Better Innovation

With a population of just 1.3 million, Estonia has been a world leader in technology since 1991, when the northeastern European country regained freedom with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Shortly after Estonia's independence, the government reinvented itself and began a journey to modernize and digitize many of its platforms. Now, Estonia boasts an e-identity program, electronic voting, and health records stored on blockchain technology. Andres Kutt, former deputy director general for the Estonian Tax and Customs Board, responsible for IT, joins the podcast and discusses emerging technology, big data, and how new digital services offered to citizens is the norm in Estonia.

In the second half of our conversation with Secretary Andy Card he shares with us those intimate moments on 9/11 when he whispered in President George W. Bush's ear in the Florida classroom that America was under attack. Secretary Card imparts on us the leadership lessons he learned from the events of 9/11 and his work with the president. Secretary Card says a successful leader is one whose responsibility it is to own the decision he or she makes and create a climate where others will want to implement it.

Andy Card, former White House Chief of Staff to President George W. Bush, says there isn't just one definition of leadership. We explore the different types of leadership qualities that are critical to the success of innovation within any organization, and what it means to have 'peripheral vision' and possess 'ambidextrous' leadership traits. We learn about Secretary Card's humble roots in Massachusetts and how he found his way to the nation's capital.

Andy Card, former White House Chief of Staff to President George W. Bush and former Secretary of Transportation to President George H.W. Bush is a seasoned and accomplished leader from his time in government, the private sector and academia. We found his story so powerful and inspiring that we decided to split our conversation into two parts to maximize his leadership lessons for our listeners. Check out both Better Innovation episodes.

We resume our conversation with Steve Blank and fast forward to May of 2013 when he wrote an article in the Harvard Business Review titled, "Why the lean startup changes everything." That article resonated with entrepreneurs with visions for a new business. We unpack three components of Lean Startup: application of the business model canvas, customer development, and agile engineering. And Steve shares his point of view on the fifth anniversary of that famed HBR article.

Steve Blank, retired serial entrepreneur turned educator, arrived in Silicon Valley at the beginning of the business boom in 1978 and never left. He kept creating one startup after another. The lessons learned from the successes and failures of those startups led him to develop his lean startup theory, which has been adopted by entrepreneurs and organizations worldwide.

Our conversation with Steve Blank, retired serial entrepreneur and one of the Godfathers of Silicon Valley, was so rich and compelling that we decided to try something new and split it into two separate episodes. Be sure to listen to both Better Innovation episodes for the full Lean Startup experience.

Former President Barack Obama was one of the most science and technology oriented presidents, and took a personal interest in the work around Artificial Intelligence, according to Terah Lyons, former policy adviser to the U.S. Chief Technology Officer in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Lyons, now the Executive Director at the Partnership on AI, sat down with EY Global Tax Innovation Leader Jeff Saviano and discussed AI / data privacy policy, and the government's role in developing leading technology.

EY Global Advisory AI / Analytics Leader Beatriz Sanz Saiz has adopted the mindset of asking, "why not? Not, why? Everything is possible." And with the right technology, it's possible to reinvent ourselves and the world, Beatriz says. One tenet of her successful leadership can be attributed to the uniquely diverse teams she builds around her.

Chris Mazzei, EY Global Innovation - Technology Leader and Chief Analytics Officer, has witnessed an explosion of data analytics business applications over the past 17 years during his time at EY. Those applications have expanded to other emerging technologies such as, artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, and robotics process automation. In this episode, Chris talks to EY Global Tax Innovation Leader Jeff Saviano about key emerging technology trends relevant to your business.