Outthinkers

Mohan Subramaniam is a Professor of Strategy and Digital Transformation at the IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland. He focuses on the digital transformation of incumbent industrial firms and new sources of competitive advantage in the digital age. He is a recognized thought leader in digital strategy, and have helped senior executives in several companies find new sources of value and growth for their companies when competing with data within emerging digital ecosystems.

He outlines his thinking in his 2022 book The Future of Competitive Strategy: Unleashing the Power of Data and Digital Ecosystems, where he introduces a new paradigm for competitive strategy anchored in data and digital ecosystems and the game-changing role of digital technologies in the modern economy. Legacy firms have for decades anchored their competitive strategy in products and industry characteristics, but these approaches are now becoming outdated. His book therefore explains how legacy firms can harness their existing assets, infrastructure, and traditional strengths to leverage the new and explosive power of data by thoughtfully applying and emulating the best practices of digital titans such as Amazon and Google.

His articles regularly appear in Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review. I have also published articles in several leading academic journals such as Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Journal, the Journal of Management, and the Journal of International Business Studies, and my research has been recognized by awards from Strategic Management Society, McKinsey Corporation, the Academy of Management, the Academy of International Business, and the Decision Sciences Institute.

In this episode, Mohan shares:

• Why some of the long-prevailing concepts of competitive strategy, like Michael Porter’s industry value chain, industry attractiveness (or five forces), and even the central paradigm of these approaches may have served us well for decades, but are increasingly becoming ineffective

• How traditional legacy firms can harness their existing assets, infrastructure, and traditional strengths to be even more effective at the digital game than digital native giants like Amazon and Google

• Why the first step for such incumbent organizations should be to evolve your traditional customers to digital customers

• Why we should not just be thinking about ecosystems broadly, but about two specific—and different—ecosystems we need to create, and what they are

• Why the idea that so many companies have of capturing and owning lots of data misses the point of what it means to win with data, in a world where the shelf-life value of the data you collect is getting shorter and shorter

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"The big shift in thinking is that we always thought of data as something that supports our product. What I'm saying is that think of products as something that can support your data."

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Episode Timeline:

00:00—Highlight from today's episode

01:02—Introducing Mohan + The topic of today’s episode

2:58—If you really know me, you know that...

3:25—What is your definition of strategy?

3:36—Could you talk to us about your thesis involving your ideas around Michael Porter's idea of competitive advantage?

7:51—Why is competitive advantage less relevant today than it was 40 years ago when it was created?

10:50—Can you explain how data has impacted our idea of customers, and ho

Sally Susman is Executive Vice President and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Pfizer. She is also Vice Chair of the Pfizer Foundation. Sally leads engagement with all of Pfizer’s external stakeholders, overseeing communications, corporate responsibility, global policy, government relations, investor relations, and patient advocacy. Before joining Pfizer in 2007, she held several senior communications and government relations roles at Estée Lauder Companies and the American Express Company.

Through these extensive career experiences, Sally has honed an acute sense of how to navigate the delicate conversation that an organization must perpetually engage in with their stakeholders.

And her work and expertise are more needed now than ever. With the growing interest among consumers, investors, and the community in the companies they support doing the right thing, your corporations’ success depends, more so than perhaps any time in history, on your ability to strategically approach the complex challenges of when to take stand, what stand to take, and how to authentically community your corporate stance to the world.

In this episode, she shares:

• The 5 questions leaders can ask to determine what discourses they will engage in with the public, especially in this modern era where that channel is never “off’
• How an organization can work in a collaborative way with their leadership and corporate affairs team to craft a united message that reflects company values
• The principles to mastering “informal influence”—getting others to be willing to adopt your ideas, as discussed in her most recent book, BREAKING THROUGH: Communicating to Open Minds, Move Hearts, and Change the World
• Why communications is not a nice-to-have soft skill, but an essential capability that any leader or company must master

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Episode Timeline:

00:00—Highlight from today's episode

00:52—Introducing Sally + The topic of today’s episode

3:00—If you really know me, you know that...

4:14—What is your definition of strategy?

4:37—Can you tell us about a document Pfizer has developed called a "purpose blueprint"?

6:00—What made you make the career shift from a government to corporate role?

7:27—It seems that there is now a more pronounced expectation for corporations to channel their impact in the world, why do you think this is taking place, and why now?

9:47—What are some suggestions you can share from the experience of navigating really high-stakes, fast moving moments?

12:20—Could you tell us about how Pfizer navigated the Russian/Ukraine crisis?

13:45—How does a leadership team approach creating a communication plan so that it's coming from authority?

15:07—Could you talk about the personal story in chapter two of your book regarding approaching difficult moments with courage and candor?

17:48—Is there something you've changed your mind about?

18:45—Any advice for being effective at using communication for informal influence?

22:21—How can people follow you and keep learning from you?

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Additional Resources:

Personal Page: https://www.sallysusman.com/

Pfizer Profile Page: https://www.pfizer.com/peopl

David Shrier is a globally-recognized expert on technology-driven change at scale. He is a Professor of Practice, AI & Innovation, with Imperial College Business School, where he is founding faculty of the Centre for Digital Transformation and leads the new Trusted AI initiative. Healso chairs the Research group for the World Metaverse Council.

Through his venture studio Visionary Future, David also works extensively with the private sector helping established organizations build innovative capacity, having developed $10 billion of value-creation opportunities with companies such as UBS, Dun & Bradstreet, Kyriba, Ernst & Young, GE and The Walt Disney Company, as well as leading private equity and VC funds. He is CEO of a NYSE-listed company which he led through a 500%-oversubscribed IPO, and advises disruptive technology companies such as Dandelion Science (neurotechnology) and Kaleidoco (metaverse).

He is best known for creating and leading the blockchain and fintech classes for MIT and Oxford that expanded access in over 150 countries and revolutionized the business model for higher education online. His efforts resulted in nearly $1 billion of financial support for MIT, Harvard and Oxford. David’s government advisory work spans over 100 countries and has influenced policy affecting more than 2.4 billion people.

He has published seven books in seven years; his eighth book, Basic Metaverse, is coming out June 8, from Little Brown and Harvard Business Publishing. More information at www.VisionaryFuture.com.

In this episode, he shares:

• His definition of the metaverse in simple terms, and how it goes beyond just virtual reality, as it’s often perceived
• Several real-world examples of how AI and the metaverse are already changing industries, careers and businesses, from architecture to the practice of medicine, among many others
• The sheer accelerated pace at which newer technologies are being adopted compared to previous groundbreaking technologies in history
• How technology has shaped the way in which the public and private spheres work together to advance new initiatives and funding around these

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Episode Timeline:

00:00—Highlight from today's episode

00:51—Introducing David + The topic of today’s episode

2:47—If you really know me, you know that...

3:44—What is your definition of strategy?

4:47—Could you talk to us about your work at Oxford and MIT around digital technologies?

7:51—Could you give us your definition of the metaverse as you would explain it?

9:43—How do you see business changing, and how long will these digital transformations be adopted?

14:06—What are some of the implications of the adoption of these technologies that people would be surprised by or people get wrong?

17:05—What drove you to write your newest book on AI, what was the timing?

19:18—What do you think business leaders need to act in light of this fast impending change?

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Additional Resources:

Personal Page: https://davidshrier.com/

Company Page: https://visionaryfuture.com/

Newest Book: https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/david-shrier/basic-metaverse/

Stephanie Woerner, Director and a Research Scientist at MIT's Center for Information Systems Research (CISR) at the MIT Sloan School of Management. She is also the co-author, with Peter Weill, of What's Your Digital Business Model? And with Peter Weill and Ina Sebastian, Future Ready: The Four Pathways to Capturing Digital Value.

Stephanie studies how companies use technology and data to create more effective business models, as well as how they manage the associated organizational change, governance and strategy implications. She has a passion for measuring hard-to-assess digital factors and linking them to firm performance, and as heard in the highlight clip, helping strategists through the challenges digital transformation brings.

In this episode, she shares:

• What digital transformation is exactly, and the characteristics future-ready companies adopt to enable it
• The four pathways to digital transformation, and which pathway to pursue based on the stage your company is in
• What companies who succeeded in digital transformation focus on—and what you can learn from them
• Why digital transformation often requires a shift to an ecosystem business model and partnerships-based modular production
• What interviews with hundreds with CIOs revealed is the most important IT-enabled digital transformation initiatives
• The four explosions that will happen in your company’s culture that will enable your company to digitally transform

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Episode Timeline:

00:00—Highlight from today's episode

00:56—Introducing Stephanie + The topic of today’s episode

2:26—If you really know me, you know that...

3:15—What is your definition of strategy?

3:51—You focus on digital business models and innovation towards this. Can you tell us about what got you into this space?

4:38—Why are digital business models important now as opposed to 10 years ago?

6:07—Why does the digital business model require us to deliver more within an ecosystem?

8:00—What are the key points that companies who successfully achieve digital transformation focus on?

9:32—What is a digital business transformation?

11:04—Could you give us the high-level idea of the digital transformation end states that companies work toward, and the four pathways that lead there?

12:27—The first pathway

13:34—The second pathway

15:49—The third pathway

17:09—Do you have any advice to which pathway should a company commit to?

18:05—The fourth pathway

18:50—Could you talk to us about Bancolombia as a case study in successful digital transformation?

20:46—Does a digital transformation require a cultural change?

22:21—How can people follow you and keep learning from you?

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Additional Resources:

MIT Faculty Page: https://mitsloan.mit.edu/faculty/directory/stephanie-woerner

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-woerner-mitcisr

Twitter: https://twitter.com/sl_woerner

Andrew Winston is one of the world's most widely read writers and leading thinkers on sustainable business. His books on sustainability strategy, including Green to Gold and The Big Pivot, have sold more than 150,000 copies in seven languages. Winston has also written cover stories for Harvard Business Review and published hundreds of articles in HBR, MIT Sloan Management Review, and other top publications.

He was recently selected for the Thinkers50 Radar 2020, a list of 30 thinkers to watch out for in the coming year. His views on strategy have been sought after by many of the world's leading companies, including 3M, DuPont, HP, Ingersoll Rand, Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly-Clark, Marriott, PepsiCo, PwC, and Unilever.

Andrew has spent much of his career helping business leaders understand how to put sustainability at the forefront of their strategy—which will inevitably affect all industries and companies.

In this podcast he shares with us:

• Why this seemingly impossible ideas of not net zero but net positive is actually feasible
• How the pandemic actually accelerated both interest and willingness to accept the transition to greener global initiatives
• Why now is a good time to invest in ESG/sustainability initiatives
• The role of business in society, and why has it changed over time
• How any company can make a leap or move to adopting sustainable practices—taking UPS as an example, and how all industries will inevitably be affected

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Episode Timeline:

00:00—Highlight from today's episode

00:45—Introducing Andrew + The topic of today’s episode

2:05—If you really know me, you know that...

3:26—What is your definition of strategy?

4:48—What got you interested in strategy, and particularly in ESG and sustainability strategy?

6:03—Why do companies care about sustainability now where they didn't as much in the past?

7:59—Why is ESG and sustainability a smart place to invest right now?

11:00—Do you think there is a fundamental mindset shift happening in leadership?

13:34—Could you tell us about how UPS adopted sustainable practices in a surprising, yet effective way?

15:10—Could you talk about the future of various industries, using agriculture as an example?

17:44—Where should strategists start with net positive practices?

20:00—How can people follow you and keep learning from you?

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Additional Resources:

Personal Page: https://andrewwinston.com/

Newest Book, Net Positive: https://netpositive.world/book/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewwinston/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/andrewwinston

Avi Goldfarb is the Rotman Chair in Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare and Professor of Marketing at Toronto's Rotman School of Management. He is also Chief Data Scientist at the Creative Destruction Lab, a fellow at Behavioral Economics in Action at Rotman, and a faculty affiliate at the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Avi has written extensively on a broad range of topics from marketing, statistics, law, management, medicine, political science, refugee studies, among many others. He has also conducted much deep work in the study of AI and machine learning and how businesses can wield and leverage the predictive capabilities of these technologies.

In this podcast, he shares:

• Point-to-point changes v. the bigger, broader systemic changes that AI may introduce
• How AI prediction changes judgement. Until now, most of the exploration of machine learning have been around prediction, but how will things change when AI starts getting good at judgement?
• The fascinating implications machine learning and AI will have on business decision-making, economics, and competitive advantage

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Episode Timeline:

00:00—Highlight from today's episode

00:44—Introducing Avi+ The topic of today’s episode

2:21—If you really know me, you know that...

2:50—Could you talk about cost of prediction coming on?

6:25—Can machine learning surpass human judgment, or where do they have their place?

9:30—Could you explain the point-to-point solutions vs. systemic changes?

11:40—How does technology change power?

14:27—Could you give us an example of the impact of AI-powered predictions in a practical real-life case?

17:01—Do you think we have a reason to worry?

19:01—How can people continue learning from you?

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Additional Resources:

Personal Page: https://www.avigoldfarb.com/

Linkedin: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/avi-goldfarb-46a7473

Twitter: https://twitter.com/avicgoldfarb?lang=en

Nina Mažar is Professor of Marketing at Questrom School of Business at Boston University and author of the book Behavioral Science in the Wild (with Dilip Soman).

Nina was the 2019 president of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making and has been named one of "The 40 Most Outstanding B-School Profs Under 40 In The World” (2014). With her focus on behavioral science she examines ways to help individuals and organizations make better decisions and increase societal welfare. Popular accounts of her work have appeared among others on NPR, BBC, Wired, and various NYTimes Bestsellers.

Nina is the co-founder of BEworks and former inaugural Senior Behavioral Scientist of the World Bank’s behavioral insights team (eMBeD) in Washington, DC. She has served as advisor on boards of various government (e.g, Austria and Canada) and organizations (e.g., Irrational Labs in San Francisco, CA). She holds a Dr. rer. pol. in Marketing from the University of Mainz in Germany.

In this podcast, she shares:

• Fascinating insights from her years of study about how morals, honesty and dishonesty guide our decisions.
• How an organization can impact a client or customer’s decisions at the moment they happen
• How pricing can be a powerful, and I would say overlooked, lever for affecting customer behavior
• How to design experiments to understand your customers’ underlying motives

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Episode Timeline:

00:00—Highlight from today's episode

00:59—Introducing Nina + The topic of today’s episode

2:21—If you really know me, you know that...

4:33—What is your definition of strategy?

5:46—What is an insight you can share when it comes to honesty?

8:29—Could you tell us about your work with the Ontario government on projects affecting human behavior?

11:03—Can you share an experience where the attempt to influence human behavior backfired?

12:42—How do you approach designing a behavioral science experiment as a company?

16:14—What do organizations get wrong when they are looking to scale behavioral science and shape behavior?

20:00—How can people follow you and keep learning from you?

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Additional Resources:

Personal Page: https://ninamazar.com/

Thinkers50 Profile: https://thinkers50.com/biographies/nina-mazar/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ninamazar/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ninamazar

Whether building hyper-growth startups or advising Fortune 500 companies, the Royal Family or the United Nations, Lindsey McInerney has spent her career helping people understand the impact of cutting-edge technologies and adopt them early.

An internet nerd and tech futurist, Lindsey has launched multiple projects in the metaverse and web3 space and remains excited about the ways crypto, blockchain, NFTs, and extended reality (XR) will change our digital and physical landscape.

As Global Head of Technology and Innovation at AB InBev (Anheuser-Busch), the world's largest brewer, she launched Stella Artois into the metaverse in an explosive partnership with ZED RUN, a crypto horse racing game.One of the first major brand executions in the space, the Cannes Lion award- nominated campaign, put Stella Artois on the map as the first beer brand and FMCG company in the metaverse and was well received by traditional and crypto media alike.

McInerney was named to the 2023 ‘Thinkers50 Radar List’, a cohort of 30 thinkers whose ideas are predicted to make an important impact on management thinking. She has also been named one of ‘The 30 Most Influential People in the Metaverse’, one of ‘The Most Prominent Digital Futurists to Watch Out For in 2022’, one of the ‘Top Players of the Metaverse' and an 'Adweek Pride Star class of 2022'.

As Founder and CEO of Black Sun Labs, Lindsey works with executives, teams and personalities on their web3 and metaverse strategies. She is also the CEO of Sixth Wall, a technology and entertainment company co-founded with actor/producer Mila Kunis and producer Lisa Sterbakov.

In this podcast, she shares:

• How important it is to learn to pivot in the ever-changing digital landscape
• What the Metaverse, NFTs, Augmented Reality and Virtual reality all are in simple terms—and where they bring new opportunities to businesses
• How any brand can distill the essence of their business to launch into the metaverse and emerging tech space

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Episode Timeline:

00:00—Highlight from today's episode

00:45—Introducing Lindsey + The topic of today’s episode

2:19—If you really know me, you know that...

3:41—What is your definition of strategy?

4:47—Could you start off with a simple definition of the metaverse?

10:10—Would you say the physical technology of modern devices have an impact on their adoption?

14:17—What kind of applications do you see for companies that are in more traditional industrial and infrastructure industries?

16:01—How does blockchain or NFTs fit into this bigger picture?

20:05—How do you transfer a brand and its essence to the metaverse?

23:06—How should a company structure their team to move into this new space of technology?

25:56—How can people follow you and keep learning from you?

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Additional Resources:

Thinkers50 Profile: https://thinkers50.com/biographies/lindsey-mcinerney/

Linkedin: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/lindseymcinerney

Twitter:https://twitter.com/themcinerney?lang=en

David Rogers is one of the world’s leading expert on digital transformation, a member of the faculty at Columbia Business School, and the author of five books.

His landmark bestseller, The Digital Transformation Playbook, was the first book on digital transformation and put the topic on the map. David defined the discipline by arguing that digital transformation (DX) is not about technology; it is about strategy, leadership, and new ways of thinking.

In his newest book, The Digital Transformation Roadmap, he tackles the biggest barriers to DX success and offers a blueprint to rebuild any organization for continuous digital change.

David has helped shape the way companies around the world transform their business for the digital age, working with senior leaders at corporations including Google, Microsoft, Citigroup, Visa, HSBC, GE, Toyota, Cartier, Pernod Ricard, China Eastern Airlines, and NC Bank Saudi, among others.

He regularly delivers keynotes at conferences on all six continents and has appeared on CNN, ABC News, CNBC, Channel News Asia, and in The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Economist.

At Columbia Business School, Rogers is faculty director of executive education programs on digital business strategy and on leading digital transformation, having taught over twenty-five thousand executives.

In this podcast, he shares:

• What companies usually get wrong when they pursue a digital transformation
• The cognitive barriers that most often stop companies from effectively embracing digital transformation
• Lessons from some really tangible cases from Intel and Disney, to the New York Times, what works and what doesn’t
• Why digital technologies ultimately are changing how organizations will organize themselves

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Episode Timeline:

00:00—Highlight from today's episode

00:46—Introducing David + The topic of today’s episode

3:03—If you really know me, you know that...

4:01—What is your definition of strategy?

5:50—Can you give us an example of a company that successfully mastered digital transformation?

8:20—Can you lay out the five domains that you outline in your book, The Digital Transformation Roadmap?

11:05—As we become aware of the cognitive biases we carry, then what are some strategies that companies can think about maybe in customer strategy?

14:00—Have you found a framework or tool that you think is particularly good for culture transformation?

17:06—Where can people get in touch with you and follow your work?

17:30—What's something important you changed your mind about?

19:47—How do you get people to support a cultural change and transformation?

20:38—How do digital tools help in a cultural transformation?

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Additional Resources:

Personal Page: davidrogers.digital

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidrogersdigital/

Columbia faculty page: https://www8.gsb.columbia.edu/cbs-directory/detail/dlr42

Miklós Dietz is a senior partner at McKinsey & Company, where he leads McKinsey’s banking strategy and innovation work globally and is the managing partner of the Vancouver office. Miklos’s specialty is in helping financial services companies and other organizations harness digital technology and stay ahead of emerging trends.

He is the author of The Ecosystem Economy: How to Lead in the New Age of Sectors Without Borders, a compelling and practical books I’ve read on this shift strategists have been tracking now for a decade of the erasing of barriers and growing cross-section competition .

He is the founder and chair of the Panorama research group and the Ecosystem Hub, and has served over 450 clients in 40+ countries across multiple industries. Prior to joining McKinsey, he worked at Merrill Lynch and Reuters.

Miklós is a certified financial analyst, a member of the CFA Institute, and a founding member of the Hungarian Society of Investment Professionals.

In this podcast, he shares:

• Why now? We’ve been talking about the erosion of industries boundaries for years now, but Miklos offers the economic and technological reasons why we are about to step into a new era of ecosystem-based competition.
• A picture of what this future would be like when the 88 sectors of the global economy reconfigure into a smaller number of ecosystems.
• Some very specific strategic exercises and steps you can act on right now to move position your organization to thrive in emerging ecosystem economy.

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Episode Timeline:

00:00—Highlight from today's episode

00:51—Introducing Miklos + The topic of today’s episode

2:51—If you really know me, you know that...

4:15—What is your definition of strategy?

5:15—What is the argument for 'why now'? Why is this the time from an economic perspective for a shift to ecosystems?

9:55—What do you think is the future of data?

11:27—How many sectors are there now, and if they reconfigure into ecosystems, can you give us an example of what that looks like?

14:38—If a company wants to start building capabilities to work within an ecosystem rather than a sector—where do they start?

18:23—Does migrating an ecosystem economy reduce startup costs and risk for experimentation?

20:12—Do you have any last advice on how companies can start migrating into an ecosystem economy?

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Additional Resources:

Personal Page: https://www.mckinsey.com/our-people/miklos-dietz

Linkedin: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/miklosdietz