OutsideVoices with Mark Bidwell

Latest Episodes:

Gambling on Innovation: How To Be Productively Wrong With Luis Perez-Breva Of MIT Apr 27, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, we are joined by Luis Perez-Breva, a lecturer and research scientist at MIT's School of Engineering and the Director of MIT's Innovation Teams Program. Luis has extensive experience in both innovation practice - via his involvement in multiple startups - and innovation research - through his academic work.

We are talking about his first book, Innovating: A Doer's Manifesto for Starting from a Hunch, Prototyping Problems, Scaling Up, and Learning to Be Productively Wrong.

What Was Covered

Why Luis sees following "innovation recipes" is inherently wasteful and essentially high stakes gambling
How the best innovators both prepare for scale at each stage and excel at applying their "parts" to identified problems
How a corporation's existing products and services give it an innovation advantage over startups

Key Takeaways and Learnings

Luis's tried and tested method, anticipating failure at each 'scale', which can help innovators to prepare and solve as many foreseeable faults as possible - what he calls being "productively wrong" as a way to avoid "failing predictively"
How to use linear processes to improve the non-linear process of building innovation
Innovating the skillset; how companies learn and repurpose what they do today to provide entirely different products in the future

Links and Resources Mentioned in This Podcast

Innovating: A Doer's Manifesto for Starting from a Hunch, Prototyping Problems, Scaling Up, and Learning to Be Productively Wrong – a book by Luis Perez-Breva
Get in touch with Luis Perez-Breva via LinkedIn, Twitter and email - lpbreva@mit.edu
MIT School of Engineering website
The Morning Ledger: Why you probably work a giant US company, a report by Rhea Rao, The Wall Street Journal Blog, April 2017
Dual Transformation and Why Noah's Arc Management Can't Work with Scott Anthony of Innosight

Inventing The Future with Business Model Innovation with Alex Osterwalder Apr 24, 2020

Show notes

Alexander Osterwalder is an entrepreneur, author, business model innovator, and co-founder of Strategyzer, a SaaS company that helps organizations develop better growth engines, powerful business models, and so much more. In this episode, Alex discusses the innovative way he wrote the Business Model Generation book and explains why the Business Model Canvas is an excellent tool for businesses looking to challenge their current business model.

02:55 - Why did Alex write the book, Business Model Generation.
04:00 - How Alex crowd sourced the book.
09:00 - What is the Business Model Canvas all about?
11:15 - There is no such thing as the one and only business tool. You need to combine tools based on your needs.
17:15 - What kinds of conversations is Alex hearing from the C-suite executives about business models?
19:40 - How do you price a cure that's going to heal people with one injection?
21:35 - You can still be innovative on inferior technology.
24:00 - We're still stuck in the last century when it comes to developing innovation.
29:00 - There are some great lessons you can learn from Expresso.
34:15 - Large corporations are trying hard to be innovative, but only a few of them are able to succeed.
36:55 - What is Alex's business model?
41:55 - What has Alex changed his mind about recently?
43:40 - What does Alex do to remain creative?
44:35 - What does Alex attribute his success to in life?

Resources: http://www.outsidelens.com/outsidevoices

Dual Transformation and why Noah's Arc Management can't Work with Scott D. Anthony of Innosight Apr 22, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, Scott D Anthony, writer, speaker and Senior Partner at consulting firm Innosight, joins us to discuss his book, Dual Transformation – How to Reposition Today's Business While Creating the Future. Scott is a globally renowned specialist in innovation, publishing several books on the domain as well as being a regular contributor to the Harvard Business Review.

What Was Covered

Scott's concept of 'dual transformation' and his assertion that today's every changing global marketplace companies needs to be reinventing their business of today to make it 'better, faster, cheaper' (Transformation A) at the same time as creating their business of tomorrow (Transformation B)
Why the most successful leaders in innovation are 'living at the periphery' and not at the core of their industry
Why Scott believes that combining the best elements of startups and large companies is a good path to solve today's biggest global challenges
How Scott's experience of living in Asia has evolved his thinking on how best to organize markets, and the role that family owned businesses, private companies and government linked enterprises can play

Key Takeaways and Learnings

By doing 'dual transformations' together allows an organization to take the disruptive threats that are coming at them today and turn them into exciting growth opportunities of tomorrow
To avoid getting stuck in the core of today it is necessary to be able to play at the periphery of an industry. The core of today will give you no signal that it's time to change until it's too late
The meeting of entrepreneurial energy with assets and scale can make magic happen – so we should look for ways to combine the start up and large company communities to tackle our most intractable problems
There are different cultural norms around the world in how people and organizations think about failure. And where we see a reluctance to accept failure it holds back the innovation ecosystems both within large companies and startups

Links And Resources:

Innosight
Dual Transformation – How to Reposition Today's Business While Creating the Future, by Scott D. Anthony

Rob Wolcott - Never Leave Serendipity to Chance Apr 20, 2020

Show notes

Robert Wolcott is the Co-Founder & Executive Director of the The World Innovation Network (TWIN) and a Clinical Professor of Entrepreneurship & Innovation at the Kellogg School of Management. Mark discusses innovation and how he plans to bring TWIN to Europe. He also offers thoughtful advice for entrepreneurs trying to manage their team on a middle-management level.

What Was Covered

02:32 - What does a typical week look like for Rob?
04:20 - How can I be exceptional with what I do now, as well as prepare for the future?
07:05 - What are you trying to accomplish?
08:20 - Innovating for efficiency is very different than innovating for growth.
10:25 - How can entrepreneurs get things done when they're not in C-suite positions?
11:25 - Build bridges before you need them, especially if you're an entrepreneur.
15:25 - Is there a certain type of leadership model that helps create sustainable innovation?
22:00 - What does Rob mean when he says, "Don't leave serendipity to chance?"
28:10 - How does Rob plan to bring TWIN to Europe?
32:00 - Don't hire horrible people. Life is too short.
36:05 - Rob talks about his trip to Bhutan.
42:15 - What are Rob's daily rituals?
45:00 - Multitasking is bad for you.
45:50 - What has Rob changed his mind about recently?
48:05 - What advice would Rob give to his 20-year-old self?

Links And Resources Mentioned In This Episode:

Show notes: http://www.outsidelens.com/outsidevoices

Combining Startup and Corporate with Jenny Fielding of Techstars Apr 17, 2020

Show notes

In this episode we are joined by Jenny Fielding Managing Director at Techstars a global venture capital fund for innovative tech startups. Jenny has extensive experience in both the startup and corporate worlds and a strong passion for "marrying startups with corporates" to create innovation and cultural shifts.

In this episode we cover:

Jenny's extraordinary success scaling and exiting her first startup Switch-Mobile in three years
How she moved a legacy organisation like BBC into the new digital era and founded BBC Labs, the UK's first corporate incubator.
Why infusing corporate and startup culture is so powerful and how she continues to do it at Techstars with the likes of GE, Bosch, Verizon, SAP and PWC.

What we learned:

Why listening to those from all levels of the organisation is so important in effectively innovating.The virtue of listening is also explored by Robert Cialdini and Kevin Kelly.
How potent and powerful the idea of bringing people together from different worlds can be and how it can be done effectively.
How the startup scene has been hugely idealised and why it's important to talk openly about the struggles founders face and how it differs from the corporate world.

Efosa Ojomo: See the World Through New Lenses Apr 15, 2020

Show notes

So reads the title of a chapter in the book by Professor Clay Christensen, Efosa Ojomo and Karen Dillon, The Prosperity Paradox.

The concept of looking at markets from different perspectives is at the heart of this optimistic yet practical book, in which the authors apply robust management theories to help leaders uncover and capture opportunities in developing markets.

Read the full article at https://outsidelens.com/see-the-world-through-new-lenses/ Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

The Prosperity Paradox: How Innovation Can Lift Nations Out of Poverty by Clayton Christensen, Efosa Ojomo and Karen Dillon
Efosa Ojomo's Website
Christensen Institute
How Will You Measure Your Life by Clayton Christensen, James Allworth and Karen Dillon
Transforming Standards of Patient Care with Vas Narasimhan

Lisa Bodell: Killing Companies, Creating Space, the Not-To-Do List Apr 13, 2020

Show notes

Lisa Bodell is a globally recognized innovation leader and futurist. She founded futurethink in 2003 and is the author of the book, Kill the Company. Lisa sits down with Mark to discuss how leaders can become more efficient in the work place and how they can properly simplify the work process for everyone in the company.

What Was Covered

01:50 - Why did Lisa start her company, futurethink?
03:10 - Lisa talks about her book, Kill the Company.
04:35 - Asking people to take on more work, doesn't work.
05:50 - What does Lisa look for when she needs to get a better feel of company culture?
07:20 - Leadership is the number one barrier to change.
07:40 - What characteristics do good leaders have when trying to enable change?
09:10 - Good leaders are open to collaboration.
09:40 - The leader's team can help define the barriers and break them down.
10:15 - Leaders should focus on asking the right questions first, before coming up with the answers.
12:30 - Leaders spend most of their time in meetings and answering emails.
18:35 - Don't call it innovation, call it efficiency.
21:30 - Lisa talks about the book she is currently writing.
21:45 - Lisa believes organizations are addicted to complexity.
26:00 - People want to do meaningful work, not answer emails and attend meetings.
29:00 - Lisa talks about diversity thought; how people think differently.
32:05 - What has Lisa changed her mind about recently?
33:50 - What advice would Lisa give to her 25-year-old self?

Dave Kesby: Herding Cats - Unconventional Team Leadership Apr 10, 2020

Show notes

I sat down with Dave Kesby, organizational coach and author, to talk about his book, "Extra-Dependent Teams: Realising the Power of Similarity", where he challenges the conventional wisdom of teams.

As he writes in his introduction, "through the lens of convention a lot of the features of Extra-Dependent Teams are misdiagnosed as faults: working apart is seen as working in silos, lack of interdependency is seen as uncollaborative, and working only towards their individual goal is seen as not being a team player."

Dave served in The British Army for seven years before turning to a career in organizational and leadership development. He combines military, academic, corporate and volunteering experiences to provide a fresh and challenging perspective on what it means to lead, as well as be part of a team.

Read the full article: https://outsidelens.com/herding-cats-unconventional-team-leadership/

What was covered:

The differences between Inter-Dependent versus Extra-Dependent teams
What are communities of practice and how they contribute towards innovation, silo-busting and improving organizational agility
Why "herding cats" is not necessarily a bad thing in an organizational context

Key Takeways and Learnings:

Focusing on common practices instead of common goals enables shared learning and performance improvement
Looking at the team for what it is instead of what it ought to be provides simpler solutions and decreases the need for control and competition

Links and Resources Mentioned In This Episode:

Extra-Dependent Teams: Realising the Power of Similarity, a book by David Kesby
Woodeson Kesby Organisational Coaching
Get in touch with David via LinkedIn and email

The Most Powerful Question In The World of Business with Michael Bungay Stanier Apr 08, 2020

Show notes

Michael Bungay Stanier, the Founder of Box of Crayons, teaches the principles of how to do less hard work and more good work to the everyday stressed out manager.

Michael opens a new door for managers who are struggling to get everything done. Often times, managers do not want to become coaches, but understanding basic coaching methods can help them to become more effective leaders. Habits also play a strong role in a leader's ability to adapt to these new principles and succeed.

02:50 - What is Michael's company, Box of Crayons, about?
04:10 - How do you make coaching practical for people?
04:55 - Busy managers often say they don't have the time to coach people.
06:00 - Coaching is slightly weird. Managers don't want to be a coach, they just want to do their job well.
09:10 - Slow down the rush to give advice to others. Often times you're solving the wrong problem!
10:40 - Instead of Michael training to teach the benefits of coaching to busy managers, he shows them how to work less hard for more impact.
13:00 - There's terrible advice out there on how to change your habits.
14:35 - Michael came up with a 3-part habit formula.
18:15 - High achievers aren't exactly wired to congratulate themselves.
21:40 - Your first solution isn't always going to be the right solution, which is why you need iterations.
22:50 - How did Michael find the strength to finish his book despite so many revisions, iterations and edits?
27:10 - How should managers think about their situation and what's keeping them stuck?
29:15 - Why is it so hard for people to ask a good question?
32:05 - How has leadership styles evolved over the years, especially when it comes to creating an innovative culture?
35:55 - How can managers foster more engagement from their team?
40:15 - What has Michael changed his mind about recently?
41:55 - What does Michael do to remain creative?
43:15 - What's next for Michael?
44:45 - What does Michael attribute his success to in life?

Resources:

https://boxofcrayons.com/
Do More Great Work by Michael Bungay Stanier, https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0761156445?ie=UTF8&tag=boxofcrayons-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789
The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier, https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-coaching-habit-michael-bungay-stanier/1122968458?ean=9780978440749

Exploring the Power of Pause with Leadership Thought-Leader and Korn Ferry Senior Partner, Kevin Cashman Apr 06, 2020

Show notes

Kevin Cashman is Senior Partner at Korn Ferry, specialising in CEO & Executive Development and Keynote Speaking.

Kevin has been in the industry for slightly over 30 years, and has seen leadership principles grow and evolve.

He has advised thousands of senior executives and senior teams, in more than 60 countries, so here's why he believes you need to take a pause, and ask questions, in order to cultivate an innovative company culture.

http://www.outsidelens.com/outsidevoices

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