisco office and Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, where he explores ideas from beyond the world of business, which have implications for business strategy management. He is the co-author of The Imagination Machine: How to Spark New Ideas and Create Your Company's Future (HBR Press, 2021), the series Inspiring the Next Game: Strategy Ideas for Forward Looking Leaders, and arguably one of the best strategy books of all time: Your Strategy Needs a Strategy: How to Choose and Execute the Right Approach (HBR Press, 2015). He has also written numerous articles in top business journals like MIT Press and Harvard Business Review. Martin joined BCG in London in 1989 and later moved to Tokyo, where he was responsible for BCG’s business with Western clients. His consulting career has focused on strategy – with equal emphasis on idea origination and development, and application by consulting with clients on their strategy challenges. A perennial generalist, Martin’s interest range widely. In this podcast he shares :
__________________________________________________________________________________________ " So, therefore, whatever generalization we might want to make about strategy is increasingly inapplicable to the whole. Therefore we need to ask, pluralistically not what the approaches to strategy in the modern business environment, but which approach is applicable under which circumstances." -Martin Reeves __________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing Martin + The topic of today’s episode 2:05—If you really know me, you know that.... 2:30—What is your definition of strategy? 3:29—What are you most known for? 4:40—Could you talk a bit about your strategy of strategies? 7:24—Do the sources of competitive advantage change in light of the rising dominance of ecosystems? 9:47—What does creativity in strategy have to do with play and imagination? 12:05—The first step of the Imagination Cycle: Seduction 12:50—The second step of the Imagination Cycle: Idea 13:44—The third step of the Imagination Cycle: Collision 14:22—The fourth step of the Imagination Cycle: Epidemic 15:40—The fifth step of the Imagination Cycle: Codification 17:10—The sixth step of the Imagination Cycle: Encore 17:50—How can people connect with you, and what are you working on next? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Company Page: https://www.bcg.com/ Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 27 Jan 2023 | #74—John Mullins: Exploring Entrepreneurial Mindsets | 00:22:35 | |
John Mullins is an Associate Professor of Management Practice at the London Business School. He earned his MBA at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and his Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota. An award-winning teacher and scholar and one of the world’s foremost thought leaders in entrepreneurship, John brings to his teaching and research 20 years of executive experience in high-growth retailing firms, including two ventures he founded and one he took public. Since becoming an entrepreneurship professor in 1992, John has published five books, dozens of cases and more than 50 articles in a variety of outlets, including Harvard Business Review, the MIT Sloan Management Review, and The Wall Street Journal. His research has won national and international awards, and he is a frequent and sought-after speaker and educator for audiences in entrepreneurship and venture capital. John has authored and co-authored three widely-recognized books: The New Business Road Test: What Entrepreneurs and Executives Should Do Before Launching a Lean Start-Up, Getting to Plan B: Breaking Through to a Better Business Model, and The Customer-Funded Business: Start, Finance or Grow Your Company with Your Customers’ Cash. John’s newest book, Break the Rules! The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World (released January 2023), identifies what makes entrepreneurs “entrepreneurial” and provides a road-map for how anyone can adopt and master these mindsets to challenge assumptions, overcome obstacles, and mitigate risk. John has done executive education on five continents for a variety of organizations both large and small, including the Young Presidents’ Organization, Endeavor, the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, Kenya Airways, Merck-Serono, 3M, among many others. He has served on the boards of fast-growing entrepreneurial companies in the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, and Asia. You can also listen to John on the From Founder to CEO podcast at London Business School. In this podcast, he shares:
_________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing John + The topic of today’s episode 2:34—If you really know me, you know that... 3:41—What is your definition of strategy? 4:00—What drove you to develop your current career path, after your original one? 5:26—What was the topic you were known for that propelled you into becoming a London Business School professor? 6:51—Could you tell us a little about your book, Getting to Plan B? 8:49—Could you tell us about the story that illustrates the points in Getting to Plan B—it's so relevant to entrepreneurs? 10:08—Your next book is about next book, The Customer-Funded Business? 13:40—You say your most recent book, Break the Rules, is the most important book. Why is that? 15:53—Could you describe the six mindsets of entrepreneurs you describe in your most recent book? 20:59—Any last thoughts you'd like to leave Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 25 Nov 2022 | #69—Derek Lidow: The Historical and Modern Role of Entrepreneurs in Society | 00:18:57 | |
Derek Lidow is unique in having successful careers as CEO of a global publicly traded semiconductor company, a founder and CEO of an innovative and valuable startup, and now as a teacher and scholar of entrepreneurship and innovation. Derek is a professor of the practice at the Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Education at Princeton University. He is the author of Startup Leadership: How Savvy Entrepreneurs Turn Their Ideas Into Successful Enterprises , Building on Bedrock: What Sam Walton, Walt Disney, and Other Great Self-Made Entrepreneurs Can Teach Us About Building Valuable Companies, and THE ENTREPRENEURS: The Relentless Quest for Value, as well as more than a hundred articles on innovation, entrepreneurship, and leadership. Lidow graduated summa cum laude from Princeton and received a PhD from Stanford as a Hertz Foundation Fellow. In this podcast, he shares:
__________________________________________________________________________________________ "" -Derek Lidow _________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing Derek + The topic of today’s episode 2:23—If you really know me, you know that... 2:54—What is your definition of strategy? 3:29—What is your definition of entrepreneurship? 5:14—Could you talk about the history of corporations and their structures, and how entrepreneurs fit into that? 7:01—How were business people like the Elon Musks and Jeff Bezos perceived 4,000 years ago, and who were they? 8:15—What would the world look like without entrepreneurs within the business mix? 9:39—What are the less desirable impacts of entrepreneurs? 11:51—How do we incentivize entrepreneurs to lean toward positive endeavors? 14:14—Do you believe there is a shift toward entrepreneurs being focused on societal problems rather than self-interest focuses? 15:44—What does it take to be a successful entrepreneur (qualities, characteristics, etc.)? 17:16—What is something you'd like to share we haven't covered? 17:58—How can people continue to learn from you and follow you? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Personal Page: https://dereklidow.com/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dereklidow Twitter: https://twitter.com/DerekLidow Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/derek.lidow1 Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 16 Jun 2023 | #94—Ralph Birchmeier: Insights for Strategists from an Investment Expert | 00:22:16 | |
Ralph Birchmeieir’s expertise is in accounting, finance, valuation, and strategy. He is a former partner at a global investment firm where he headed financial research into banks, insurers, and real estate concerns. He and his team routinely met with company managements, emerging fintechs, insurtechs and IT professionals. He also sat on two investment committees, constructing global equity portfolios in small cap and all cap strategies. Ralph retired at the end of 2018, taking time out to teach, volunteer, and to become more involved in private company investments. He was an advisor to a digital life distributor, an advisor for a fintech accelerator, and consulted in the AI health care space. He was also a member of Tech Coast Angels, one of the largest angel groups, where he participated in the due diligence process. His first investment book, Reasons To Pass, was published in early 2023. In previous roles he worked as a CPA at a tier one accounting firm, for a quantitative investment manager, obtained his Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and earned his MBA with honors from Columbia Business School. In this episode, he shares:
_________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Highlight from today's episode 01:15—Introducing Ralph + The topic of today’s episode 3:42—If you really know me, you know that... 4:11—What is your definition of strategy? 5:18—Could you tell us a little bit about why you wrote Reasons to Pass? 7:30—What should management be thinking about when it comes to corporate governance? 11:55—Can you talk to us about as a strategist, what should I be thinking about with regard to asset liability mismatch? 14:46—Can you talk to us about valuation, and making sure the messaging is appropriate for the market? 17:39—Let's get into financial leverage... 20:51—Let's recap the reasons to pass addressed in this episode... 21:28—How can people follow you and connect with you to continue learning from you? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Newest Book: http://cup.columbia.edu/book/reasons-to-pass/9780231556804 Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 13 Oct 2023 | #102—Matt Abrahams: Optimizing Your Strategic Communication Toolkit | 00:22:16 | |
In this episode, Matt Abrahams, leading expert in communication with decades of experience as an educator, author, podcast host, and coach shares some of his top insights into strategic communication. He gives us a holistic explanation of what effective communication is, as well as dives into practical daily tips and techniques you can use in any conversation. As a Lecturer in Organizational Behavior at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, he teaches popular classes in strategic communication and effective virtual presenting. He received Stanford GSB’s Alumni Teaching Award in recognition of his teaching students around the world. When he isn’t teaching, Matt is a sought-after keynote speaker and communication consultant. He has helped countless presenters improve and hone their communication, including some who have delivered IPO road shows as well as TED, World Economic Forum, and Nobel Prize presentations. His online talks garner millions of views and he hosts the popular, award-winning podcast Think Fast, Talk Smart: The Podcast. He is the author of Think Faster, Talk Smarter: How to Speak Successfully When You’re Put on the Spot. His previous book Speaking Up without Freaking Out: 50 Techniques for Confident and Compelling Presenting has helped thousands of people manage speaking anxiety and present more confidently and authentically. _________________________________________________________________________________________ In this episode, he shares:
_________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Highlight from today's episode 1:13—Introducing Matt + The topic of today’s episode 3:01—If you really know me, you know that... 4:27—What is your definition of strategy? 5:53—Can you give us your developed theory on communication? 7:56—Could we talk about Step 2, "structures"? 9:56—Can you explain improv (improvisational) speaking, and its benefits in business speaking? 12:04—Can you give us some improv-based tactics that can help us navigate unexpected disruptions during our presentation, speech, etc.? 14:15—Can you elaborate on your tactic of "chunking"? 15:22—What can you tell us about the idea that "communication is the thinking"? 17:22—How do you see AI changing communication as a communication strategist? 19:37—Talk us about your ideas around calendar invites... 21:19—How can people follow you and connect with you to continue learning from you? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.co Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 25 Feb 2022 | #39—Gary Hamel: Lessons on Keeping Your Business Strategy Competitive | 00:36:50 | |
Gary Hamel is one of the world’s most influential and iconoclastic business thinkers. He has worked with leading companies across the globe and is a dynamic and sought-after management speaker. Hamel has been on the faculty of the London Business School for more than 30 years and is the director of the Management Lab. Gary has written 20 articles for the Harvard Business Review and is the most reprinted author in the Review’s history. His landmark books have been translated into more than 25 languages. His most recent bestsellers are Humanocracy and The Future of Management. In these volumes, Hamel presents an impassioned plea for reinventing management and lays out a practical blueprint for building organizations that are “fit for the future.” Fortune magazine describes Hamel as “the world’s leading expert on business strategy,” and the Financial Times calls him a “management innovator without peer.” Hamel has been ranked by The Wall Street Journal as the world’s most influential business thinker and is a fellow of the Strategic Management Society and of the World Economic Forum. In his work, Gary has led transformational efforts in some of the world’s most notable companies and has helped to create billions of dollars in shareholder value. He is one of the world’s most sought-after management speakers on the topics of strategy, leadership, innovation and change. In this podcast, he shares:
__________________________________________________________________________________________ "You start with an aspiration and then you work backward from that. You know, innovation is born in the gap between aspiration high and resources." -Gary Hamel __________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing Gary + The topic of today’s episode 2:40—If you really know me, you know that.... 3:10—What is your definition of strategy? 4:49—What would you say you are most known for? 6:31—Second well-known article, The Core Competence of the Corporation 8:40—The concept of "Strategies Revolution," looking at strategy as an innovation problem, and letting go of strategic planning 10:30—How do you know if you're spending enough time on core initiatives vs. new initiatives? 14:25—How to address "leadership myopia" when you recognize it 19:12—Should all strategists start with strategic intent, or where if not? 20:58—Where do new game-changing strategies come from? 24:37—If you want to be the next "unicorn" creating a process for developing a portfolio of strategic options is essential 27:24—Learning to recognize patterns when developing strategic options 29:58—The benefit of collaboration in making strategic decisions 32:38—How can people connect and engage with you, and what Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 10 Jun 2022 | #51—Ben Casnocha: Embracing Your Inner Entrepreneur | 00:20:56 | |
Ben Casnocha is an entrepreneur and cofounder of Village Global, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm that has funded hundreds of startups and the co-author, with LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, of The Start-Up of You: Adapt, Take Risks, Grow your Network, and Transform Your Career. He delivers keynote speeches on business and globalization and has appeared on CBS’s The Early Show, CNN, and CNBC. He is the coauthor of the New York Times bestselling management book The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age (with LinkedIn chairman Reid Hoffman and entrepreneur Chris Yeh). He started and scaled several ventures, including an e-government software company (Comcate) that currently delivers hosted CRM solutions to hundreds of local governments in America, an online education business, and a top tier boutique management training business. In this podcast, he shares:
__________________________________________________________________________________________ "One of the new terms is the concept of portfolio careers because we realized that in the last 10 years, there are so many people who don't just have one job. Their career is stitched together, different a lot of writers and speakers and consultants run this at the high end. And at the low end, it's gig workers and everywhere in between. And so people are stitching together kind of braiding the modern career together in a way that's very different than the 40-hour-a-week company man." -Ben Casnocha __________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing Ben + The topic of today’s episode 1:51—If you really know me you know that... 2:13—What is your definition of strategy? 2:54—Could you tell us about your book, The Startup of You? 5:44—What do you think has changed in the job market that prompted you to change the title of your book from the first to the second edition? 7:41—Can you tell us about how leadership has changed from authority to creating followership? 9:24—What are the implications of your insights into how hiring consequently changes because of these insights? 10:50—What are your thoughts of how the average tenure of CEOs has changed in the last 10 years to be much shorter? 12:58—Do you believe that the shift of power from the employer to the employee is permanent or will swing back at some point? 16:36—Could you talk to us about your idea of luck? 18:38—What put you on the path of entrepreneurship that led you to Village Global, your venture capital firm? 20:13—Where can people follow you and your work? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 09 Jul 2021 | #15—Tendayi Viki: Be a ‘Pirate in the Navy’ to Innovate Strategically | 00:16:24 | |
Tendayi Viki is an author and corporate innovation expert. As Associate Partner at Strategyzer, he helps companies innovate for the future while managing their core business. He has written three books: Pirates In The Navy, The Corporate Startup and The Lean Product Lifecycle. He previously served as Director of Product Lifecycle at Pearson, where he co-developed an innovation framework that won the Best Innovation Program 2015 at the Corporate Entrepreneur Awards in New York. Tendayi has been shortlisted for the Thinkers50 Innovation Award and was named on the Thinkers50 2018 Radar List for emerging management thinkers to watch. He is also a regular contributor at Forbes. In this episode, Tendayi discusses with Kaihan why innovation has to follow strategy and how you can become a pirate in the Navy (or an employee entrepreneur) to create new innovative solutions. __________________________________________________________________________________________ "One of my pet peeves is when I meet heads of innovation and they say, 'My job is to let a thousand flowers bloom. There's no such thing as a bad idea.'and I just think that it sounds good in a sense that you want to democratize innovation, and yet it's very rare that I've ever found any innovation that is succeeded without some strategic connection." -Tendayi Viki __________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing Tendaya Viki + The topic of today’s episode 1:20—If you really know me, you know that... 2:04—What is your definition of strategy? 3:07—What got you interested in strategy? 5:13—Which comes first—strategy or letting ideas bloom? 6:18—What would you say you're most known for? 8:15—What story best illustrates why your concept is so important? 9:47—Could you explain your concept of "Pirates in the Navy?" 12:09—What framework or idea has been most impactful for you? 12:56—What's your favorite framework or tool that you like to use? 14:40—What are you working on now? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 12 Jan 2024 | #108—Jean-Manuel Izaret: Mastering Your Pricing Strategy: Tips and Insights from JMI of BCG | 00:30:24 | |
Jean-Manuel Izaret, or, JMI as he often prefers to go by, is a BCG managing director and senior partner and the global leader of the Marketing, Sales & Pricing practice based in San Francisco. His work as a BCG Fellow focuses on the topic of pricing model transformation. JMI has worked on pricing issues across industries, including consumer goods, retail, high tech, financial services, and industrial goods. JMI has a talent for condensing the intricate and vast topic of pricing into clear, simple concepts that any business person can apply. His book, Game Changer: How Strategic Pricing Shapes Businesses, Markets, and Society, released just this October 2023, and co-written with Arnab Sinha, was written with the mission to flip the flawed and clichéd conversations surrounding pricing to an approach that promises winning strategies for greater and fairer value to the buyer and seller and to society at large. _________________________________________________________________________________________ In this episode, he shares:
_________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Highlight from today's episode 00:56—Introducing JMI + The topic of today’s episode 3:32—If you really know me, you know that... 5:36—What do people most get wrong when approaching pricing? 7:43—How Netflix's change in their pricing model evolved over time, radically changing the business model itself 8:48—How does a business decide on what unit to use to when establishing price? 12:17—How do you decide what part of the market or customer segment is going to dictate and most influence the decisions you make when shaping your business model and product? 16:57—What has changed over time about pricing? 20:12—Could you walk us through your Hexagon pricing model? 23:58—What are your thoughts around the rise in dynamic pricing? 26:37—As an interesting side tangent—why do you think Europeans have such a different relationship with tipping than Americans? 29:24—How can people follow you and connect with you to continue learning from you? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Author Website:https://www.izaret.net/bio Book website: https: Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 09 Sep 2022 | #58—Marshall Goldsmith: Creating a Life of Fulfillment as a Leader | 00:26:29 | |
Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, a New York Times #1 bestselling author, has written or edited 47 books which have sold over 3 million copies, been translated into 32 languages, and become listed bestsellers in 12 countries. Amazon recently recognized the ‘100 Best Leadership & Success Books Ever Written,' and included Marshall’s Triggers and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There. Marshall is the only living author with two books on the list. Marshall is a member of the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame. He is the only two-time Thinkers50 #1 Leadership Thinker in the World. He has been ranked as the World’s #1 Executive Coach and Top Ten Business Thinker for eight years, and he was chosen as the inaugural winner of the Lifetime Award for Leadership by the Harvard Institute of Coaching. Marshall served as a Professor of Management Practice at the Dartmouth Tuck School of Business. His Ph.D. is from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, where he was the Distinguished Alumnus of the Year, and his MBA is from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, where he was the Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year. He is one of a select few executive coaches who has worked with over 200 major CEOs and their management teams. He served on the Advisory Board of the Peter Drucker Foundation for ten years and has been a volunteer teacher for US Army Generals, Navy Admirals, Girl Scout executives, and leaders of the International and American Red Cross – where he was a National Volunteer of the Year. He has over 1.3 million followers on LinkedIn and over 3 million views on YouTube. Hundreds of his articles, interviews, columns, and videos are available (at no charge) online at www.MarshallGoldsmith.com. People from around the world have viewed, read, listened to, downloaded, or shared his resources tens of millions of times. In this podcast, he shares:
__________________________________________________________________________________________ "" -Marshall Goldsmith __________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing Marshall + The topic of today’s episode 3:02—If you really know me, you know that... 3:53—What is your definition of strategy? 4:25—What is the "trick" to creating a vision for your company? 5:08—What are you most well-known for? 5:52—What motivated you to write your newest book? 6:49—You talk about "every breath is a new me" in your book. Could you elaborate on this? 8:53—How do you coach someone to learn to make the shift to a change? 11:24—You say in your book, "credibility has to be earned twice." What do you mean by that? 16:21—What are your thought on the topic of getting buy-in from leadership, and how this is one of the most critical points of making an idea come to fruition? 20:50—The three big points in The Earned Life 24:13—How can people connect and follow you to keep Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 05 Nov 2021 | #27—Michael Tushman: Why Ambidextrous Organizations Outperform Others | 00:20:28 | |
Michael Tushman is a Baker Foundation Professor, Paul R Lawrence Professor Emeritus, and faculty chair of the Advanced Management Program (AMP) at Harvard Business School. He is also a founding director of Change Logic, a Boston-based strategic advisory firm. Michael is internationally recognized for his work on the relations between technological change, executive leadership and organization adaptation, and for his work on innovation streams and organization design. Mike is an active business consultant and educator, working with CEOs and senior teams around the world. Mike leads several Harvard Business School's premier learning opportunities for executives. In addition to AMP, he is faculty co-chair of Leading Change and Organizational Renewal and is a former Faculty Chair for the Professional Leadership Development Program. He also teaches on the Business Analytics Program, HBS’s first online only program. Mike’s publications include Lead and Disrupt, Winning Through Innovation: A Practical Guide to Leading Organizational Renewal and Change, both with Charles O’Reilly; and Corporate Explorer: how corporates beat startups at the innovation game with Andy Binns. In this podcast he shares:
__________________________________________________________________________________________ "My experience with ambidexterity is the structure is pretty trivial. You just put the past in the future. Oftentimes the reason that ambidextrous structures fail is that the senior team cannot deal with the paradox and tensions and contradictions associated with both exploiting and exploring simultaneously. So I would beg the strategy types in the room to help your colleagues attend to inconsistent strategies simultaneously in service of the overarching identity and help their colleagues deal with tension in the room is that is not there exploit always kills, explore." -Michael Tushman __________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing Michael Tushman + The topic of today’s episode 2:38—If you really know me, you know that... 2:01—What is your definition of strategy? 4:50—What are you most well-known for? 7:25—Could you explain to us the concept of an ambidextrous organization? 10:15—How do you find leaders that can manage the tension between exploit and explore? 15:40—Could you explain how explore companies differ in how they shape the context and rules? 16:50—Could you explain a little more about this identity conflict that companies experience? 19:18—What are you working on now and how should people connect with you? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Faculty Page at HBS: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/profi Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 21 Jan 2022 | #34—Faith Popcorn: Predictions to Know From a Leading Futurist | 00:21:12 | |
Faith Popcorn founded her BrainReserve (FPBR), the futurist marketing consultancy, in 1974. The New York Times has called her “The Trend Oracle," Fortune Magazine named her “The Nostradamus of Marketing," and she is recognized globally as the original and foremost Futurist. She has identified such sweeping societal movements as “Cocooning,“ “SOS,” “AtmosFear,“ “Anchoring,“ “99 Lives" and “Vigilante Consumer." As the key strategist for Faith Popcorn’s BrainReserve, Faith and her esteemed team apply their insights to cultural and business Trend Truths, opening the vision of their clients, repositioning their brands/companies, developing new models and innovating for sustainable growth. She is a trusted advisor to the CEOs of The Fortune 200 including such companies as American Express, Apple, Campbell's Soup, Citigroup, Chipotle, Colgate, Comcast, among many others. With a documented 95% accuracy rate, Faith predicted the demand for fresh foods, home delivery, telemedicine, enhanced entertainment and home schooling, as well as capturing the spiritual tenor of the millennium with Cocooning and its impact on COVID-culture. Additionally, she predicted the rise of Social Media. Faith is also the best-selling author of four books: The Popcorn Report, Clicking, EVEolution, Dictionary of the Future and the Upcoming, and Popcorn Report 2030: A Leap of Faith. In this podcast she shares:
__________________________________________________________________________________________ " I think the greatest error that people make about the future is trying to extrapolate what's going to happen from what did happen from the past. That is a major error, the way to figure out the future and become an overnight futurist is look forward." -Faith Popcorn __________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Faith + The topic of today’s episode 2:20—If you really know me, you know that.... 3:06—What is your definition of strategy? 3:40—What are you most well-known for? 4:51—What is the process you use, and how do you frame a strategy around those trends? 6:30—How do you define the metaverse, and what does it mean for the future? 8:13—How do you see bitcoin shaping the future? 8:50—Can you give us an example of a company that was reluctant to adapt to change, and the effects of this? 10:00—Tell us more about NFTs 10:50—What happens when technology is misused? 11:33—What are you thoughts on early adapters? 12:23—Talk to us about the future of work 11:33—What are you thoughts on early adapters? 14:05—How will freelance and gig workers find security in the future? 14:50—Can you talk to us about the future of robots? 18:00—What is something people do wrong when predicting future trends, and what kind they do to avoid this? 19:05 Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 21 Apr 2023 | #86—David Shrier: The Accelerated Adoption of AI and Digital Technologies | 00:20:48 | |
David Shrier is a globally-recognized expert on technology-driven change at scale. He is a Professor of Practice, AI & Innovation, with Imperial College Business School, where he is founding faculty of the Centre for Digital Transformation and leads the new Trusted AI initiative. Healso chairs the Research group for the World Metaverse Council. Through his venture studio Visionary Future, David also works extensively with the private sector helping established organizations build innovative capacity, having developed $10 billion of value-creation opportunities with companies such as UBS, Dun & Bradstreet, Kyriba, Ernst & Young, GE and The Walt Disney Company, as well as leading private equity and VC funds. He is CEO of a NYSE-listed company which he led through a 500%-oversubscribed IPO, and advises disruptive technology companies such as Dandelion Science (neurotechnology) and Kaleidoco (metaverse). He is best known for creating and leading the blockchain and fintech classes for MIT and Oxford that expanded access in over 150 countries and revolutionized the business model for higher education online. His efforts resulted in nearly $1 billion of financial support for MIT, Harvard and Oxford. David’s government advisory work spans over 100 countries and has influenced policy affecting more than 2.4 billion people. He has published seven books in seven years; his eighth book, Basic Metaverse, is coming out June 8, from Little Brown and Harvard Business Publishing. More information at www.VisionaryFuture.com. In this episode, he shares:
_________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Highlight from today's episode 00:51—Introducing David + The topic of today’s episode 2:47—If you really know me, you know that... 3:44—What is your definition of strategy? 4:47—Could you talk to us about your work at Oxford and MIT around digital technologies? 7:51—Could you give us your definition of the metaverse as you would explain it? 9:43—How do you see business changing, and how long will these digital transformations be adopted? 14:06—What are some of the implications of the adoption of these technologies that people would be surprised by or people get wrong? 17:05—What drove you to write your newest book on AI, what was the timing? 19:18—What do you think business leaders need to act in light of this fast impending change? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Personal Page: https://davidshrier.com/ Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 24 Nov 2023 | #105—Bob Sutton: Leveraging Friction in Your Organization | 00:28:14 | |
Bob Sutton is an organizational psychologist and professor of Management Science and Engineering at the Stanford Engineering School. He has given keynote speeches to more than 200 groups in 20 countries, and served on numerous scholarly editorial boards focused around his work on leadership, innovation, organizational change, and workplace dynamics. His most recent book, THE FRICTION PROJECT: How Smart Leaders Make the Right Things Easier and the Wrong Things Harder, co-written with Huggy Rao is focused on scaling and leading at scale. Based on 10 years of research it outlines how to grow organizations, it suggests something really compelling: you know we all almost by default think we should be strive to build a “frictionless organization” to drive agility and efficiency. Bob points out that friction is not bad on its own. In fact, you WANT to create friction to slow down “bad” things while reducing friction to promote good things. This can enhance performance, innovation, and help make sure you fall into the trap of letting bad things grow as the company scales. _________________________________________________________________________________________ In this episode, he shares:
_________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Highlight from today's episode 1:20—Introducing Bob + The topic of today’s episode 3:50—If you really know me, you know that... 5:05—What is your definition of strategy? 7:07—Can you talk to us about the premise of your book, The Friction Project, and its background? 10:50—Could you talk to us about the moments in which friction can be a good thing, or when to apply "gas vs. brakes 16:05—How do you recognize where to apply this idea of velocity vs. slowing down? 18:57—How is it that some teams seem to come together and work seamlessly, while others seem to struggle? 22:57—What is changing in business in terms of leadership, the way people work, etc.? 26:05—Can you talk to us about the importance of reducing frictions, especially in regards to technology? 26:50—How can people follow you and connect with you to continue learning from you? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Author Website: bobsutton.net Email: https://www.bobsutton.net/contact/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobsutton1/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/wor Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 01 Apr 2022 | Building Business Ecosystems Series: #1—Tiffani Bova | 00:32:22 | |
*Note to listeners* This episode is part of a special sub-series on business ecosystems. Tiffani Bova is the chief growth evangelist at Salesforce and the author of the Wall Street Journal bestselling book GROWTH IQ: Get Smarter About the Choices that Will Make or Break Your Business. Tiffani has been named to the latest Thinkers50’s list of the world’s top management thinkers and is a welcomed guest on Bloomberg, BNN, Cheddar, MSNBC, and Yahoo Finance, among others. She also contributes her thinking to publications including Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Quora, Thrive, among others. She is a change-maker who’s thought-provoking and forward-thinking insights have made her a frequent guest on a variety of industry-leading podcasts and live broadcasts. Tiffani Bova began her career as a sales, marketing and customer service executive for startups and Fortune 500 companies where she was recognized as being one of the first to develop a robust go-to-market model for cloud-based solutions and indirect channel strategies. This experience brought her to Salesforce where she became global growth evangelist, driving customer success through a vast network of customer and partner ecosystems. She has consistently been a leader in witnessing, understanding and helping shape the relationship with ecosystems across various organizations. In this discussion, Tiffani shares her insights on: In this podcast, she shares:
__________________________________________________________________________________________ "So, it has really been this interesting shift that kind of 2000, this chasm was crossed around opening up ecosystems to different kinds of partners as well, the opportunity to reach different kinds of customers in new ways through new channels." -Tiffani Bova __________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing Tiffani + The topic of today’s episode 1:58—What are your thoughts on the future of ecosystem-based competition? 5:28—How partnerships in ecosystems are different than traditional business partnerships 7:03—How the internet has changed ecosystems by connecting different players to customers 8:17—Are there more ecosystem-based companies now? 9:57—What are sources of competitive advantage of key success factors that companies need to add to their strategic toolkit in light of ecosystems becoming more prevalent? 15:54—What can you tell us about ecosystem players that just join an ecosystem, vs. have to do a lot of the heavy lifting to build it? 21:29—What are t Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 27 May 2022 | #49—Geoff Smart: A Proven Method for Optimizing Your Hiring Process | 00:20:29 | |
Dr. Geoff Smart is the Chairman & Founder of ghSMART. Founded in 1995, ghSMART helps Fortune 500 CEOs & boards, billionaire entrepreneurs, and heads of state achieve their goals through hiring, developing, and leading talented teams. They serve clients globally from 12 offices in North America and Europe. For three consecutive years, Forbes named ghSMART the best management consulting firm in its industry segment. ghSMART is the subject of two Harvard Business School Cases, and its credo is “We exist to help leaders amplify their positive impact on the world.” ghSMART has published three bestselling books. Who: A Method for Hiring is a New York Times bestseller that is currently ranked #1 on Amazon.com on the topic of hiring talented teams, among a number of other bestsellers such as TopGrading and the Power Score. Geoff has personally advised four sitting U.S. Governors, a U.S. Senator, White House Fellows, world leaders in education, defense, and public health, and the President of the World Bank. In this podcast, he shares:
__________________________________________________________________________________________ "So to me, strategy and culture both come from having better talent, more talented, diverse good-hearted people on your team than the next competitor. That's the work, that's the hard work once you have that "Oh, sure let's go international, let's go digital, let's smoke this set of competitors. Let's do this customer segmentation." You can do strategy when you have the right talent and culture." -Geoff Smart __________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing Geoff + The topic of today’s episode 2:13—If you really know me you know that... 2:54—What is your definition of strategy? 3:59—What did you take away with your experience working with Peter Drucker? 6:31—Could you give us a brief overview of the framework from your most successful book, Who? 8:54—What are things you shouldn't do when hiring? 10:49—What are the four things you should be doing for successful hiring? 15:29—The third step of the hiring framework 16:37—The last step of the framework 17:19—What is something you've changed your mind about? 18:14—How can people connect with you and learn more about what you're working on? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Personal Page: https://geoffsmart.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/geoffreysmart Books: https://www.amazon.com/Geoff-Smart/e/B001J8ZIV8%3Fr Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 10 Dec 2021 | #32—Ben Gomes-Casseres: Mastering the Three Rules of Business Combinations | 00:23:33 | |
Ben Gomes-Casseres has worked on partnership strategies for thirty years, as a researcher, teacher, and advisor. A professor at Brandeis University, Ben directs the Asper Center for Global Entrepreneurship. Previously, he was at Harvard Business School and at the World Bank. Ben has published five books and many articles and case studies on M&A, alliances, and joint ventures, and his views have appeared widely in the business press. Ben helps companies create value from external resources by improving the way they manage partnerships. He holds degrees from Harvard, Princeton, and Brandeis. A native of Curaçao, he speaks four languages, and his work can be found at www.remixstrategy.com. His newest book is Remix Strategy: The Three Laws of Business Combinations. He also offers two online courses on Linked-In Learning (Lynda.com): “Strategic Partnerships” and “Ecosystems and Platforms.” In this podcast he shares:
__________________________________________________________________________________________ -Ben Casseres-Gomes __________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Ben Gomez + The topic of today’s episode 2:05—If you really know me, you know that.... 3:10—What is your definition of strategy? 5:24—Could you tells us more about your concept of "business combinations"? 6:58—What are the "rules" so to speak about the blurred lines between B2B and B2C in this new ecosystem business environment? 8:50—Could you describe the difference between an ecosystem and a platform? 11:28—Could you walk us through the three rules of ecosystems? 13:16—How does the "pie" get divided so all players get an equal amount of value? 15:12—Tell us about branding. Can an ecosystem have a brand? 17:53—Could you tell us a little more about the "one plus one" rule? 19:38—What do people usually get wrong? 21:23—How can people follow, find and learn from you? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Company page: www.alliancestrategy.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/bencasseres LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bengomescasseres Brandeis Faculty Page: https://www.brandeis.edu/facultyguide/person.html?emplid=d6dac7e5051c516ace0f11fbc430d0cd13c40dcf Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 23 Jun 2023 | #95—Terence Mauri: Navigating Complexity and Uncertainty with Agility and Resilience | 00:22:02 | |
Terence Mauri is the founder of the management think thank Hack Future Lab, a bestselling author and a visiting Professor at IE Business School. Terence challenges leaders to pivot from ‘wait and see’ to ‘explore and disrupt’ in a world of complexity and uncertainty. Terence says: ’Building a bold and resilient future never happens by accident. To sustain vitality for the long-term, we must have an eye on the future while searching every day for the upside of disruption.’ His recent publications include co-authoring Thinkers50’s Certain Uncertainty: Leading with Agility and Resilience in an Unpredictable World’ and Building Resilient Organizations: Best practices, tools and insights to thrive in ever-changing contexts. In this episode, he shares:
_________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Highlight from today's episode 00:55—Introducing Terence + The topic of today’s episode 2:24—If you really know me, you know that... 3:33—What is your definition of strategy? 4:33—Can you talk to us about your concept of unlearning? 6:59—What is the barrier that keeps organizations from implementing a culture of unlearning? 9:24—Could you explain your concept of "concept over control"? 11:18—What does a career ladder look like nowadays? 12:25—Could you talk to us about the risk of standing still? 14:14—Why do you believe we should we be planning from the future? 16:26—How does one do the third piece of activating the urgency within your organization? 18:03—How do you suggest companies move to a more decentralized org structure without the cognitive overload? 20:20—What do you think is something people should know as a closing thought? 21:01—How can people follow you and connect with you to continue learning from you? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Personal page: https://www.terencemauri.com/ Books: https://www.terencemauri.com/#bestsellers Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/terencemauri Twitter: https://twitter.com/terencemauri Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 11 Nov 2022 | #67—Kirstin Ferguson: Eight Traits to Mastering the Art of the Modern Leader | 00:24:51 | |
As an award-winning and globally recognised leader, executive coach, company director, writer and speaker, Kirstin Ferguson is one of Australia’s most prominent leadership experts. Kirstin is also making a global impact, with UK-based Thinkers50 naming her one of the world’s top 30 “Thinkers to Watch” and she was shortlisted for the Distinguished Award in Leadership in 2021. Kirstin’s career includes over a decade of experience on a range of company boards, including a previous appointment by the Australian Prime Minister as Acting Chair and Deputy Chair of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Kirstin currently sits on the boards of two technology companies. Kirstin has previously been the CEO of a global consulting company, a senior executive at a leading corporate law firm, and spent nearly 10 years as an Officer in the Royal Australian Air Force. Kirstin’s second book, Head & Heart: The Art of Modern Leadership has been described as an “indispensable companion for every leader” and “the book we need right now.” A passionate advocate for women, diversity, and inclusion, Kirstin was responsible for sparking a viral social media campaign called #CelebratingWomen, and is the co-author of award-winning book, Women Kind. Kirstin writes a popular weekly column for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age called Got a Minute? answering the nation’s work, leadership, and culture questions. In this podcast, she shares:
__________________________________________________________________________________________ "" -Kirstin Ferguson _________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing Kirstin + The topic of today’s episode 2:20—If you really know me, you know that... 3:09—What is your definition of strategy? 4:47—What got you interested in strategy? 5:40—How can people at every level become leaders? 7:06—Could you explain why you titled your new book "the head and heart"? 9:16—Could you break down the eight attributes of "head and heart" leaders? 11:39—What does it look like to have too much empathy? 12:55—What is your perspective on having confidence vs. humility when it comes to strategic decision-making? 15:29—Having experienced both military and business realms, how has that shaped your perspective? 19:49—How do you help people who don't feel ready to "step up" feel comfortable taking on a leadership role? 21:48—What is the importance or cost of good leadership? 23:15—How can people continue to learn from you and follow you? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Personal Page: https://www.kirstinferguson.com/ Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 08 Dec 2023 | #106—David Lancefield: Strategy and Culture in Tandem | 00:23:09 | |
David Lancefield is a catalyst, strategist and coach to senior executives, professionals and entrepreneurs. Over the last 25 years, David has worked with organizations on strategy, innovation, culture from start-ups to blue chips, while building and leading successful businesses and client accounts within PwC. He also speaks, facilitates and hosts the Lancefield on the Line podcast, and writes for Harvard Business Review and is a contributing editor for Strategy+Business, as well as being published by Forbes and Financial Times, among others. David sits in the intersection of how strategy, leadership and culture all come together. In this thought-provoking conversation, we discuss two topics that are prevalent in the business world—strategy and culture. But where they are often treated as one dependent on the other, David brings to us the perspective that the two directly support and inform one another—and that building them in tandem is a competitive advantage is too often overlooked. _________________________________________________________________________________________ In this episode, he shares:
_________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Highlight from today's episode 1:14—Introducing David + The topic of today’s episode 3:02—If you really know me, you know that... 4:02—What is your definition of strategy? 5:18—How do you align strategy and culture, and which one would you say comes first? 7:22—What is the relationship between behaviors and their relation to culture? 8:59—what happens when strategy and culture are not well aligned? 12:13—How do you measure culture? 13:59—Is there a set of steps you find most effective when enacting a culture change? 15:55—How do you identify your cultural advocates that can help promote your culture? 19:49—What are your thoughts on intrapreneurship? 21:50—How can people follow you and connect with you to continue learning from you? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Author Website: https://davidlancefield.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidclancefield/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Dlancefield Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 31 Mar 2023 | #83—Avi Goldfarb: AI-Generated Predictions as a Strategic Asset | 00:19:42 | |
Avi Goldfarb is the Rotman Chair in Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare and Professor of Marketing at Toronto's Rotman School of Management. He is also Chief Data Scientist at the Creative Destruction Lab, a fellow at Behavioral Economics in Action at Rotman, and a faculty affiliate at the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Avi has written extensively on a broad range of topics from marketing, statistics, law, management, medicine, political science, refugee studies, among many others. He has also conducted much deep work in the study of AI and machine learning and how businesses can wield and leverage the predictive capabilities of these technologies. In this podcast, he shares:
_________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Highlight from today's episode 00:44—Introducing Avi+ The topic of today’s episode 2:21—If you really know me, you know that... 2:50—Could you talk about cost of prediction coming on? 6:25—Can machine learning surpass human judgment, or where do they have their place? 9:30—Could you explain the point-to-point solutions vs. systemic changes? 11:40—How does technology change power? 14:27—Could you give us an example of the impact of AI-powered predictions in a practical real-life case? 17:01—Do you think we have a reason to worry? 19:01—How can people continue learning from you? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Personal Page: https://www.avigoldfarb.com/ Linkedin: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/avi-goldfarb-46a7473 Twitter: https://twitter.com/avicgoldfarb?lang=en Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 02 Sep 2022 | #57—Horst Schulze: Insights into Creating a Winning Culture from a Leading Hotelier | 00:21:02 | |
A legend and leader in the hotel world, Horst Schulze's teachings and vision have reshaped the concepts of service and hospitality across industries. Horst’s professional life began more than 65 years ago as a server's assistant in a German resort town. He has worked for both Hilton Hotels and Hyatt Hotels Corporation before becoming one of the founding members of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company in 1983, where he created the operating and service standards that have become world famous. Horst served as President and COO, responsible for the $2 billion operations worldwide. It was under his leadership that The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company became the first service-based company to be awarded the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award—twice. In 1991, Horst was recognized as "corporate hotelier of the world" by HOTELS magazine. In 1999, Johnson & Wales University gave him an honorary Doctor of Business Administration degree in Hospitality Management. Most recently, Horst was honored with the “Legacy of Innovation and Inspiration Award” by Historic Hotels of America. Horst went on to found The Capella Hotel Group. This luxury hotel company managed some of the most elite properties worldwide, and gave Horst the opportunity to further define the luxury hotel industry, receiving countless awards and recognitions. Today, Horst serves as Expert in Residence at Arch + Tower, a boutique, organizational strategy consulting firm, and recently completed his first book, titled Excellence Wins. In this podcast, he shares:
__________________________________________________________________________________________ "An overwhelming issue for me, relative to leaders of companies, is to accept your role." Accept that [your employees are] human beings that you deal with to be fulfilled in life. Human beings need to belong and need to have purpose. Why wouldn't we give them purpose that the vision or why wouldn't we do this as organization?" -Horst Schulze __________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing Horst + The topic of today’s episode 2:53—If you really know me, you know that... 3:26—What is your definition of strategy? 6:25—How do you know if the purpose or "why" of your company is authentic? 7:39—How do you define customer-centricity? 11:12—How do you help every employee understand the company's intent when it comes to customers? 14:03—Could you explain your meeting structures and mechanisms in which you share messages with your team? 17:14—How long does it take to have a lasting culture change? 18:20—Is there anything we missed you'd like to share? 20:22—Where can people follow you and your work? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 29 Apr 2022 | #46—Richard Rumelt: Finding the Crux of Your Strategy | 00:19:41 | |
Richard P. Rumelt is one of the world’s most influential thinkers on strategy and management. McKinsey Quarterly described him as “strategy’s strategist” and “a giant in the field of strategy.” He is the author of Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters, reviewed by the Financial Times as “the most interesting business book of 2011” and by Strategy + Business as “the year’s best and most original addition to the strategy bookshelf.” Richard received his doctoral degree from Harvard Business School and is the Harry and Elise Kunin Chair Emeritus at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. His new book, The Crux, goes on sale May 3, 2022, from PublicAffairs. In this podcast, he shares:
__________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing Richard + The topic of today’s episode 1:46—If you really know me you know that... 2:20—What is your definition of strategy? 6:38—What are some of the ideas or concepts you are most well-known for? 9:17—How do you recognize bad strategy? 10:39—Could you explain the concept of "crux"? 14:50—How to narrow down on actual challenge being solved 16:40—Do you think you've seen a rise in vertical integration, and what is your opinion on it? 18:48—Where can people find you and connect with you? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Faculty Page: https://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty-and-research/strategy/faculty/rumelt Newest book: https://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/titles/richard-p-rumelt/the-crux/9781541701243/ Last book: http://goodbadstrategy.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-rumelt-18520828/ Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 27 Oct 2023 | #103—Shannon Banks: Unlocking the Power of Social Leadership and Purpose | 00:23:41 | |
Shannon Banks is managing director of Be Leadership, and an award-winning facilitator, consultant, and coach. A pioneer in the field of social leadership, she founded her company in 2014 to help organizations bring their purpose to life through their people. In this episode, we'll dive into her steadfast belief that it is leaders that have the power to ignite purpose through social leadership. Shannon has delivered quality, bespoke work to diverse clients across many sectors, including Roche, BNP Paribas, and the UK House of Commons and has partnered with world-changing organizations such as Teach for India, Grameen Foundation, and Siel Bleu. She spent twenty years in the technology industry, including seventeen years at Microsoft where she held a variety of global leadership roles across the business and HR. She has won international awards for her work in leadership development and talent management and is a sought-after public speaker. She is coauthor of the third edition of the field-defining book Optimizing the Power of Action Learning. Her forthcoming book Because: 12 Essential Skills for Connecting How you Lead with Why will be released October 2023. _________________________________________________________________________________________ In this episode, she shares:
_________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Highlight from today's episode 00:54—Introducing Shannon + The topic of today’s episode 2:55—If you really know me, you know that... 3:49—What is your definition of strategy? 4:25—Could you talk to us about how your career inspired your book? 5:35—Why did you name your company "BE" leadership? 7:28—Could you lead us through your the 12 skills leaders must have? 9:20—Talk to us about your definition of social leadership 12:40—How can executives find their own purpose to help others to connect to theirs? 16:50—What's a powerful insight you could share for leaders on how to use this passion in the workplace? 18:11—Creating change at scale is incredibly difficult—could you share your story of living in Russia that illustrates this? 22:24—How can people follow you and connect with you to continue learning from you? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Author Website: https://shannonbanksauthor.com/ Company Website: https://be-leadership.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannon-banks-be-leadership Twitter: https:/ Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 23 Sep 2022 | #60—Mark Esposito: The Great Remobilization—Redesigning the World | 00:24:49 | |
Dr. Mark Esposito is recognized internationally as a top global thought leader in matters relating to The Fourth Industrial Revolution and the changes and opportunities that new technology will bring to a variety of industries. He is Co-Founder & Chief Learning Officer at Nexus FrontierTech, an AI scale-up venture and Co-Founder and Chairman of the Strategic Foresight Board for the Circular Economy Alliance, an EdTech venture. He was recognized in 2016 by Thinkers50 as one of the 30 most prominent rising business thinkers in the world. He is a global expert of the World Economic Forum, an advisor to national governments and a Distinguished Fellow in the UNESCO Chair in Future Literacy of Finance. He is currently advisor for the Prime Minister Office in the UAE. He serves as Senior Advisor to the Ideation Center of Strategy& at PwC. He is Professor of Business and Economics at Hult International Business School and at Harvard University’s Division of Continuing Education. He has authored/co-authored over 150 publications peer and non-peer reviewed, 12 books, among which two Amazon bestsellers: Understanding how the Future Unfolds and The AI Republic. His latest book is: The Emerging Economies under the Dome of the Fourth Industrial Revolution with Dr. Amit Kapoor for Cambridge University Press and his next one is The Great Remobilization: Designing A Smarter World with Dr. Olaf Groth and Dr. Terence Tse. He holds a Doctoral Degree in Business and Economics from Ecole des Ponts Paris Tech, one of France’s most prestigious Grande Ecole. In this podcast, he shares:
__________________________________________________________________________________________ "" -Mark Esposito __________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing Mark+ The topic of today’s episode 3:00—If you really know me, you know that... 3:52—What is your definition of strategy? 6:49—Can you describe your drive framework? 9:04—What are the key technologies that compose the fourth industrial revolution? 10:38—You talk about how technologies are adopted at quicker rates, but also how there are different aspects. Could you talk about that? 13:22—Could you talk about how technology is influenced by humans, not necessarily replacing them? 14:00—Could you talk about how technology is now enabling less-known opinions to be amplified and influence many people? 15:37—Where do you think jobs will be replaced vs. augmented by technology? 20:10—It seems based on what you're saying some people will join the creative work force, while others won't and potentially get left behind. What are the implications of that? 23:22—How can people connect and follow you to keep learning from you? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 20 May 2022 | #48—Insights from Ajay Banga of The World Bank and former CEO of MasterCard | 00:31:44 | |
Ajay Banga is the 14th President of the World Bank Group. Prior to this he was Vice Chairman at General Atlantic, which he joined after 12 years at the helm of Mastercard, leading the company through a strategic, technological and cultural transformation over 11 years as president and chief executive officer and one year as executive chair of the board of directors. Under Ajay leadership, Mastercard’s stock price grew from $30 to $350 per share. Ajay began his career at Nestlé, India, where for 13 years he worked on assignments spanning sales, marketing and general management. He also spent two years with PepsiCo before joining Citigroup, where he rose to the role of chief executive officer of Citigroup Asia Pacific. Over the course of his career, he’s become a global leader in technology, data, financial services and innovating for inclusion. Ajay also serves as Chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce and is an Independent Director at Temasek and for Exor, where he serves as Chair of the company’s Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance Committee. He became an advisor to General Atlantic’s BeyondNetZero venture at its inception in 2021. He is a co-founder of The Cyber Readiness Institute, Vice Chair of the Economic Club of New York, a former member of the World Economic Forum’s EDISON Alliance, and served as a member of President Obama’s Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity, and a past member of the U.S. President’s Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations, among many other roles he has served. In this podcast, he shares:
__________________________________________________________________________________________ "Strategy is a way to create a shining city on the hill, for you to know where you want people to go and to define a way to climb that hill, and to give them the tools and resources to get there. If you do that well and if you do it with simplicity and you do it with clarity—If you do that well, Kaihan, then you have what I call strategy." -Ajay Banga __________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing Ajay + The topic of today’s episode 2:30—If you really know me you know that... 3:17—What is your definition of strategy? 6:01—Could you share the strategies you used when significantly growing Mastercard's stock price? 9:25—Could you talk about the brand messages you've championed, and how they were transcendent messages that elevated both the business and world? 15:18—What is the best advice you ever received in your career? 17:33—Do you have an advice for strategy officers from a CEO? 20:29—Do you have any tips for amplifying informal influence? 22:47—How do you introduce urgency in a way that moves people to action, not panic? 24:17—How do you structure your day to be efficient as a CEO? 26:26—What is your secret to staying on top of communications and email? 28:31—What are you working on now __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 18 Aug 2023 | #98—Dorie Clark: Crafting a Powerful Personal Brand in the Age of AI | 00:21:31 | |
Dorie Clark helps individuals and companies get their best ideas heard in a crowded, noisy world. She has been named one of the Top 50 business thinkers in the world by Thinkers50. She was honored as the #1 Communication Coach by the Marshall Goldsmith Leading Global Coaches Awards and one of the Top 5 Communication Professionals in the World by Global Gurus. She is a keynote speaker and teaches for Columbia Business School. She is the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Long Game, Entrepreneurial You, Reinventing You,and Stand Out, which was named the #1 Leadership Book of the Year by Inc. magazine. A former presidential campaign spokeswoman, Dorie has been described by the New York Times as an “expert at self-reinvention and helping others make changes in their lives.” She is a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review, and consults and speaks for clients such as Google, Yale University, and the World Bank. Forbes has declared that “her insights connect marketing, social media, communications, learning technologies, and personal discovery to give us a blueprint for success in the future economy.” She is a graduate of Harvard Divinity School, a producer of a multiple Grammy-winning jazz album, and a Broadway investor. _________________________________________________________________________________________ "We are all being commoditized. But I think that what we can fight back with is relationships, and with brand equity. If you become a person that people wanna be around, if you are a person that people like enough, that they respect enough, then it doesn't matter that AI is nearly as good as what we are doing." -Dorie Clark _________________________________________________________________________________________ In this episode, she shares:
_________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Highlight from today's episode 1:16—Introducing Dorie + The topic of today’s episode 3:00—If you really know me, you know that... 4:53—What is your definition of strategy? 5:17—Can you define "personal brand," and characteristics of a powerful personal brand? 6:50—How does one assess their personal brand? 9:25—What are some tips on figuring out how to define your personal brand? 13:50—What are the similarities between defining your business brand vs. your personal brand? 15:09—Could you talk to us about why you decided to write The Long Game? 17:16—In what way do you see work itself changing, the future of work? 20:38—How can people follow you and connect w Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 09 Dec 2022 | #71—Simone Ahuja: Integrating Jugaad Innovation into Your Organization | 00:25:41 | |
Dr. Simone Ahuja is the founder of Blood Orange, a global innovation and strategy firm headquartered in Minneapolis, USA. She is co-author of the international bestseller, Jugaad Innovation, called “the most comprehensive book yet on the subject” on frugal innovation by the Economist. This practical innovation playbook makes clear how and why leaders must support the passionate and purpose-driven “intrapreneurs” inside their organizations to drive innovation and achieve sustainable growth. Dr. Ahuja has served as an advisor to MIT’s Practical Impact Alliance and Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge. She provides innovation and strategy advisory and consulting services to organizations including 3M, UnitedHealth Group, Procter & Gamble, Target Corp, Stanley Black & Decker, and the World Economic Forum. Dr. Ahuja is a regular contributor to the Harvard Business Review, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and a practitioner of improvisational comedy. In this podcast, she shares:
__________________________________________________________________________________________ "" -Simone Ahuja _________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing Simone + The topic of today’s episode 2:05—If you really know me, you know that... 3:14—What is your definition of strategy? 6:24—Simone's biggest pet peeve 6:54—Where do you see the link between strategy and innovation being broken? 9:28—Could you talk about your idea of intrapreneurship? 11:50—Could you explain the concept of "juugad"? 15:06—Can you give us examples of these internal intrapreneurs who practice juugad innovation? 18:33—What is something I haven't asked you'd like to talk about? 22:02—How do you solve for intrapreneurial experience to encourage their abilities? 24:32—Where can people follow you and keep learning from you? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Personal Page: https://simoneahuja.com/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-simone-ahuja-6b93a52/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/simoneahuja?lang=en Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 30 Apr 2021 | #5: Lindsay McGregor: Primed to Perform | 00:21:49 | |
Lindsay McGregor is the co-founder of Vega Factor and co-author of bestselling book, Primed to Perform: How to Build the Highest Performing Cultures Through the Science of Total Motivation. Previously, Lindsay led projects at McKinsey & Company, working with large fortune 500 companies, nonprofits, universities and school systems. In this episode she shares the concept of Total Motivation, or ToMo—a simple theory based on the idea that why people work determines how well they work. She'll walk us through the six reasons why people work—three leading to higher performance and three leading to lower performance—and how to measure and manage them all. What is so powerful about her approach is that ultimately it enables you to take something that is often considered "soft" and "squishy"—culture—and turn it into something tangible you can actually measure, track, and manage. __________________________________________________________________________________________ "Your reason for working will change what you do. And there's a spectrum of reasons why people do anything...it can range because you're working because you love the work itself. -Lindsay McGregor __________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing Rita McGrath + The topic of today’s episode 1:27—If you really know me, you know that... 2:01—What would you say you're known for? 4:04—What is your definition of strategy? 5:36—What got you interested in strategy? 7:00—The Total Motivation (Tomo) Model 9:34—Indirect negative motives 11:55—Thinking of Tomo as an NPS measurement 13:21—An example of implementing Tomo in an organization 16:36—The Cobra Effect 18:55—How to start influencing culture in your company 20:27—Where to connect with Lindsay __________________________________________________________________________________________ Book: https://www.vegafactor.com/book Total Motivation Survey: https://app.vegafactor.com/take_the_survey Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 16 Sep 2022 | #59—Venkat Ramaswamy: Rethinking Value Creation through Co-Creation | 00:28:14 | |
Venkat Ramaswamy is Professor of Marketing at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA. He is a globally-recognized thought leader, idea practitioner, and eclectic scholar with wide-ranging interests in innovation, strategy, marketing, branding, IT, operations, and the human side of the organization. Venkat's award-winning book in 2004, The Future of Competition, co-authored with the late C.K.Prahalad, introduced Co-Creation as a revolutionary concept. It provided a new frame of reference for jointly creating value through experienced environments and called for a process of co-creation—the practice of developing offerings through ongoing collaboration with customers, employees, managers, financiers, suppliers, partners, and other stakeholders. Their articles, the popular 2000 Harvard Business Review article “Co-opting Customer Competence” and the 2003 MIT-PwC award-winning Sloan Management Review article “The New Frontier of Experience Innovation” envisioned an individual and experience-centric view of interactive value creation and innovation. Venkat's 2010 book, The Power of Co-Creation (with F. Gouillart) showed how enterprises in over twenty industry sectors were all leveraging platforms to create new interactions with people everywhere in the system and how new forms of value could be created together with individuals through a focus on human experiences. Venkat is currently working on co-creating systemic transformation and positive impact on wellbeing-wealth-welfare, through platforms in digitalized societal ecosystems that afford the enactment of interactional creation by engaging and organizing actors (across the plural, private, and public sectors). In this podcast, he shares:
__________________________________________________________________________________________ "" -Venkat Ramaswamy __________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing Venkat + The topic of today’s episode 2:54—If you really know me, you know that... 3:55—What is your definition of strategy? 5:00—How is the idea of value being re-created, and how does that relate to strategy? 8:03—Do you believe it is now easier to coordinate multiple services to deliver a composite experience, and why is that? 11:00—How do you balance the many facets of how the "experiencers" are shifting their expectations of services and products, and how ecosystems are changing the value delivery? 13:15—Could you explain what the mental shift we need to make in imagining a value chain is, and why is it happening now? 15:27—How do you think the pandemic accelerated accepting the technological changes and innovations happening? 20:21—Could you tell us your definition of co-creation? 21:15—What is the cognitive leap that we need to make, and how can a CSO help leadership make that transition? Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 19 May 2023 | #90—Marc Beckman: The New Era of Branding in the Metaverse, Web3 and the Digital Era | 00:25:27 | |
Marc Beckman is the Co-Founder and CEO of DMA United, the award-winning advertising agency positioned at the center of style and design. His philosophy concentrates on building equity at the intersection of content and commerce. In fact, Marc has designed and implemented creative campaigns for countless individuals and corporations within DMA United’s polycultural platform, including venerable brands such as NBA, Pepsi, Sony, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Nelson Mandela, Gucci, and MoMA. Marc embraces new technology and trends to augment marketing platforms and communications tactics. To date, he has leveraged blockchain technology to launch platforms for over sixty brands; and has created seven marketplaces in Web3 for clients. Mr. Beckman’s cross-sector blockchain approach includes programs in luxury, fashion, government, technology, academics, philanthropy, and beauty. He is the author of The Comprehensive Guide: NFTs, Digital Artwork, Blockchain Technology. The book has received many accolades, including receiving best-seller status, and inclusion on JP Morgan’s Reading List. Marc is New York University’s Metaverse Senior Fellow, an Adjunct Professor in Marketing, and Chairman of Stern’s Luxury & Fashion Council. Further, Marc is developing legal policy and best practices for Web3 and other emerging technologies as Co-Chair of the New York State Bar Association’s Web3 Task Force. In this episode, he shares:
_________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Highlight from today's episode 01:09—Introducing Marc + The topic of today’s episode 3:20—If you really know me, you know that... 4:33—What is your definition of strategy? 5:43—You came into your role from a legal background—can you explain this pathway? 7:15—Can you give us a sense of what your agency does, and how technology is a fundamental role of this? 10:12—Could you define what the metaverse is for you and your agency? 12:16—Could you talk us through how these new opportunities offer the chance to revamp brand loyalty programs? 15:27—How do you believe the perception of digital assets varies from generation to generation? 18:58—Could you talk to us about Travis Scott and his revenue-generating digital concert? 20:52—Could you tell us about the difference between decentralized, on-chain/off-chain verticals? 22:29—Should companies be worrying about getting into these digital opportunities now, or are they already behind if they are not? 24:23—How can people follow you and connect with you? Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 24 Sep 2021 | #21—Alex Osterwalder: How Investing in Culture Ecosystems Leads to Innovation | 00:23:01 | |
Dr. Alexander (Alex) Osterwalder is one of the world’s most influential innovation experts, a leading author, entrepreneur, and in-demand speaker whose work has changed the way established companies do business and how new ventures get started. Ranked No. 4 of the top 50 management thinkers worldwide, Alex is known for simplifying the strategy development process and turning complex concepts into digestible visual tools. Together with Yves Pigneur, he invented the Business Model Canvas, Value Proposition Canvas, and Business Portfolio Map—practical tools that are trusted by millions of business practitioners from leading global companies. And they really introduced into the strategy dialogue the idea that business models can be intentionally—and creatively—designed. Strategyzer, Alex’s company, is on a mission to evolve large established companies so that they inspire and activate and liberate their employees to be innovators. They do this using online courses, applications, and technology-enabled platforms. His books include the international bestseller Business Model Generation, Value Proposition Design, Testing Business Ideas, The Invincible Company, and the recently launched High-Impact Tools for Teams. In this podcast he shares:
__________________________________________________________________________________________ "So there are now those outliers who have done exactly that. They invested in innovation, but it's not just the money, they gave innovation power and they created this ecosystem for exploration, with tons of failures. They hold up their failures—same thing as Amazon. They hold up their failures and say, "You can't succeed without failures, and the bigger you get, the bigger your failures. But you know that's the system you need to create for the winners to emerge. So, failure's never the goal, but it's an inevitable side consequence of exploration." -Alex Osterwalder __________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing Alex Osterwalder + The topic of today’s episode 2:05—What is your definition of strategy? 3:01—What got you interested in strategy? 4:01—Could you explain a "dual culture"? 5:50—What are the drivers of culture? 8:09—What are you most well-known for? 11:16—What should a CEO be encouraging to engage innovative behavior? 14:30—What is the key lesson people should take away from the case studies you've described? 16:20—What do most companies get wrong? 18:07—What's a belief that you've changed your mind about? 19:54—What are you working on now, and how can people engage with you? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Personal website: https://www.alexosterwalder.com/ Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 08 Apr 2022 | #44—Christian Busch: Creating Serendipity for Your Business | 00:23:13 | |
Prof. Dr. Christian Busch is the bestselling author of The Serendipity Mindset: The Art & Science of Creating Good Luck. Arianna Huffington called it “a wise, exciting, and life-changing book” that Paul Polman says “provides excellent practical guidance for all.” Christian is an internationally-known expert in the areas of innovation, purpose-driven leadership, and serendipity. He is the director of the CGA Global Economy Program at NYU, and also teaches at the London School of Economics. He is a cofounder of Leaders on Purpose and the Sandbox Network, and a former director of LSE's Innovation Lab. His work has been featured by outlets such as the Strategic Management Journal,Harvard Business Review, Forbes, The Guardian, Washington Post, and the BBC. He is member of the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Expert Forum, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and on the Thinkers50 Radar list of the 30 thinkers "most likely to shape the future. In this podcast, he shares:
__________________________________________________________________________________________ "That...idea that we have to stick to the plan is something that...portrays authority, portrays the idea that we are reliable and dependable, but actually a lot of times it does the opposite in the end because we now have an incentive to hide numbers, to somehow try to figure out how we can tweak the budgets to still look good. And so actually from a performer perspective, we actually a lot of times do the opposite." -Christian Busch __________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing Christian+ The topic of today’s episode 2:23—What is your definition of strategy? 4:23—How did you get into the idea of serendipity? 5:28—How can serendipity be applied to business? 7:10—What are the barriers to seeing these opportunities that serendipity affords? 10:52—What are other leverage points to embed serendipity into a company's culture? 13:05—How companies can encourage or kill serendipity 21:30—What is something people get wrong? 17:40—Could you explain your concept of casting hooks? 19:04—How can people connect with you? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Company Page: https://theserendipitymindset.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/chrisserendip LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/today/author/christianwbusch Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 30 Jun 2023 | #96—Michael Lenox: Unraveling Digital Transformation | 00:22:33 | |
Michael Lenox is an award-winning professor, consultant, author, speaker, and podcaster. For over twenty-five years, he has been helping MBA students and executives navigate the competitive dynamics of markets in the face of innovation and disruption. He is the author of five books, including his latest, Strategy in the Digital Age: Mastering Digital Transformation (Stanford Business Books, June 27, 2023). Michael is the Tayloe Murphy Professor of Business at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. He has served on the faculty at Duke and NYU and as a visiting professor at Harvard, Stanford, and Oxford. He holds a Ph.D. from MIT in Technology Management and Policy and a BS and MS in Systems Engineering from UVA. His Digital Transformation course on Coursera currently has over 150,000 students enrolled. He has had well over a half-million students across all of his online courses, making him one of the most popular teachers on Coursera. Lenox has extensive expertise on the topics most important to today's executives, from decarbonization to digital transformation. As a strategy consultant, he has helped numerous organizations devise effective strategies, such as General Motors, Dominion Energy, NASA, and the NCAA. As an online educator, he has helped millions of learners improve their strategic thinking and reasoning. In this episode, he shares:
_________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Highlight from today's episode 00:56—Introducing Michael + The topic of today’s episode 2:40—If you really know me, you know that... 3:28—What is your definition of strategy? 4:03—What are the three fundamental technologies that impact digital transformation? 6:38—How does competitive advantage change in light of how the sheer amount of data is changing? 8:41—What are some misconceptions about competing in the platform age against platform titans? 11:11—Can you talk about the deconstruction of the customer value chain? 13:14—What are some of the positionings companies can take to stay competitive amongst platforms? 14:39—Could you about the distinction between prediction and judgment, the concept from your book? 16:55—Can you talk about some of the ideas you have around how newer technologies like AI are going to affect different industries, like pharma or utilities, for example? 19:09—Can you talk to us about what phases a strategist should tackle to prepare their organization to lead in the digital age? 21:15—How can people follow you and connect with you to continue learning from you? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 28 Jan 2022 | #35—Julian Birkinshaw: Harnessing the Power of Innovation in Incumbent Organizations | 00:19:20 | |
Julian Birkinshaw is Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the London Business School. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, the Strategic Management Society, and the (American) Academy of Management. Julian is a recognized thought leader on the impact of digital technology on the strategy and organization of established companies, for example such topics as digital disruption, agile working, corporate entrepreneurship, business model innovation and management innovation. He is the author of fifteen books, including Mindtools for Managers, Reinventing Management, and Fast/Forward: Make Your Company Fit for the Future among others, as well as over one hundred articles. He is currently ranked as one of the Thinkers 50 top thought leaders in the field of Management, and is regularly quoted in international media outlets, including CNN, BBC, The Economist, the Wall Street Journal, the Huffington Post, and The Times. He is a regular keynote speaker and a consultant to many large companies, such as BP, Dell Technologies, among others. In this podcast he shares:
__________________________________________________________________________________________ " Traditional hierarchical, top-down methods work ok as long as what you're trying to do is just deliver a standard product a million times...as we move away from efficiency and quality as the narrow definition of performance to innovation and agility and purpose, we need people to take more initiative. We need to find ways of liberating and harnessing their talents." -Julian Birkinshaw __________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Introducing Julian + The topic of today’s episode 2:10—If you really know me, you know that.... 2:28—What is your definition of strategy? 3:53—What got you interested in strategy? 5:53—Could you talk a bit about your work on ambidextrous organizations and management innovation? 7:44—How was the framework of how we manage ourselves changed over time? 9:45—How has your research supported the idea that corporations or incumbent organizations can become agile? 11:22—Could you talk to us about the survival rate of S&P 500s? 13:30—What should strategy officers in an incumbent organization be aware of? 16:23—For a company that was ahead of the game, like Tesla, what are the potential moves they could take next to not be surpassed? 17:52—What are you working on now, and how can people find you and follow you? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Personal page: https://julianbirkinshaw.com/index.html Twitter: https://twitter.com/JBirkinshaw Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 25 Jan 2024 | #109—Jayshree Seth: Effective Collaboration and Innovation Between Science and Business | 00:34:49 | |
Jayshree Seth is a Corporate Scientist at 3M who currently holds 80 patents for a variety of innovations, with several additional pending. Jayshree was appointed 3M’s first ever Chief Science Advocate in 2018 and as is using her scientific knowledge, technical expertise and professional experience to advance science and communicate the benefits of science and the importance of diversity in STEM fields to drive innovation. She has a MS and PhD in Chemical Engineering from Clarkson University, New York and bachelors of tech in chemical engineering form the prestigious NIIT Trichy in India. In this discussion, we dive deep into the topic of some of books, especially her latest, The Heart of Science, with material from her upcoming book, Engineering Blueprint and a fascinating Fast Company article she co-wrote with our good friend Rita McGrath titles, A guide for managing innovation: 4 big mistakes technologists wish their business leaders would stop making. She has a lifetime of experiencing building bridges between science and business, something 3M is uniquely good at.
In this episode, she shares:
_________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Highlight from today's episode __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Fas Company Article: A guide for managing innovation: 4 big mistakes technologists wish their business leaders would stop making. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayshree-seth-6287b45 All content © 2024 Outthinkers. Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 09 Feb 2024 | #110—Sukhinder Singh Cassidy: Embracing Risk, Agility, and Resilience for Success | 00:29:05 | |
Sukhinder Sing Cassidy is the leader of the growth and performance of Xero globally. With more than 25 years’ experience in Silicon Valley as a CEO, digital leader and board member, she has experienced building and scaling global companies including Google, Amazon, Yodlee, Joyus and StubHub. She currently serves on the board of publicly traded fintech, Upstart with previous experience serving on the boards of Ericsson, Trip Advisor, Urban Outfitters, Stitchfix and J.Crew. Working across such a diverse, prominent portfolio of companies has given Sukhinder a unique counter-perspective on how leaders and business owners look at risk and reward. Her book, Choose Possibility: Take Risks and Thrive (Even When You Fail) sheds light and dives deep into what she’s learned in her extensive career as a leader in tech, where risk-taking and volatility is the norm.
__________________________________________________________________________________________ 00:00—Highlight from today's episode 27:55—How can people follow you and continue learning from you? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: choosepossibility.com book All content © 2024 Outthinkers. Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 23 Feb 2024 | #111—Tobias Dengel: Voice Technology: Unlocking Efficiency and Evolution | 00:25:26 | |
Tobias Dengel is President of WillowTree, a TELUS International Company. WillowTree designs and builds digital experiences for the world’s largest brands, and they sit at the forefront of this breakthrough. Tobias understands voice technology's profound, wide-ranging implications for every industry, including marketing, healthcare, hospitality, manufacturing, media, and more. He counsels leaders in all these fields about how their companies must adapt to the coming age of voice.
__________________________________________________________________________________________ 00:00—Highlight from today's episode __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Personal site: https://www.tobiasdengel.com/ All content © 2024 Outthinkers. Thank you to our guests, thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 08 Mar 2024 | #112—W. Russell Neuman: AI's Role in Evolutionary Intelligence | 00:34:20 | |
W. Russell Neuman is Professor of Media Technology at New York University, a founding faculty of the MIT Media Lab, he served as a Senior Policy Analyst in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. His books like The Digital Difference: Media Technology and the Theory of Communication Effects and his most recent book EVOLUTIONARY INTELLIGENCE: How Technology Will Make Us Smarter are rooted in the view that human intelligence and human communication are intertwined. Language and communication are intrinsically linked to the evolution of human intelligence since the dawn of humankind. As our technologies for communication have advanced over time, so too has the sophistication of our cognitive abilities. As you heard in the highlighted clip, this insight gives us a very interesting glimpse at how human intelligence may next evolve as AI comes into play.
__________________________________________________________________________________________ 00:00—Highlight from today's episode __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Book site: Evolutionary Intelligence How Technology Will Make Us Smarter Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 22 Mar 2024 | #113—Jeanne Liedtka: Design Thinking: Unleashing Creativity in Business | 00:30:48 | |
Jeanne Liedtka is the Professor of Business at the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business, where she teaches both MBAs and executives, as well as consulting on innovation, organic growth and design thinking. Jeanne, has served as Associate Dean of the MBA Program at Darden, Executive Director of the Batten Institute for Entrepreneurship and Corporate Innovation, and Chief Learning Officer at United Technologies Corporation, and consulted with a diverse set of organizations including IBM, Samsung, NASA, The United Nations, and the government of Singapore.
___________________________________________________________________________________ Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 05 Apr 2024 | #114—John Winsor: Unveiling the Potential of Open Talent | 00:31:35 | |
John Winsor is a prominent figure in strategic marketing and product innovation, known for his deep understanding of future work trends and open talent strategies. His We discuss the intricate layers of the modern workforce, including:
___________________________________________________________________________________ Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 19 Apr 2024 | #115—Amy Edmonson: Cultivating Psychological Safety to Foster Risk-Taking and Innovation | 00:31:03 | |
Amy C. Edmondson the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School, renowned for her research over the last 20 years on psychological safety and teaming. Her award-winning work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Psychology Today, Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, and more. Named by Thinkers50 in 2021 as the #1 Management Thinker in the world, Amy’s TED Talk “How to Turn a Group of Strangers into a Team” has been viewed over three million times. She is the author of The Fearless Organization, Teaming, and most recently, Right Kind of Wrong. In this episode, we dive into the complex territory of navigating risk and failure in the midst of our ever-uncertain world. In this conversation, Amy shares:
___________________________________________________________________________________ Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 01 May 2024 | #116— Cathy Hackl: Expanding Our Actual and Virtual Reality with Spatial Computing | 00:27:13 | |
Cathy Hackl is a globally-recognized tech & gaming exec, futurist, & speaker focused on spatial computing, virtual worlds, augmented reality, AI, & gaming platforms strategy. She’s the co-CEO of Spatial Dynamics, a spatial computing and AI solutions company. She is also a top tech voice on LinkedIn, and a fun fact, she was the first person ever to open the NASDAQ market in the metaverse with an avatar. Cathy is a powerful voice on spatial computing and immersive technology, guiding businesses on integrating these into their product portfolios and business models, having worked with companies like Nike, Ralph Lauren, Walmart, & Louis Vuitton. In this conversation, we dive deep into these topics, narrowing in on key insights from her upcoming May 2024 book, SPATIAL COMPUTING: An AI-Driven Business Revolution. In this episode, Cathy shares with us:
_______________________________________________________________________________ Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 17 May 2024 | #117—Min Jung: A Neuroscientist's Insights into Unleashing Creativity | 00:26:47 | |
Min Jung is a vice director of the Center for Synaptic Brain Dysfunctions at the Institute for Basic Science in South Korea and a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. He is also the author of A Brain for Innovation: The Neuroscience of Imagination and Abstract Thinking. Min’s work gives us scientific insights into the actual foundation working of the brain, specifically how the brain generates innovative ideas. Min believes that everyone has an ability to be creative. In this episode, Min shares with us:
_______________________________________________________________________________ Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 31 May 2024 | #118—Bruce Vojak: Decoding the Minds of Serial Innovators | 00:25:57 | |
Bruce Vojak, is Managing Director of Breakthrough Innovation Advisors, LLC, and serves on the Advisory Board of Midtronics, Inc., JVA Partners, and the Board of Directors of Micron Industries Corporation, and is a Senior Fellow with The Conference Board. Further, he has co-authored five book chapters—in addition to numerous peer-reviewed publications and conference presentations—on innovation. He is the author of No-Excuses Innovation: Strategies for Small- and Medium-Sized Mature Enterprises (published 2022) and Serial Innovators: How Individuals Create and Deliver Breakthrough Innovations in Mature Firms from 2012. Bruce was formerly the Dean and an Adjunct Professor in the top-ranked Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign. Earlier in his career, he was Director of Advanced Technology for Motorola’s non-semiconductor components business and was on the research staff at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. Bruce brings together real research with real-world practice, while taking a more human-view of innovation. Spanning a career at the intersection of business and technology, Bruce has experienced and explored innovation purposefully and variously. In this episode, Bruce shares:
_______________________________________________________________________________ Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 12 Jun 2024 | #119—Christopher Marquis: Re-examining Business Externalities for Social Good | 00:30:21 | |
Christopher Marquis, the Sinyi Professor at the University of Cambridge Judge School of Business. Chris writes a regular column for Forbes and his work has appeared in the Boston Globe, Washington Post, Fortune, TIME, Foreign Policy, and Harvard Business Review. He is also author of Better Business: How the B Corp is Remaking Capitalism and Mao and Markets, which made the Financial Times “Best Book of 2022,” list. _______________________________________________________________________________ In this episode, Christopher shares:
_______________________________________________________________________________ Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 28 Jun 2024 | #120—Matt Beane: Mastering the Learning Gap: Skill Building in an AI-Augmented World | 00:35:37 | |
Matt Beane, is an Assistant Professor in the Technology Management Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has conducted extensive field research with robots and AI seeks to uncover systematic positive exceptions that we can use in the workforce. His award-winning research has been published in top management journals such as Administrative Science Quarterly and Harvard Business Review, and he has spoken on the TED stage. Curiously enough, 2012 he was also selected as a “Human-Robot Interaction Pioneer.” Matt took a two-year hiatus from his PhD at MIT’s Sloan School of Management to help found and fund Humatics, a full-stack IoT startup. All this is testament to his passion for bridging what he calls the “master-apprentice gap.” In this discussion, we dive deep into topics from his book, The Skill Code: How to Save Human Ability in an Age of Intelligent Machines. In this episode, Matt shares:
_______________________________________________________________________________ Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 12 Jul 2024 | #121—Proximity: How Coming Breakthroughs in Just-in-Time Transform Business, Society, and Daily Life | 00:40:23 | |
The world has undergone a transformation in the past century, as the industrial revolution turned many luxuries into everyday commodities. Then, at the turn of the century, the advent of the internet compounded this supply and demand shift. Now, we are entering yet again a new era as we see technology once again propel us into a new radical shift we call: Proximity. Full disclosure, in this episode, we follow a different format to present the findings a book I co-authored with Rob Wolcott, cofounder and chair of The World Innovation Network (TWIN Global). He came up with the idea years ago. He I spent the last three years compiling research and case studies on the topic into our recently released book: Proximity: How Coming Breakthroughs in Just-in-Time Transform Business, Society, and Daily Life. In this discussion, Rob and I are honored to be joined by guest host Stuart Crainer, co-founder of Thinkers50, the definitive listing of the world's top 50 management thinkers. Rob is the cofounder and chair of The World Innovation Network (TWIN Global) and adjunct professor of innovation at the Booth School of Business, University of Chicago. Together, we lay out the key discoveries Rob and I made as we interviewed innovators, business leaders, and other experts seeking to piece together the facets of the concept of proximity: the idea that digital technologies are pushing the production and provision of value ever closer to the moment of demand in time and space. What we discovered is a monumental shift in how businesses approach value creation. Rather than following the typical value creation chain that has so long prevailed the concept of business and industries, businesses are now meeting customers by creating value at the moment it is needed. Not just when they need but actually where they need it. The implications of this shift with change most, maybe every, area of life: the way we work, eat, heal, produce, power, defend, explore space. And the implications for businesses are profound as well, and we share what leaders need to know and act on now if they want to stay ahead of this curve that will likely upend every business industry as we know it. We hope you enjoy this special episode of Outthinkers. __________________________________________________________________________ Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 26 Jul 2024 | #122—Stephan Meier: Employee-Centricity as a Competitive Advantage | 00:34:14 | |
Stephan Meier, is Chair of the Management Division and the James P. Gorman Professor of Business Strategy at Columbia Business School whose work lies at the intersection of behavioral economics, business strategy, and the future of work. Customer-centricity has long been at the forefront of conversations that involve optimizing profit, with the idea that happy customers lead to increased revenues. But a new theory is quickly gaining traction—that employee-centricity is just as important. Stephen is a big advocate for the idea that happy employees not only boost company morale, but have a clear direct correlation on the bottom line. In his upcoming October 2024 book, The Employee Advantage: How Putting Workers First Helps Business Thrive, he collects fascinating case studies and insights from his research to showcase how businesses that invest in employee experience often outperform others. In this conversation, we discuss key points from his book, including:
_______________________________________________________________________________ Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 09 Aug 2024 | #123—Christina Alaimo: The Hidden History of Data and its Role in Modern Strategy | 00:40:00 | |
Her research focuses on innovation catalyzed by data-based services and the consequences it has on organizations and society. Cristina also studies the broader ecosystem of data exchanges in which digital platforms are embedded and how these new platform ecosystems emerge and evolve. In her recently released book, DATA RULES: Reinventing the Market Economy, Cristina and her co-author Jannis Kallinikos, dive deep into the unprecedented social and economic restructuring brought about by data. In this episode, we discuss:
_______________________________________________________________________________ Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 06 Sep 2024 | #124—Brian Evergreen: Beyond Digital—The Era of Autonomous Transformation | 00:34:52 | |
Brian Evergreen, author of Autonomous Transformation: Creating a More Human Future in the Era of Artificial Intelligence, named a Next Big Idea “Must-Read” and for which Brian was shortlisted for the 2023 Thinkers50 Breakthrough Idea Award. Building on his experiences working at Accenture, Amazon Web Services, and Microsoft, Brian advises and speaks to organizations around the world, guest lectures at Purdue University and the Kellogg School of Management, sharing the unconventional and innovative methods and frameworks he developed leading and advising Digital Transformation initiatives at many of the world's most valuable companies. There are very few people in the world who has had as much experience of Brian facilitating strategic conversations that lead to big, breakthrough ideas. At the core of Brian’s ideas is that in this age of accelerated AI, there is not only room for—but a dire need for human reasoning to remain a core component of business strategy in what he calls “autonomous transformation,” which contrast with and complements what we all call digital transformation. In this podcast, he shares:
_____________________________________________________________________________ Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 20 Sep 2024 | #125—Frederik Pferdt: Cultivating a Future-Ready Mindset | 00:33:06 | |
Frederik Pferdt is Google's first Chief Innovation Evangelist and author of "WHAT'S NEXT IS NOW: How To Live Future Ready.” During his time at Google, Frederik played a pivotal role in shaping one of the world's most renowned creative cultures. He founded Google's Innovation Lab, where he trained tens of thousands of Googlers to develop and experiment with cutting-edge ideas. For over a decade, he also taught groundbreaking classes on innovation and creativity at Stanford University. Something that shines through Frederik’s work is his eternal optimism and emphasis on an active creation of the future, rather than passive prediction. This perspective challenges us to think differently about innovation and our role in shaping the future. In this episode, Frederik shares:
_______________________________________________________________________________ Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 04 Oct 2024 | #126—William Duggan: Navigating the Corporate Labyrinth—A Guide for Internal Innovators | 00:28:25 | |
William Duggan is lecturer of strategy and innovation at Columbia Business School, and the author of four books on innovation: Strategic Intuition: The Creative Spark in Human Achievement (2007); Creative Strategy: A Guide for Innovation (2012); and The Seventh Sense: How Flashes of Insight Change Your Life (2015), and his most recent work: Corporate Innovator: A Guide Through the Labyrinth, published in 2024. In his book, Bill covers employee-driven innovation. Bill dives deep into a dilemma he found resurfacing time and again in his research from interviews he conducted: the seemingly never-ending maze that corporate employees face in trying to bring their ideas to reality. Here we cover insights from his into how employees can navigate “the corporate labyrinth,” and how employers can lower the obstacles they (usually unwittingly) put in the path of would-be internal innovators.
_______________________________________________________________________________ Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 18 Oct 2024 | #127—Rebecca Homkes: Mastering Change—The Survive, Reset, Thrive Framework | 00:30:31 | |
Rebecca Homkes, is a high-growth strategy expert and CEO and executive advisor. She is a Lecturer at London Business School, Faculty at Duke Corporate Executive Education, Advisor and Faculty at the Boston Consulting Group focused on AI and Digital Transformation and a former fellow at the London School of Economics Centre for Economic Performance. A global keynote speaker and recognized thought leader, she is also the global Faculty Director of the Active Learning Program with the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), leads several fintech accelerators, and serves on the boards of many high-growth companies. Rebecca's multifaceted roles give us a uniquely wide and deep perspective on how companies grow. Her work challenges us to realize that the mechanical, linear paradigm of strategy making that has dominated the field for the last 60-odd years cannot deliver sustained growth in volatility of today’s rapidly-changing world. She shares an alternative approach in her 2024 book Survive, Reset, Thrive: Leading Breakthrough Growth Strategy in Volatile Times. In this conversation, we dive into some of her powerful techniques around arming your company with the right mindset for the right time, and building a company that can learn and adapt through change. In this podcast, Rebecca shares:
_______________________________________________________________________________ Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 01 Nov 2024 | #128—David Edelman: Personalization as Competitive Advantage in the Age of AI | 00:31:36 | |
David Edelman is a Harvard Business School Fellow and Executive Advisor at BCG. David spent over 30 years as a chief marketing officer at Aetna/CVS, as well as building consultancy businesses in digital and marketing transformation while with McKinsey, Digitas, and BCG. He now teaches marketing at Harvard Business School and serves as an advisor to top executives in startups, private equity, and larger enterprises. In this discussion, we dive into David’s book, Personalized: Customer Strategy in the Age of AI, coauthored with Mark Abraham, which helps executives learn how to put personalization at the center of their strategy, accelerate growth, and capture their share of the value personalization creates. In this episode, he shares:
_______________________________________________________________________________ Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 15 Nov 2024 | #129—Oscar Munoz: United's Strategic Revival Through Employee Empowerment | 00:39:32 | |
Oscar Munoz, is the former CEO and Chairman of United Airlines. Oscar has led an accomplished career, spanning senior financial positions at Coca-Cola, Pepsico, AT&T, and US West. He also served as President and COO of North American rail-based transportation giant CSX Corp. He is also an independent trustee for Fidelity and a CNBC Contributor. A first-generation college graduate with degrees from the University of Southern California and Pepperdine, he was twice honored by Hispanic Business Magazine as one of its ‘100 Most Influential Hispanics’, honoring his journey as an immigrant who is the first person of Hispanic heritage to run a U.S. airline. In this conversation, we get to glean Oscar’s incredible insights from his Wall Street Journal best-selling memoir, Turnaround Time: Uniting an Airline and its Employees in the Friendly Skies. Having joined United, he had quite a task ahead of him, uniting the very fragmented workforce the airline faced at the time. At the core of this immense turnaround was Oscar’s steadfast belief, that employees are as important as customers and shareholders in ensuring a business succeeds.
_______________________________________________________________________________ Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 29 Nov 2024 | #130—JP Pawliw-Fry: Culture Under Pressure—The Last 8% | 00:27:32 | |
JP Pawliw-Fry, is world-renowned keynote speaker and New York Times bestselling author, also coaches Navy Seals, professional athletes and their coaches on high performance. As the founder of IHHP and an expert in culture, leadership, and emotional intelligence, JP has helped some of the most successful Fortune 100 companies unlock their potential by fostering courageous, high-performing cultures. JPs research has led him to help organizations cultivate high-performing cultures by enabling employees to overcome fear and feel valued, have a voice, and feel safe to take risks and be courageous. Based on his insights from his book, Performing Under Pressure, we discuss the intersection of culture with individual psychology to create high-performing cultures. In this episode, JP shares:
_______________________________________________________________________________ Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 13 Dec 2024 | #131—Marcus Collins: Culture: The Hidden Force Shaping Behavior and Belonging | 00:31:15 | |
Dr. Marcus Collins is an award-winning marketer and cultural translator, the former chief strategy officer at Wieden+Kennedy, New York, and a marketing professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan. Marcus knows how to build an enthusiastic culture around brands and products and services. He ran digital strategy for the pop star Beyoncé, worked on iTunes + Nike sports music initiatives at Apple, including Beats by Dr. Dre. He is an inductee into the American Advertising Federation’s Advertising Hall of Achievement and a recipient of the Thinkers50 Radar Distinguished Achievement Award for the idea most likely to shape the future of business management. His strategies and creative contributions have led to the launch and success of McDonald’s cultural resurgence, Google’s “Real Tone” technology, and the “Made In America” music festival. We discuss:
_______________________________________________________________________________ Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 27 Dec 2024 | #132—Andrew Hill: Decoding the FT and Schroders Best Business Book of the Year Award | 00:36:06 | |
Andrew Hill, is senior business writer at the Financial Times and consulting editor, Financial Times Live. He is author of Ruskinland (2019), about the enduring influence of Victorian thinker John Ruskin and Leadership in the Headlines, a collection of Andrew’s his columns. In this episode, we journey through this year's FT and Schroders Business Book of the Year 2024, getting an "insider look" into the year’s roundup. We also get to explore how the best business book lists has evolved over the years and what this means for the present and future of business. Andrew’s long tenure made for an interesting conversation into more niche topics, leading even to what John Ruskin—a Victorian Polymath from the 1800s—would have thought of particular trends highlighted in this collection of books in the modern era. In this podcast, we discuss:
_______________________________________________________________________________ Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 10 Jan 2025 | #133—Ethan Mollick: How AI Will Enhance—Not Replace—Our Work | 00:26:22 | |
Ethan Mollick, is the Ralph J. Roberts Distinguished Faculty Scholar and Associate Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he studies the effects of artificial intelligence on work, entrepreneurship, and education. His academic research has been published in leading journals, and his work on AI is widely applied, leading him to be named one of TIME Magazine’s Most Influential People in Artificial Intelligence. Ethan also writes to a wider audience about AI, including in his book, Co-Intelligence, a New York Times bestseller. In addition to his research and teaching, Ethan is the Co-Director of the Generative AI Labs at Wharton, which build prototypes and conduct research to discover how AI can help humans thrive while mitigating risks. Prior to his time in academia, Ethan co-founded a startup company, and he advises numerous organizations. He received his PhD and MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management and his bachelor’s degree from Harvard University. In this episode, we discuss:
_______________________________________________________________________________ Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 24 Jan 2025 | #134—Sandra Matz: The Intersection of Human Behavior and AIs Psychological Targeting | 00:29:38 | |
Sandra Matz is the David W. Zalaznick Associate Professor of Business at Columbia Business School, in New York, where she also serves as the Director of the Center for Advanced Technology and Human Performance. As a computational social scientist with a background in psychology and computer science, Sandra studies human behavior and preferences using a combination of big data analytics and traditional experimental methods. Her research, and the topic of this podcast, uncovers the hidden relationships between our digital lives and our psychology with the goal of helping businesses and individuals make better and more ethical decisions. We dive into some fascinating insights from her January 2025 book, MINDMASTERS: The Data-Driven Science of Predicting and Changing Human Behavior, exploring the concept she coined of “psychological targeting,” a discipline that reveals how our digital footprints expose intimate aspects of our psychology and can be used to shape decisions—from what we buy to how we vote. In this podcast, we delve into this topic, discussing:
_______________________________________________________________________________ Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 07 Feb 2025 | #135—Devin DeCiantis: The Enduring Power of Family Businesses | 00:34:54 | |
Devin DeCiantis is the co-author, with Ivan Lansberg, of the 2024 book THE ENDURING ENTERPRISE: How Family Businesses Thrive in Turbulent Condition. He is a Managing Partner at Lansberg Gersick Advisors (LGA), an advisory and educational partner trusted by many of the world’s largest family enterprises. Devin’s work and focus is on the financial, organizational, and strategic aspects of this business structure—the family enterprise. Devin brings his background in corporate strategy, economic analysis and investment banking to his work with these family businesses, family offices and family foundations. Several unique attributes family businesses set them apart from the various corporate forms, public or private, corporations or LLCs or partnership. Many of these differences build a natural immunity and competitive advantage of sorts that traditional corporations struggle to build. In this episode, we discuss some the key findings in his book, including:
_______________________________________________________________________________ 00:00—Highlight from today's episode _______________________________________________________________________________________ Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 21 Feb 2025 | #136—Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez: Preparing for the Project Economy Future | 00:31:10 | |
Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez is author of Powered by Projects, Leading Organizations in the Transformation Age, the Harvard Business Review Project Management Handbook, the featured HBR article The Project Economy Has Arrived, as well as five other books. Antonio coined the concept "the Project Economy," on which his book is based. His research and global impact have been recognized and included in the top 50 most influential management thought leaders by Thinkers50. He is the fellow and Former Chairman of the Project Management Institute, currently VP of the APM Association, he is the creator of the Brightline Initiative, founder of Projects&Co, and co-founder of the Strategy Implementation Institute. Antonio is a prominent advocate of the idea that our business model paradigms are quickly changing—the future of work is the Project Economy, the idea that instead of companies based on hierarchy and operations, they will be dominated by project-driven teams and environments. This premise has a profound impact on every area of a business—and strategy, management and every department of each enterprise will need to adapt accordingly. In this episode we discuss:
_______________________________________________________________________________ 00:00—Highlight from today's episode Personal website: antonionietorodriguez.com Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 07 Mar 2025 | #137—Peter Compo: The Emergent Approach to Strategy | 00:44:05 | |
Peter Compo is the author of The Emergent Approach to Strategy: Adaptive Design & Execution. Unlike many strategists from universities and consulting firms, Compo builds his groundbreaking work first as a musician and a scientist (he holds a doctorate in Chemical Engineering), and then gained experience in the “corporate trenches” at DuPont. Peter’s mission is to create a new level of clarity on strategy by debunking the idea that strategy is cascading and top-down. Instead, his concept of “emergent” strategy proposes that strategic planning is agile, constantly transforming as new information and situations present themselves. In this podcast, we discuss:
_______________________________________________________________________________ Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 18 Mar 2025 | #138—JoAnn Garbin: Decoding Innovation at Microsoft and Beyond | 00:39:50 | |
JoAnn Garbin is a sustainability and technology innovator with a 25-year track record of leading teams “from nothing to something to scale,” creating numerous innovative products and profitable businesses. Her career predates the concept of climate change, and her long career in sustainability combined with her tenure at Microsoft as Director of Innovation in Microsoft’s cloud business, have given her ample insight, into how innovation can and should be a repeatable scalable process. In this episode, we discuss highlights from The Insider’s Guide to Innovation at Microsoft, a book co-written between Joann and Dean Carignan, who among his long and rich career has spent 20 years at Microsoft, guiding new businesses—including the early internet division, Xbox, and multiple AI efforts—through the critical growth phases to their first billion dollars in revenue. More than just insights and case studies into how Microsoft has woven innovation into the fabric of their ecosystem, Joann shares with us a proven framework to innovation. In this podcast, we discuss:
_______________________________________________________________________________ Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 01 Apr 2025 | #139—Faisal Hoque: AI as a Strategic Partner Alongside Humanity | 00:30:31 | |
Faisal Hoque is recognized as one of the world’s leading management thinkers and technologists. He is an award-winning entrepreneur and innovator, and a #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author with close to thirty years of cross-industry success. Faisal is the founder of SHADOKA, NextChapter, along with a host of other companies, and serves as a transformation and innovation partner for CACI, an $8 billion company focused on U.S. national security. Along with his extensive successful career in technology and innovation, and with ten previous bestselling books under his belt, his newest book, Transcend: Unlocking Humanity in the Age of AI, dives into the philosophical and far-reaching implications of the evolution of AI alongside humanity. In this episode, we discuss:
_______________________________________________________________________________ Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 04 Aug 2023 | #97—Tiffani Bova: Elevating Your EX to Improve Your CX | 00:25:42 | |
What questions are addressed in this podcast?
_________________________________________________________________________________________ Summary: Tiffani Bova is the global growth evangelist and business strategist at Salesforce, an author, and a keynote speaker. We were lucky enough to have Tiffani join us for a second time on this podcast, and in this episode, she brings us a new wealth of much-needed perspective. Where our last episode with Tiffani focused on the how to maximize your company’s Growth IQ—the 10 paths to growing your company—now we shift our focus to the internal movers of this growth—employees and the employee experience, also known as EX. Tiffani’s career taught her that without the people who make the Customer Experience, you can only get so far in fulfilling your brand promise. In her newest book, The Experience Mindset, she dives into how to complement your CX by revamping your EX. In this episode, she shares:
_________________________________________________________________________________________ "Let me just say to you that that strategy one-pager in that vision and value statement and your tagline does not show up and solve a customer problem. It does not show up and sell something to a customer. It does not show up and design a product. People do that, not the strategy deck that gets you funding from your board." -Tiffani Bova _________________________________________________________________________________________ Action Items: If you'd like to put takeaways from this episode into action in your organization, we recommend starting here:
_________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Highlight from today's episode 00:56—Introducing Tiffani + The topic of today’s episode 2:58—If you really know me, you know that... 3:31—What is your definition of strategy? 4:31—What prompted you to begin your research into the topic of Employee Experience (EX)? 7:05—What were some of the unexpected findings in your researc Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 05 May 2023 | #88—Mohan Subramaniam: The Future of Competitive Strategy and the Evolving Role of Data, Customers and Digital Ecosystems | 00:30:06 | |
Mohan Subramaniam is a Professor of Strategy and Digital Transformation at the IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland. He focuses on the digital transformation of incumbent industrial firms and new sources of competitive advantage in the digital age. He is a recognized thought leader in digital strategy, and have helped senior executives in several companies find new sources of value and growth for their companies when competing with data within emerging digital ecosystems. He outlines his thinking in his 2022 book The Future of Competitive Strategy: Unleashing the Power of Data and Digital Ecosystems, where he introduces a new paradigm for competitive strategy anchored in data and digital ecosystems and the game-changing role of digital technologies in the modern economy. Legacy firms have for decades anchored their competitive strategy in products and industry characteristics, but these approaches are now becoming outdated. His book therefore explains how legacy firms can harness their existing assets, infrastructure, and traditional strengths to leverage the new and explosive power of data by thoughtfully applying and emulating the best practices of digital titans such as Amazon and Google. His articles regularly appear in Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review. I have also published articles in several leading academic journals such as Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Journal, the Journal of Management, and the Journal of International Business Studies, and my research has been recognized by awards from Strategic Management Society, McKinsey Corporation, the Academy of Management, the Academy of International Business, and the Decision Sciences Institute. In this episode, Mohan shares:
_________________________________________________________________________________________ "The big shift in thinking is that we always thought of data as something that supports our product. What I'm saying is that think of products as something that can support your data." _________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Highlight from today's episode 01:02—Introducing Mohan + The topic of today’s episode 2:58—If you really know me, you know that... 3:25—What is your definition of strategy? 3:36—Could you talk to Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||
| 10 Mar 2023 | #80—David Rogers: An Essential Guide to Digital Transformation | 00:21:58 | |
David Rogers is one of the world’s leading expert on digital transformation, a member of the faculty at Columbia Business School, and the author of five books. His landmark bestseller, The Digital Transformation Playbook, was the first book on digital transformation and put the topic on the map. David defined the discipline by arguing that digital transformation (DX) is not about technology; it is about strategy, leadership, and new ways of thinking. In his newest book, The Digital Transformation Roadmap, he tackles the biggest barriers to DX success and offers a blueprint to rebuild any organization for continuous digital change. David has helped shape the way companies around the world transform their business for the digital age, working with senior leaders at corporations including Google, Microsoft, Citigroup, Visa, HSBC, GE, Toyota, Cartier, Pernod Ricard, China Eastern Airlines, and NC Bank Saudi, among others. He regularly delivers keynotes at conferences on all six continents and has appeared on CNN, ABC News, CNBC, Channel News Asia, and in The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Economist. At Columbia Business School, Rogers is faculty director of executive education programs on digital business strategy and on leading digital transformation, having taught over twenty-five thousand executives. In this podcast, he shares:
_________________________________________________________________________________________ Episode Timeline: 00:00—Highlight from today's episode 00:46—Introducing David + The topic of today’s episode 3:03—If you really know me, you know that... 4:01—What is your definition of strategy? 5:50—Can you give us an example of a company that successfully mastered digital transformation? 8:20—Can you lay out the five domains that you outline in your book, The Digital Transformation Roadmap? 11:05—As we become aware of the cognitive biases we carry, then what are some strategies that companies can think about maybe in customer strategy? 14:00—Have you found a framework or tool that you think is particularly good for culture transformation? 17:06—Where can people get in touch with you and follow your work? 17:30—What's something important you changed your mind about? 19:47—How do you get people to support a cultural change and transformation? 20:38—How do digital tools help in a cultural transformation? __________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Personal Page: davidrogers.digital Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidrogersdigital/ Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening. | |||