Faces of Innovation

"It's not about the technology, it's about the way it's used."

Today we’re excited to be speaking to Geoff Gibbins, an expert practitioner in growth strategy and innovation. Geoff leads the Americas region at BOI, the global leader in Autonomous Innovation. 

In this Episode of Faces Of Innovation, Rachel Gordon and Geoff Gibbins discuss the concept of autonomous innovation, its implications for corporate innovation, and the transformative role of generative AI. They explore the current state of innovation in various industries, the challenges companies face with data collection, and the misconceptions surrounding generative AI. The discussion also covers the need for companies to rethink their operating models, the importance of understanding AI, and predictions for the future of work in an AI-driven world.

Key Takeaways

• Autonomous innovation allows for outcomes previously deemed impossible.
• Generative AI is most valuable in complex scenarios.
• Companies can still engage with data collection effectively.
• Understanding the breadth of data sources is crucial.
• Generative AI can create new job opportunities, not just eliminate them.
• Misconceptions about generative AI stem from outdated experiences.
• AI will integrate seamlessly into business processes in the future.
• Companies need to focus on strategy before technology implementation.
• AI fluency will be essential for future job roles.
• The future of work will see shifts in job types and industries affected by AI.

Connect with Geoff on LinkedIn.
 
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About The Faces of Innovation: This podcast is dedicated to speaking to leaders across the innovation ecosystem, from Venture Builders to Chief Innovation Officers.

Today we’re excited to be speaking to Abhay Jain, Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at A+E Networks.
 
In this conversation, Abhay Jain shares his extensive experience in innovation across various sectors, particularly in media and technology. He discusses his journey from startup founder to corporate strategist at A&E Networks, emphasizing the challenges and opportunities in fostering innovation within large organizations. Abe highlights the importance of understanding corporate mindsets towards failure, the need for structured innovation teams, and the role of external partnerships in driving growth. He also reflects on successful companies in innovation and the critical need for leadership to embrace new ideas and approaches.
 
Key Takeaways

• Innovation can succeed or fail based on corporate culture.
• Failure is often not tolerated in large organizations.
• Creating pockets of innovation can help foster creativity.
• External partnerships can drive innovation in corporates.
• Leadership must embrace new ideas for successful innovation.
• Data storytelling is crucial in corporate strategy.
• Netflix's gaming venture exemplifies innovative risk-taking.
• Incentives for innovation need to be restructured.
• Understanding audience engagement is key to content strategy.

Find Abhay here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhaykjain/
 
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About The Faces of Innovation: This podcast is dedicated to speaking to leaders across the innovation ecosystem, from Venture Builders to Chief Innovation Officers.

"We need innovation, but we need growth."
 
Today we’re excited to be speaking to Greg Brody, a Venture Partner with 25 years of venture investing experience, specializing in corporate venture capital and building growth capabilities for large enterprises. 
 
In this conversation, Greg Brody shares his career journey and his current focus on helping big enterprises disrupt themselves and drive new growth. He emphasizes the need for companies to have programs to drive growth, rather than just focusing on innovation. These programs require senior leaders to be fully committed and involve a long-term process of building new growth capabilities. Greg discusses the different options for achieving growth, including building internal venture studios, acquiring companies, or investing in startups. He also highlights the importance of leveraging venture capital approaches as a form of management and the role of growth boards in governing the process.
 
Key Takeaways

• Growth is essential, not just innovation.
• Companies need programs to drive sustainable growth.
• Senior leadership buy-in is critical for success.
• Understanding the right questions is key to growth.
• A holistic approach to growth is necessary.
• Venture studios can be an effective model for growth.
• Talent structure must include dedicated resources.
• External partners can provide valuable insights.
• The growth board plays a crucial role in decision-making.
• Mindset shifts are essential for corporate innovation.

 
Find Greg here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregbrody/
 
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To learn more about Bamboo Crowd, check us out here: https://www.bamboocrowd.com/ 
 
About The Faces of Innovation: This podcast is dedicated to speaking to leaders across the innovation ecosystem, from Venture Builders to Chief Innovation Officers.

Welcome to Faces of Innovation!

This podcast is dedicated to speaking to leaders across the innovation ecosystem, from Venture Builders to Chief Innovation Officers. Faces of Innovation is hosted by Rachel Gordon. Rachel is a growth and innovation advisor to ambitious industry leaders in consumer packaged goods and pharmaceuticals. In her 20-year career, she's led innovation initiatives across Europe and North America in-house and as a consultant.

Today, she helps clients create internal structures for successful long-term innovation, enabling them to uncover market opportunities, build innovation capability and position themselves for large-scale growth. Rachel’s experience includes work with: ABInBev, AstraZeneca, Danone, General Mills, Harley-Davidson, PepsiCo and Virgin.

Today we're excited to be speaking to Agathe Blanchon-Ehrsam. Agathe is VP of Plant-Based Growth Strategy and Innovation at Danone. She has had an incredible career and journey working both consultancy-side as Partner at Vivaldi, a global re-invention firm known for supporting some of the leading organizations in unlocking growth and transforming brands, through to her work today at Danone, where she focuses on growth & innovation strategy across the portfolio.

Agathe has had a career that has spanned multiple types of organizations and geographies and this is an incredible episode to hear more about her approach to building a career in brand and innovation. How she has approached growth and the decisions that have led her to her role today? The journey of going from consultancy side to an in-house role? What do decisions look like from the inside and how should consultancies be working as partners to innovation leaders? And so much more.

This is a fantastic episode for anyone building a career in innovation and for folks who really want to understand what decisions look like in-house when it comes to brand and innovation. There are so many insights and learnings jam packed in this episode and we hope you enjoy it!

Welcome to Faces of Innovation!

This podcast is dedicated to speaking to leaders across the innovation ecosystem, from Venture Builders to Chief Innovation Officers.

Faces of Innovation is hosted by Rachel Gordon. Rachel is a growth and innovation advisor to ambitious industry leaders in consumer packaged goods and pharmaceuticals. In her 20-year career, she's led innovation initiatives across Europe and North America in-house and as a consultant.

Today, she helps clients create internal structures for successful long-term innovation, enabling them to uncover market opportunities, build innovation capability and position themselves for large-scale growth. Rachel’s experience includes work with: ABInBev, AstraZeneca, Danone, General Mills, Harley-Davidson, PepsiCo and Virgin.

Today we're excited to be speaking to Heather Myers. Heather is the founder of Spark No. 9, a strategy validation firm. Heather’s passion is bringing new strategies to life and testing them in real-life, bias-free environments. With the Spark No. 9 team, Heather has developed an experimentation platform that uses powerful design and innovative targeting for multivariate testing of big ideas. By using ad platforms and other real-life forums for testing, Spark generates evidence to de-risk new product development, rebrands, and other strategic initiatives.

Heather is a strategic advisor to The Luupe, a platform for creators; Pluralytics, an AI-powered platform that customizes language to audience; and GOLD, an online comedy platform. She is also the president of the Harvard Business School Women’s Association. Prior to founding Spark, Heather led corporate strategy and development for Scholastic, a leader in K-12 educational technology and children’s book publishing.

Before joining Scholastic, Heather managed the $12 billion merger of Polygram and Universal and created a digital music division for the Universal Music Group; she also led strategy and business development efforts for Universal Studios’ television, motion picture, theme park, and music businesses. Heather holds a BA in English from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

This is a fantastic episode for anyone working in Innovation!

Welcome to Faces of Innovation!

This podcast is dedicated to speaking to leaders across the innovation ecosystem, from Venture Builders to Chief Innovation Officers.

Faces of Innovation is hosted by Rachel Gordon. Rachel is a growth and innovation advisor to ambitious industry leaders in consumer packaged goods and pharmaceuticals. In her 20-year career, she's led innovation initiatives across Europe and North America in-house and as a consultant.

Today, she helps clients create internal structures for successful long-term innovation, enabling them to uncover market opportunities, build innovation capability and position themselves for large-scale growth. Rachel’s experience includes work with: ABInBev, AstraZeneca, Danone, General Mills, Harley-Davidson, PepsiCo and Virgin.

For episode 1 we're excited to be speaking to Ron J. Williams. Ron helps bold companies identify and de-risk "good growth" engines: High potential opportunities that are unapologetically impactful and unequivocally commercial. He is an Inclusive venture builder supporting overlooked founders and problem spaces. Ron has founded, built, invested in and advised on peer-to-peer, sharing economy, marketplace, machine learning and social commerce companies.

In varied roles as a founder, intrapreneur, consultant, Entrepreneur in Residence and Program Lead, he has helped Fortune 500 companies re-engineer core business strategies and innovation programs across industries.

This is a fantastic episode for anyone working in Innovation, Venture Building and Studios, Venture Capital, and Startups.