INNOVATION PODCASTS

The most relevant innovation topics with the most interesting people, exchanging viewpoints and debating about the future. It’s the one subject we don’t know enough about yet. What could be better?

Twice monthly, hosts Sean Moffitt and Andrea Kates share foresights and interview seasoned corporate innovators, passionate change agents and pragmatic futurists to get to what’s next and the signals to watch for now.

Rita McGrath, professor at Columbia Business School, says the need for organizations to adopt digital business models is more important than ever. Change is accelerating as startups tackle incumbents. And suddenly the coronavirus crisis is forcing the hand of many companies that have put off digital transformations.

She explains how established firms can avoid bet-the-farm moves and instead take small steps and quickly target their experiments. McGrath is the coauthor of the HBR article “DiscoveryDriven Digital Transformation.”
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Found on https://www.npr.org/podcasts/470937634/are-we-there-yet?t=1594204553970

SpaceX successfully launched two NASA astronauts from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a mission to the International Space Station. It's the first time humans have launched from the U.S. since the end of the space shuttle program in 2011. At a time when protests were breaking out across the county, for a brief moment, millions of people watched the launch and looked to the sky marveling at what humans are capable of doing. We^'re going to talk about the long-lasting impact of this launch — from the inspiration it delivered to the innovation it paves the way for.

As our access to information continues to increase, so does the amount of data humanity is generating. Our current storage systems have a shelf-life, but there are researchers out there trying to use DNA to store and archive all the world's information.

Universal Basic Income is an idea that many people have thought about for centuries, but are we any closer to seeing people receive a base level of financial support?

90 per cent of startups fail, but what does it take to build a business that succeeds? That defies all expectations? That could one-day become a unicorn? Hosted by Kristofor Lawson this series dives into the heart of entrepreneurship, bringing you in-depth interviews with some of the world's greatest business minds. Everyone in this series is a founder, there from the start when their idea was written on the back of a napkin and are now at the helm of a global company. Building A Unicorn is available now.

2019 is quickly becoming the year of plant-based protein with many companies heavily pushing to distribute their alternative products to the mass market. So what is the current state of the plant-based protein market and what does that mean for new startups in the space?

Nobody can escape getting old. In fact, generations of people are living to a much older age thanks to modern healthcare. But how will technology make the experience of ageing easier, and what innovations will allow you to stay in your own home for longer?

Facial recognition technology is becoming widespread as technology companies look to use biometrics to secure information. However when used by law enforcement it raises a bunch of ethical concerns. So should we be scared of facial recognition?

Tesla inspires brand loyalty that other vehicle manufacturers can only dream of. Some are inspired by their performance, others are touting the green credentials. It's a loyalty that is somewhat similar to Apple. So is Tesla the Apple of the motoring world?

On this week’s show, we explore efforts to remake public education in North Dakota and beyond with Governor Burgum, Cory Steiner, the superintendent of Northern Cass School District where By next school year, grade levels are expected to be a thing of the past and students will chart their own course to high school graduation, at their own pace, and Ted Dintersmith, a venture capitalist and the author of, “What School Could Be: Insights and Inspiration from Teachers Across America.” Two parents with students at Northern Cass, Kristin Behm and Angie Froehlich also share their experiences of the changes underway at the school.

Helen Lee Bouygues, founder of the Reboot Foundation, believes that a lack of critical thinking is responsible for many business failures. She says organizational leaders often rely too heavily on expertise and then jump to conclusions. Instead, leaders should deliberately approach each problem and devote time thinking through possible solutions. The good news, she says, is that critical thinking skills can developed and practiced over time. Bouygues is the author of the HBR.org article "3 Simple Habits to Improve Your Critical Thinking."

Esther Duflo, an MIT economist, won the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for her experimental approach to alleviating global poverty. Duflo’s early life working at a non-governmental organization in Madagascar and volunteering in soup kitchens in her native France inspired her to study economics and research the root causes of poverty. With her fellow Nobel winners Abhijit Banerjee of MIT and Michael Kremer of Harvard, Duflo showed that effective policies often go against conventional wisdom and popular economic models. The only way to find out what works, she argues, is to rigorously test solutions on the ground, and she encourages businesses to do the same. With Banerjee, Duflo also wrote the new book "Good Economics for Hard Times."

It's a new year and a new decade, and that means a lot of new innovation and tech to look forward to. But, as we wonder what the future has in store, it's important to look back at the past year and what it has taught us. Author Clive Thompson joins us to talk about the innovations that caught his attention in 2019 and what he's looking forward to in 2020 and beyond.

Nancy McKinstry, CEO of Wolters Kluwer, has successfully shifted her company’s business to digital products over 15 years. The Dutch multinational started in the 1830s as a publishing house and now earns more than 90% of its revenue from digital. McKinstry explains how her firm kept investing in product innovation – and how she learned to be patient as consumers slowly adopted new products and services. She also credits the role of increased diversity in her organization. McKinstry is the top woman in HBR’s 2019 list of the world’s best-performing chief executives.

Innovation expert Ron Price discusses the six stages of innovation and how businesses should use them to have success.

Dashun Wang, associate professor at Kellogg School of Management, crunched big datasets of entrepreneurs, scientists, and even terrorist organizations to better understand the fine line between failure and success. One surprising finding is that people who experience early failures often become more accomplished than counterparts who achieve early successes. Another insight is that the pace of failure is an indicator of the tipping point between stagnation and eventual success.

Henry Chesbrough, adjunct professor at the University of California Berkeley Haas School of Business, coined the term “open innovation” over a decade ago. This is the practice of sourcing ideas outside your own organization as well as sharing your own research with others. However, he says that despite a booming economy in Silicon Valley, companies aren’t executing on open innovation as well as they should. They are outsourcing, but not collaborating, and fewer value-added new products and services are being created as a result.

The Zigbee Alliance is the premier Internet of Things (IoT) standards development organization since 2002. John has extensive experience in new product development, rapid product commercialization, systems innovations, and operations improvement.

What unique applications of IoT have you seen? John says there are very few significant new ideas. It’s mostly the same products being improved over time. The most changes we’ve seen are on the AI side. We’re trying to get the end device smart enough to operate without the cloud. Recently, I’ve seen some cool new things in the lighting arena. Lighting has been recently tied to entertainment. If you’re playing Fortnite, you want the room around you to emulate what is happening. However, this can often be tricky.

In the case of many IoT devices, there is a cost lift to each of these modified products. What is that cost lift? John says people want more functionality at a lower price. For example, people are willing to pay about $5 premium on a smart bulb. That is a target we are all shooting for. Today, it is at around $10 premium. What are the other barriers holding people from buying IoT devices? Most people won’t just throw away their already purchased light bulbs. LED bulbs last a long time, so people get comfortable with them. We need to figure out how to incentivize people to swap out a good bulb for something more connected.

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