Most innovation programs don't fail because of bad ideas — they fail because of misalignment. Adrian Rubenstein, Innovation Manager for Latin America at Merck Group, shares how to navigate the political realities of large organizations and move ideas from concept to tested prototype.

About Adrian Rubenstein

Adrian Rubenstein holds degrees in biology, pharmacy, and epidemiology. After working as a medical advisor at a pharmaceutical company, his passion for technology led him to his role as Innovation Manager for Argentina and Latin America at Merck Group.

What We Cover

• Why most innovation ideas die before they get a chance to fail properly
• The role of purpose-alignment in getting stakeholder buy-in
• How to influence without authority inside large organizations
• Adrian's structured innovation process: discovery, journey mapping, ideation, prototyping
• Using video instead of PowerPoint to get executive attention
• How to measure innovation success beyond launched products

Timestamps

00:00 – Introduction
01:35 – Adrian's career path: from biology to innovation management
05:00 – Why corporate innovation fails: the misalignment problem
10:00 – How to align stakeholders on purpose before anything else
15:00 – Influencing without authority
20:00 – Discovery, Five Whys, journey mapping, ideation

Key Takeaways

1. Start with purpose, not the idea. Before pitching any innovation, align every stakeholder on a shared purpose. Without it, everyone pulls in different directions — and the best idea becomes a turf war.
2. Influence through understanding, not conviction. You have no formal authority as an innovation manager. Influence comes from deeply understanding what each stakeholder needs and showing how your solution helps them get it.
3. Go deep before you go wide. Use the Five Whys to get to the real problem, not the symptom. Most teams jump to solutions too early. Real diagnosis is where the leverage is.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Merck Group: merckgroup.com

Where to Find Adrian Rubenstein

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/adrianrubenstein

Where to Find Yaniv Corem

Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow

Subscribe to The School of Innovation on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Have a guest recommendation? Email [email protected]

What does it take to build a learning organization that actually gives you a competitive edge? In this episode, Yaniv sits down with Dr. Leonard D. Lane — board member at Fung Academy and professor at UC Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business — to unpack how he built one of the most distinctive corporate academies in the world.

Leonard shares the origin story of Fung Academy, how they partnered with MIT, Stanford, and Singularity University to transform 1,500 leaders, and the counterintuitive decision to hire a supply chain expert — not an L&D professional — to run the whole thing.

Timestamps

(00:00) Introduction and guest background
(01:30) What is a corporate academy?
(03:00) The strategic context behind Fung Academy’s founding
(05:00) How the academy is structured and what a “typical day” looks like
(07:30) Preparing for 3.8 billion new Asian consumers and what that meant for talent
(09:30) The whitewater kayaker metaphor for navigating complexity
(11:15) How to influence the business when you’re a separate entity
(13:30) Reporting to the Group Chairman: why top-level support is non-negotiable
(15:00) From cost center to investment model — the three-part funding structure
(17:30) Reframing the conversation from “cost” to “investment”
(20:00) Inside the MIT and Stanford programs — content vs. context
(23:00) Singularity University and preparing for exponential change
(25:00) Why offsite, immersive programs beat in-office learning
(26:00) How to get started: step-by-step advice for building your own academy
(29:00) Who to hire: why Leonard isn’t a traditional L&D person — and why that’s the point
(31:30) The Chief Catalyst: bringing the head of IDEO Shanghai inside
(33:00) Knowledge management: “putting knowledge into the flow of work”
(35:00) Mentoring, reverse mentoring, and the apprentice model
(36:30) What’s next for Fung Academy and corporate academies globally

Where to Find Leonard Lane

Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/leonard-d-lane-3490061

Where to Find Yaniv Corem

Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow

Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5VOBVkueP7zg5ErNYtrmPL
Listen on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-school-of-innovation/id1498420449

Have a guest recommendation or want to be on the show? Email [email protected]

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