Host Mika Tienhaara. Guest John Saiz, Innovation 360 Group and Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge.

Wow, it was fantastic to talk to John again. A lot of fun, but a lot of good points learning about technology development and much beyond. Leadership, competence and culture pays a huge role in how successful you are.

John during his time at NASA got to use the Technology Readiness Level from the 90’s and this has had a widespread use also in heavy-asset industries like Oil & Gas. But is this sufficient, what are the limitations? Don’t just blindly use one tool, there are also other systems that can support your development.

Failure is an option. When it is not costly and has a low impact, like when you have a low TRL. Learn as much as you can. But when you deploy for real, you better be sure to have a ready product as then failure is NOT an option. When your product becomes complex, with a lot of systems, you should also consider additional tools and systems.

Digitalization is here and we have to embrace it. As an organization be ready or get ready to utilize the data and convert to have it digitally available.

Condition you culture and cultivate your organization. John emphasizes how important the people aspect is, and there are shortcomings in so many organizations. People need to be inspired and motivated. There needs to be creativity in your team. Find the passion, which at the same time is difficult to achieve.

What about digitalization - humans are more prone to errors with repetitive tasks, let machines do this. Humans can focus on the really cool stuff. But you need to ensure that you automate in the right way.

Further reading:

John Mankins -”Technology Readiness Level - A White Paper”, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/247705707_Technology_Readiness_Level_-_A_White_Paper

Manufacturing Readiness Levels - https://www.dodmrl.com/MRL_Deskbook_V2.pdf

AD2, James Bilbro - https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA507181.pdf

APOLLO 13 mission - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_13

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikatienhaara.substack.com

With your host Mika Tienhaara. Guest Ernesto Sirolli, Sirolli Institute.

Ernesto is a such a fantastic person to listen to, amazing stories about entrepreneurship - he takes us from Italy to South Africa, Australia and USA. This story also includes Fritz Schumacher, Henry Ford, Steve Jobs and Peter Drucker.

Bringing the psychological aspects to business can bring so much value to making the best of entrepreneurship. We talk about the holy trinity of Product, Marketing and Finance.

The three actors of business:

(P) The Producer.

What is your skill, what is your Product. The magnificent craft person, the inventor. This person is the salt of the earth. They build something that adds value to our lives.

(M) The Marketing person.

The Seller. They are passionate about the people they encounter - they are fascinated by the people they meet, they make friends. Their best phrase “how can I help you”. They try to find a solution for the person, the customer, even with products they do not sell themselves.

(F) The Financial Person.

These are doing the “parent supervision”. (P) wants to make the best product. (M) wants to give what people need. (F) Does the Supervision and has to come in between otherwise the whole concept collapses.

This way you get the right product, to the right price. This team has to build the business plan TOGETHER.

The true entrepreneurs are disappearing. The startup model has become a television show, a competition. This is not the right way according to Ernesto. Don’t pick the best one, rather work with the 399 rejected - why? (listen to the podcast and you will learn).

Are we experiences “tunnel vision” in entrepreneurship- believing that everyone should become a unicorn with hi-tech? The incubator and accelerator model does not democratize entrepreneurship skills. Learn everyone to swim, don’t just try to make one olympic winner. The genius is a disruptor and does not come out of a mould - go back to the garage mode, not TV show pitch competitions.

We could have continued for another hour…means there will probably be a sequel with Ernesto.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikatienhaara.substack.com

With your host Mika Tienhaara, ROCSOLE. Guest Sara Sabin, transformational coach.

About Leadership and Emotional Intelligence.

APOLOGIZES FOR THE SOMEWHAT BAD SOUND QUALITY IN A COUPLE OF SEQUENCES -BUT THOUGHT THE CONTENT BEING SO RELEVANT DECIDING NOT TO REMOVE/EDIT THOSE PARTS. WE HAD SOME CONNECTIVITY ISSUES ON THE DAY OF RECORDING - ACTUALLY ON THE INTERNATIONAL WOMENS’ DAY.

Do you want to be among the best, a top performer as a company. Sara firmly believes that it is a small risk to have those big ideas and bring that purpose to your company. This will help you to make it successful, and it is a vital intellectual challenge.

Be ready for the future - emotional intelligence is critical. The transformational leaders can envision the future and empower the team to deliver.

Everything is changing that is for sure, make use of the tools available. Can you create the beauty out of the beast?

And what is it that Sara wishes that companies will do now coming out of the pandemic phase - listen and you will learn.

A talk with Sara about transformational coaching and leadership.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikatienhaara.substack.com

Host Mika Tienhaara, ROCSOLE, guest Tushar Kansal, Kansaltancy Ventures.

A talk around Venture Capital and Startups. And a lot about cultural differences.

It was great to talk to Tushar, with his background from corporates, as an investor from venture capital working with startups - what should startups look for: should you be looking at your local/regional market. What to learn from this. And what if you have global aspirations?

Remember to understand the variations in culture and what the expectations are in terms of price, service and quality. What are the local habits and taste? Use that as an opportunity to excel!

Thinking about your team, where are the co-founders, tech guys and the rest of your team - what are your cumulative capabilities. Show leadership!

Be a top 3 potential in your category, get the investors to flock around you.

Figure out the stickiness of your product. Build habits.

And what is Tushar’s one wish for this year? Listen and you will learn…

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikatienhaara.substack.com

Hosted by Mika Tienhaara, ROCSOLE, guest Sandy Munro, Munro & Associates.

“It is a phenomenal time to be alive!!!”

I had the opportunity to catch up with Sandy Munro, an innovator in the lean design area. Sandy has so much profound knowledge to share, and a lot of stories…He recently came back from an 8,000 miles road trip driving from Detroit, MI to California and over to Brownsville, TX where he met with Elon Musk and then had to drive back home again. He met with innovators, entrepreneurs, Tesla Driver clubs and lots of other people (more on his epic road trip on his youtube channel Munrolive).

We talked about the future of automotive - the death of the ICE age, and benchmark those seats in the Tesla!! What about hydrogen, will it be something for transportation - yes especially for VTOL. I recall from a call with Sandy more or less a year ago, when he was quite gloomy about the future when the pandemic hit, but now just a few days ago he has even expanded his operations with a new building. In the podcast recording he is in his newly acquired facility. There will also be a youtube version of this episode.

So what is the most valuable commodity?

And what about manufacturing, where are we heading - will tradesmen be required or is everything going digital and automate.

What did Sandy tell high school kids???

A lot of businesses are going through the pains of ramping up production, the production or manufacturing hell period, all this can be avoided, like when he tells about the original Dodge Viper production (as an example, sorry my fault - I brought it up). And what about the future, what does Sandy think about the times?

I hope you enjoy listening to this episode, Sandy could have gone on talking for a couple of hours…

Footnote: 110 inches = 279.4 cm (and nothing else! :) )

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikatienhaara.substack.com

Hi!

“COLLABORATE TO INNOVATE & INNOVATE WITH AN IMPACT”

I will feature not only blogs but also podcasts on my site. For a good interaction and not to bore neither you as a listener nor myself I intend to invite guests to the podcast to discuss entrepreneurship, innovation and technology. That means a lot of this is about how we as individuals are able to interact efficiently to make an impact.

I hope to get my first guest onboard for a discussion in the coming weeks!

/Mika

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikatienhaara.substack.com