OutsideVoices with Mark Bidwell

Latest Episodes:

074 - After The Storm: The View from Brazil with Ricardo Amorim Jun 12, 2018

Show notes

In this episode, we are joined by economist and entrepreneur, Ricardo Amorim. Ricardo is founder and CEO of Ricam Consultoria, a financial and investment consultancy, and recent startups AAA Academy and Smartrips. Ricardo is also the author of the best-selling book, After the Storm, is a host on Brazil's leading news channel, GloboNews, and is a lecturer and keynote speaker.

Why Brazil's market has been historically volatile, and what Ricardo believes are the solutions to this
Why Ricardo forecasts that despite a recent 'economic depression', Brazil's economy is set to boom in the next three to five years
Why Brazil's agribusiness is set to soar in the near future, and how available land and advancing technology is helping to bring investment to the country's farmlands

Key Takeaways and Learnings

How the country is recovering from recent economic crisis by focusing on innovation and startups to rival South America's smaller markets and the larger global markets
The challenges that Brazilian companies face in attracting home and foreign business investments, and why this creates hidden opportunities for potential investors
The role that culture and history have played in Brazil's tendency towards short term thinking in business and the steps being taken to encourage more of an 'owners mindset' to to take advantage of the enormous opportunities in that market

Links and Resources Mentioned in this Episode

Get in touch with Ricardo Amorim via email, LinkedIn or Twitter
Ricam Consultoria, website
AAA Academy, website
Smartrips, website
After the Storm, a book by Ricardo Amorim
Other mentions: Syngenta, Berkshire Hathaway, Goldman Sachs, Wal-Mart, Anheuser-Busch, Burger King, Heinz, Kraft

073 - Innovation in Africa with Jean-Claude Bastos May 29, 2018

Show notes

In this episode, we are joined by entrepreneur and innovation influencer, Jean-Claude Bastos. Jean-Claude is the founder of Quantum Global Group, Banco Kwanza, Angola's first investment bank, and The African Innovation Foundation (AIF), which aims to support sustainable projects in Africa and hosts the annual Innovation Prize for Africa.

Jean-Claude's perspectives on Africa developed from his long experience through education, innovation hubs, and technology training and why he sees the continent as "the last frontier in business and innovation"
How the demographics of Africa - where in 60% of the population is under 19 -years of age - impacts its approach to innovation
How the African Innovation Foundation has helped innovators transform $13m of investment into $200m of valuations

Key Takeaways and Learnings

How the AIF's created an innovation ecosystem, which includes an incubator, accelerator, co-working spaces, make it spaces, and cultural hubs to connect innovators and investors in Africa
How companies who have invested in Africa have used employee "loyalty programs" as an approach to retain local talent, where social safety nets are often weak
The traps international businesses risk falling into if they view Africa as a monolith. Its diversity of histories, languages and cultures, etc., mean that approaches to business vary widely across the continent

Links and Resources Mentioned in this Episode

Get in touch with Jean-Claude Bastos via LinkedIn or Twitter
Jean-Claude's website
Quantum Global Group, website
Banco Kwanza, website
The African Innovation Foundation (AIF), website
The Soap Factory - cultural hub in Angola, website
ZuaHub - a platform to connect innovators in Africa, website
Innovation Prize for Africa, website
Other mentions: United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, African Union, Botswana Innovation Hub, M-Pesa, WeChat
The Innovation Ecosystem Podcast Episode 068 – Accidental CEO with David Novak
The Innovation Ecosystem Podcast Episode 066 – Turn Your Ship Around with David Marquet

071 - Learn, Leap, Rinse, Repeat with Whitney Johnson May 01, 2018

Show notes

In this episode, we are joined by Whitney Johnson to discuss her upcoming book, Build an A-Team. Whitney is the author of the bestselling book Disrupt Yourself: Putting the Power of Innovation to Work, and is the founder of the accompanying Disrupt Yourself podcast. Whitney is also a noted speaker, and executive and innovation coach, and is a regular contributor to the Harvard Business Review.

What was covered

The S-curve, and how it can be used to gauge not only product growth and investment, but individual learning and innovation
The stages of learning in the S-curve, and how to predict challenges and boredom in the individual learning process in order to drive growth and prevent a lack of innovation
Why Whitney believes organizations should hire "disruptively", taking on market rather than competitive risk for this core business process

Key Takeaways and Learnings

'Onrampers' and 'boomerangers', and how organizations can benefit from hiring these ex-employees who return with fresh skills and competitor and client knowledge
'Taking the pulse of the workplace' and how to optimize your people for innovation and predict disruption by analyzing the different stages of learning within your team
'Learn, leap, repeat'; Whitney's theory for leaders on how to use the S-curve model to lead teams towards innovation by implementing fresh learning cycles

Links and Resources Mentioned in this Episode

Get in touch with Whitney Johnson via email, LinkedIn or Twitter
Whithey Johnson's website
Build an A-Team: Play to Their Strengths and Lead Them Up the Learning Curve, a book by Whitney Johnson
Disrupt Yourself: Putting the Power of Disruptive Innovation to Work, a book by Whitney Johnson
Dare, Dream, Do: Remarkable Things Happen When You Dare to Dream, a book by Whitney Johnson
Whitney Johnson's podcast
The Innovation Ecosystem Podcast Episode 013 – The Disruptive Individual, Riding the S-Curve and Liberating Constraints with Whitney Johnson
The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book That Will Change the Way You Do Business, a book by Clayton M. Christensen
The Price of Motherhood: Why the Most Important Job in the World is Still the Least Valued, a book by Ann Crittenden
Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter, a book by Liz Wiseman

067 - The Answer Is... a Question, with Warren Berger Mar 06, 2018

Show notes

In this episode, author and journalist Warren Berger joins us to discuss his book, A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry in Sparking Breakthrough Ideas, which examines the ways in which deep questioning fuels innovation. Warren has contributed articles and stories to The New York Times, GQ, New York magazine, and The Los Angeles Times, and was previously magazine editor for CBS and contributing editor for Wired.

How questioning leads to innovation and why Warren believes the best innovation is fuelled by an endless cycle of questioning at every stage
The benefits of both informed and uninformed questioning and how these differences interplay within different work cultures
How to get into deep questioning within the constraints of existing processes and routines

Key Takeaways and Learnings

How to use combinatorial thinking and sharing questions with other people, colleagues, and experts to learn perspectives and arrive at solutions that others hadn't necessarily looked at before
How 'Why?','How might I?' and 'What if?' questions help to create new realities by combining things that don't typically work together
How to develop the habit of asking questions as a leader, and how to encourage your colleagues and team members to question with courage, curiosity, and focus

Links and Resources Covered in this Episode

Get in touch with Warren Berger via Twitter
Warren Berger's website1 and website2
More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas, a book by Warren Berger
Right Question Institute, website
Christensen Institute, website
Brain Pickings, a blog by Maria Popova
Adam Grant, website
Daniel Pink, website
Farnam Street, website

065 - Fashioning possibilities from dance, digital and denim with Piyush Chowhan Feb 07, 2018

Show notes

In this episode we are joined by Piyush Chowhan who is the Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer for Arvind Lifestyle Brands, which operates more than a thousand apparel retail stores across India. Piyush has extensive experience in retail strategy, business analytics, customer loyalty and CRM, retail business consulting and supply chain management.

What was covered

How technology is rapidly changing the apparel retail industry and how Arvind implements innovation to help to keep up the pace with changing consumer behavior
The digital transformation happening in retail as brands look to move from simply selling a fashion product to offering the customer a fashion experience
How the next generation of employees in India is leading the change towards a more open, communicative, and grassroots innovation process

Key Takeaways and Learnings

The concept of 'jugaad', an Indian term that is used in a number of situations, including the application of frugal innovation and carving a path for yourself
How a focus on design-led innovation and a marketing shift towards online influencers is helping to Indian brands to reach a global audience in the rapidly and massively changing apparel retail industry
Piyush's observations of the key differences within Indian based organizations compared to the US and Europe, including structural and management differences, and innovative processes

Links and Resources Mentioned in this Episde

Get in touch with Piyush Chowhan via LinkedIn or Twitter
Arvind Brands, website
Other mentions: Walmart, Target, Circuit City, Tesco, Best Buy
Dual Transformation, a book by Scott Anthony
The Culture Map, a book by Aaron Meyer
The Innovation Ecosystem Podcast Episode 063 - When Big And Small Make Great with Brad Feld
The Innovation Ecosystem Podcast Episode 060 - Technonomics and Why My Profits Might Just Disappear with John Straw
The Innovation Ecosystem Podcast Episode 035 - Mind+Machine Strategies That Enable Corporations to Develop New Innovation Capabilities with Marc Vollenweider

059 - Four Pillars of Good Board Governance with Prof. Didier Cossin Oct 24, 2017

Show notes

In this episode, we are joined by Founder and Director of the IMD Global Board Center, Prof. Didier Cossin. Didier is a global expert in governance, and in addition to his role at IMD has served as a consultant to the United Nations, the European Central Bank and multiple major corporations, including HSBC, Vodafone, Schlumberger and Coca-Cola. We speak about four pillars of good board governance: people, information, structure and processes, and group dynamics.

What Was Covered

Didier's definition of board governance as "the art of decision making at the top of organizations"
The particular challenge that corporations with a long history face to transform and how this requires board leadership that "breaks the internal mould, breaks bureaucracy and opens up to the world"
What Didier has identified as the four pillars that constitute good governance – people, information, structure and processes and group dynamics - with good and bad examples of each

Key Takeaways and Learnings

A good assessment of board effectiveness is the extent to which it focuses on the past compared to the future – and that most boards spent too much time looking back
A board must ensure it receives the proper balance of internal and external information, of formal and informal information. That the very best board packs are "synthetic" – they use a variety of tools to synthesize the information that tracks the evolution of the key metrics
The criticality of the difficult task of organizing a board so its committees are well structured and focused on the issues of most importance to the organization
How a Chairman needs have the "art" of stimulating the right discussions, ensuring all views are considered and bringing these together – and the importance of this to enabling a functioning organization

Links and Resources Mentioned in this Podcast

Get in touch with Prof. Didier Cossin via LinkedIn and email: didier.cossin@imd.org
IMD Business School for Leadership and Management Courses - www.imd.org
IMD Global Board Center - https://www.imd.org/board/board-center/
The list of Prof. Didier Cossin's articles and publications

057 - To Fear is Human with Akshay Nanavati, the Author of Fearvana Sep 26, 2017

Show notes

In this episode, author and speaker, Akshay Nanavati, joins us to discuss his new book, Fearvana: The Revolutionary Science of How to Turn Fear into Health, Wealth and Happiness, which uses neuroscientific and psychological research to aid personal development. Akshay talks openly about his personal journey, struggle with drugs and alcohol and post traumatic stress disorder diagnosis that led to the research in his concept of Fearvana. Akshay is a Marine Corps Veteran, adventurer, entrepreneur and success coach.

What Was Covered

Akshay's definition of Fearvana as the state of bliss that results from engaging our fears to pursue our own worthy struggle
Why Akshay believes that we should change our relationship with, and the benefits that can flow from handling differently our most primitive and basic emotion
The view that we should Feel whatever we feel, whatever shows up, it's what we do with it that matters
Ashkay's research into neuroplasticity and the ability to rewire neuro-connections in the brain through introspection and habit changing

Key Takeaways and Learnings

The importance of acknowledging and accepting our own fears without judgement as the key to mental, physical and spiritual growth
Proven techniques to allow us to change the relationship to our emotions
How approaches such as visualising obstacles can help us avoid procrastination, or other proxies for fear, and improve our performance in the space between stimulus and response

056 - I Don't Care if it's Disruptive or Sustaining Innovation. What the Hell Do I Do Now? - with Greg Satell Sep 12, 2017

Show notes

In this episode, we are joined by Greg Satell, an entrepreneur, author, speaker, and innovation advisor. Greg has been published in The Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Fast Company Inc., The Times of London, and Business Insider, and has just published his first book, Mapping Innovation. Previously, Greg spent 15 years in media businesses in Eastern Europe - from Poland to Moscow to Kiev and from small business journals to large news organizations and lifestyle brands. His work as an innovation advisor spans from Fortune 500 companies, to mid-size firms, and startups.

What was Covered

Greg's approach to mapping innovation, what he calls a "playbook for navigating a disruptive age"
How organisations can no longer just look to their internal capabilities and assets to solve their most important problems but need to leverage external platforms in order to extend those internal capabilities
How companies like Eli Lilly and Experian used new approaches to problem solving that involved the ecosystems of talent and technology which are key to sustaining innovation in today's world of work

Key Takeaways and Learnings

Looking at innovation as an important problem which requires a novel solution – in the end a line manager is less interested in whether an innovation is sustaining or disruptive but if it answers the perennial question of, "What the hell do I do next?"
How power is moving from the top of the heap to the center of a network which means the indispensable partners are the dominant players
Why managing connections to external ecosystems of talent is today's essential management skill as competitive advantage switches from being the sum of all efficiencies to the sum of all connections

Links and Resources Mentioned in This Podcast

Greg Satell's blog DigitalTonto.com
Buy Greg's book Mapping Innovation: A Playbook for Navigating a Disruptive Age
Download first chapter of the book HERE
Get in touch with Greg on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter
Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, a book by General Stanley McChrystal
Innovation Ecosystem Episode 050: Hacking Flow: How to Make Outperformance a Habit with Steven Kotler

055 - Hollywood or Bust: New Business Ideas from Other Worlds with Hanne de Mora Aug 29, 2017

Show notes

In this episode, we are joined by Hanne de Mora, Co-Founder and Chairperson of management consultancy organisation a-connect, to talk about innovation of the future of the world of work. Hanne is also a member of the Board of Directors for AB Volvo and the Supervisory Board for IMD Business School.

What was Covered

How Hanne and her fellow Co-Founders created new demand within the traditional industry of workforce and management consultancy services – and how Hollywood provided inspiration
How technology changes the consulting, executive education and transportation industries and how these forces also apply elsewhere
Why Hanne thinks it is important for business leaders to foster entrepreneurship within organisations through pushing responsibility for human resource and P&L management processes as far down the organization as possible
The top skill sets which Hanne thinks are essential to being successful in the future of the world of work

Key Takeaways and Learnings

How understanding the numbers – how does a business make money and what does its cash flow look like – will remain relevant for any future leader.
In a world of ever increasing pace of change the ability to course correct is essential.
Inspiration is not hierarchical – it can come from anywhere in an organization. And while mothers and fathers will happily talk about being inspired by their children there remains a resistance within organisations to gain similar inspiration from their cross-generational workforces.

053 - Scrappy Intrapreneur Transforming Customer Experiences with Kyle Nicholas McCray Aug 01, 2017

Show notes

In this episode, Kyle Nicholas McCray, Director of Innovation at American Pacific Mortgage Corporation, joins us to discuss his experience as an intrapreneur and innovator within an established financial business. We cover with Kyle his early career at Apple, his time as an entrepreneur and how that led him to set up Scrappy Labs, an innovation lab within APMC dedicated to exploring new and innovative products and services to revolutionize the relationship between the company and a new generation of homebuyers.

What Was Covered

Why Kyle decided to set up Scrappy Labs and the purpose of an innovation lab within a traditionally 'small i' innovation organisation
APMC's approach to 'institutionalizing innovation' and its focus on how it communicates with its customers – the foundation of a services business
How Kyle acknowledges generational gaps between the company and its customers and how he responds to and leverages new trends and changes

Key Takeaways and Learnings

The importance of pivoting, responding quickly to changes in communication and technology, and bridging the gap between older and younger generations of staff and consumers
How nurturing a culture of 'scrappiness' has been essential to reducing the risk that new innovations are rejected when they come out of the 'lab' and are integrated into the wider organization
The importance of understanding the different communication 'styles' of team members how this common language helps to limit conflict and maximize the results of the innovation process

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