Innovators on Tap

In 1903, William Harley and the Davidson Brothers built their first motorcycle in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Since that first bike shipped, Harley Davidson has become an American icon and likely the best known motorcycle brand across the world, selling upwards of 300,000 motorcyles each year.

But what happens to a business when consumer preferences and behaviors change? While motorcycles continue to sell well to their traditional customer base focused on the open road, a new segment of consumers has developed, that is more interested in sustainability and local travel. Harley’s response? Serial 1.

Serial 1, which started as a skunkworks project inside the company, and now operates as an independent entity, is creating a brand new line of electric bicycles to meet these changing consumer desires. 

On today’s show, we talk with Jason Huntsman, President of Serial 1, and Hannah Altenburg, Lead Brand Marketing Specialist, to discuss the journey from idea to development to the upcoming product launch. 

Both were part of the team that started this project inside Harley and share their unique perspective and advice for anyone who is trying to create change inside a larger organization. As Jason said during our interview:

“You can’t listen to everyone. You have to find your true north, pick a few advisors you trust, and then take everyone else’s opinion and keep moving”

You can follow the podcast and host Chuck Swoboda on Twitter for further exploration and discussion on innovation.

The episode is also available wherever else you listen to podcasts. Enjoy!

A Jesuit, a banker, and an author sit down for a podcast.

No, this isn’t some ridiculous set-up to a joke, it’s actually how I would describe today’s episode. But if you are expecting 3 guests, I have to tell you, there’s only one. His name: Chris Lowney.

Chris has a unique story: He entered a Jesuit seminary after highschool and spent 7 years studying to become a priest, but then left the seminary and went on to an incredibly successful career as an investment banker at JP Morgan, and now is a best-selling author of Heroic Leadership and other books and a world-renowned speaker.

While Chris’ journey may be out of the ordinary, it does embody a key trait of all innovators: the ability to take lessons from different industries and experiences and apply them in new ways to your current pursuit.

We cover a wide range of topics and Chris shares his tremendous insight on both life and some of his keys to success. Including this advice:

“People are better than we give them credit for and they are better than they think they are. If you give them a chance and some belief, they will outperform. Create an environment where people feel like they have a chance and know that you believe they can do it.”

You can follow the podcast and host Chuck Swoboda on Twitter for further exploration and discussion on innovation.

The episode is also available wherever else you listen to podcasts. Enjoy!

If you’re a long time listener of the show, you’ve noticed that many common themes around innovation and leadership emerge from these conversations. Recently, I took these ideas, and the many lessons learned throughout my career, and presented them as a TED Talk at Marquette University.

On today’s episode, we are replaying my talk, called the Circle of Innovation, which is a summary of how you can implement behaviors in your life that will make you a more innovative leader. I even include some experiments that you can try to test these ideas in your own life and hopefully get comfortable pushing yourself beyond your typical boundaries.

You can follow the podcast and host Chuck Swoboda on Twitter for further exploration and discussion on innovation.

The episode is also available wherever else you listen to podcasts. Enjoy!

When you think of innovation, what comes to mind?

It might be a company, like Tesla.

A founder, like Steve Jobs.

Or even a location, like Silicon Valley.

But what is unlikely to come to mind is a religious order that has been around since 1540 and each member takes a vow of poverty.

But that is exactly the focus of today’s episode: The Jesuits. A religious order of the Catholic Church founded by Ignatius of Loyola, who today are often most known for their focus on education and the founding of many world class universities across the United States.

Today’s guest is Father Nicky Santos, a Jesuit priest who also has a master’s degree in moral theology, an MBA and a PhD in Marketing. He explains that it’s not only education that the Jesuits are pioneers in, but they also have been on the frontier of innovation.

I like to say that innovation starts with imagining a better future, and Fr. Nicky explains that’s exactly what the Jesuits have been trained to do.

“The early Jesuits were going all across the world and getting people to imagine possibilities that they have never imagined before.”

Our conversation touches on Fr. Nicky’s journey from India to Priesthood and the multiple degrees he has gotten along the way, his theory of GRAMS, which are Jesuit principles that he believes also drive innovation, and what he thinks the future of Jesuit education and innovation will be.

You can follow the podcast and host Chuck Swoboda on Twitter for further exploration and discussion on innovation.

The episode is also available wherever else you listen to podcasts. Enjoy!

Today’s guest is David Reeves, President of OpenGov — a Silicon Valley company that offers cloud based services to local governments so they can achieve better performance and ultimately create better outcomes for the public.

Put another way, they're applying the practices and standards developed by private industry to the public sector … and if you’ve ever waited 2 hours at the DMV to update the address on your drivers license, you know that it’s not a minute too soon.

David has had a long career in the tech industry and has been fortunate to work alongside a number of successful entrepreneurs and innovators during his career - gaining many valuable lessons from their experiences.

We discussed what he sees as the most critical trait for success in an entrepreneurial organization and he said:

“You need intellectual curiosity. Top notch people have an innate intellectual curiosity about what they are doing. They are more capable of being adaptable and learning new things”

We also touched some of the unique challenges of pursuing innovation in a public-private partnership, the pros and cons of accelerators like Y Combinator, and the power of relationships in business and life.

You can follow the podcast and host Chuck Swoboda on Twitter for further exploration and discussion on innovation.

The episode is also available wherever else you listen to podcasts. Enjoy!

When we talk about innovation, we often focus on disrupting certain industries, but innovation also requires you to embrace personal disruption: your beliefs will be challenged, your direction will be changed, and your responsibilities will be shifted.

Today’s guest, Abim Kolawole, has embraced personal disruption throughout his entire career. Starting out as a lawyer for the SEC, he pivoted into running the claims business at Northwestern Mutual, and then pivoted again to his current role as VP of Digital Innovation. When I asked him about the winding path he has taken, he said:

“Your career journey is about optionality. You have to keep your options open to maximize opportunity. ”

But this episode is not just about Abim’s story, but rather its about the classic Innovator’s Dilemma: why large, successful, well managed companies struggle to adopt new innovations and technologies even though they see them coming.

We also discuss how large companies can use a crisis to force themselves to innovate, how to build a team that can accomplish innovation and not just talk about it, and the necessity to be rapidly adaptable in today’s fast-paced society.

You can follow the podcast and host Chuck Swoboda on Twitter for further exploration and discussion on innovation.

The episode is also available wherever else you listen to podcasts. Enjoy!

Many of you may have heard of the now famous Sand Hill Road - where the first VC firms planted their roots, and where nearly every top technology company received early funding coming - including Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook to name just a few.

Today, we speak with one of the original Silicon Valley venture capitalists: BJ Cassin.  But BJ’s story doesn’t end with the impact he had as a venture capitalist, it goes far beyond it. 

Prior to his investing career, BJ co-founded the technology company Xidex which went on to achieve Fortune 500 status in 1987 and helped revolutionize the microfilm and data storage industry.

And later in his career, BJ became passionate about increasing opportunities in the education system. Starting in 2000 with a $22 million dollar gift, the Cassin Educational Initiative Foundation was launched to help replicate two very innovative school models across the country - Cristo Rey and Nativity schools.  

He is now implementing his venture philanthropy model with the Drexel Fund that funds a range of innovative schools, networks, and educational entrepreneurs.

If there is a theme that has come to define BJ’s success, it is the ability to take an idea and scale it to more places to impact more people. He describes his greatest joy as

“Seeing people open a new school and recognizing there are a lot of entrepreneurs in the system. All they need is guidance, some capital, and an idea.”

BJ’s story is a great opportunity to reflect on how you can replicate the best ideas in your own life to scale the impact on those around you.

You can follow the podcast and host Chuck Swoboda on Twitter for further exploration and discussion on innovation.

The episode is also available wherever else you listen to podcasts. Enjoy!

As I’ve interviewed a number of innovators and entrepreneurs on the show over the last couple of years, it has re-confirmed my belief that innovation is not a process or a recipe, but it is fundamentally about people and their mindset.

In the first half of season three, I’ve had a chance to talk with a wide range of incredible guests, who have proven that there is no one particular way to successfully innovate.  And while people have different styles, and describe their strategies and philosophies in different ways, if you listen closely they share similar core beliefs that fuel their thinking.

As I looked back through these interviews, I realized there are ten broad themes which can be applied to your own innovation journey.  

Think of these 10 ideas as the Innovators on Tap Principles of Innovation. They may look a little different depending on the situation and are often applied in unique ways in different companies, but the core ideas are the same.  

The key is look below the surface of what they did, and understand why they did it - to understand the mindset driving their approach.

Our hope is that these principles help guide you throughout your own innovator’s journey. 

You can follow the podcast and host Chuck Swoboda on Twitter for further exploration and discussion on innovation.

The episode is also available wherever else you listen to podcasts. Enjoy!

Today’s guest is Wafaa Arbash, the founder & CEO of WorkAround — a company helping refugees and displaced populations find sustainable income through data labeling for machine learning algorithms.

However, Wafaa’s story goes much deeper than her role as a founder and CEO — she also is a great example of the power of resilience. She originally came to the United States from Syria in 2013, with a plan to stay 8 weeks. However, shortly after arrival, a crisis emerged in her home country which made it clear to her and her family that she would be much safer staying in the U.S. a little longer. 

The crisis in Syria continues and her original 8 week visit has turned into 7 years, where she’s now leveraging her talents to help displaced people that are still being affected by the unrest in her home country.

Wafaa says that one of the keys to her success was: “You need to be proactive. You need to build a toolbox for yourself that allows you to be resilient”

You can follow the podcast and host Chuck Swoboda on Twitter for further exploration and discussion on innovation.

The episode is also available wherever else you listen to podcasts. Enjoy!

If you’ve listened to this show before, you know that one of the key premises is that Innovation is fundamentally about people and not process - that’s it requires a unique mindset.  

This is what I call the Innovator’s Spirit — which are the beliefs that enable the behaviors that make innovation possible.

The challenge for many of us is that our life experiences have created beliefs that actually get in the way of innovation.  We have seen things, done things and have been told things that create “false truths” which limit our ability to take risk and challenge the status quo, that convince us to settle for good enough and accept artificial boundary conditions.

These limits on our thinking about what’s possible are all around us, so on today’s episode I’m going to challenge several ideas that many people consider conventional wisdom.  

To help me do this, I’ve asked Kyle Hagge, the producer of Innovator’s of Tap and an aspiring entrepreneur to join me on this side of the microphone as we challenge the value of some age-old ideas.

You can follow the podcast and host Chuck Swoboda on Twitter for further exploration and discussion on innovation.

The episode is also available wherever else you listen to podcasts. Enjoy!