Thought Sparks

Gina O’Connor was figuring out how to help companies innovate long before it was a hot topic. In her many books and articles, she’s shown how we can get beyond what I call innovation theater by building proficiency in three distinct processes: Discovery, Incubation and Acceleration. It can be done, and she’s demystified the process. In our conversation, we’ll cover some of the biggest myths that get in the way of true innovation (for instance, that it’s all about the ideas), what she thinks the current pandemic has done to alter the innovation agenda and what she sees as the critical next steps in our collective innovation journey.

Carter Copeland is the President of Melius Research, where he is also the lead research analyst covering the global aerospace and defense sector. He is consistently ranked in Institutional Investor’s annual survey of top analysts, and was named the number one aerospace and defense analyst by Institutional Investor’s Alpha magazine. His recent co-authored book, "Lessons From the Titans" takes us on an analysts' journey to understand the inner workings of the corporate giants that are so critical to our everyday lives. With CEO's blaming the pressure of Wall Street for an excessive short-term focus and failure to appropriately balance the needs of multiple stakeholders, I'm really interested to hear the other side of the story.

Tim Harford, the well known "Undercover Economist" columnist for the Financial Times was awarded an OBE in 2019 for his contribution to our economic understanding. I could not be more thrilled that he'll be joining me live and virtually to discuss, among other things, his new book. The US edition is called "The Data Detective: Ten Easy Rules to Make Sense of Statistics" and it's now available for pre-order. We'll talk about this book, his others, and whatever else he'd like to cover.

I’ve been an unabashed fan of Rick Goings’ since we first met at a CEO Summit where one of the most memorable moments involved a real-time display of the creativity that goes into the Tupperware new product development process! Rick has a distinguished career in the military, as an entrepreneur and more recently as the long-time CEO of Tupperware, where he oversaw its successful global expansion, figured out how to create a truly diverse and inclusive workplace (for real – his accomplishments in promoting female leaders are astonishing), and kept the brand relevant to its original customers while breaking new ground internationally. Now CEO Emeritus at Tupperware, he is co-founder and Chairman of the World Federation of Youth Clubs, an organization dedicated to providing resources and support to groups with the mission of supporting youth. In a breathtakingly short period of time, the WFYC has touched over 3,000 groups in 24 countries around the world. We’ll be talking about the lessons learned from his business career, of course, as well as what he’s excited about working on today.

Did you know that in 1945, there were 4.5 million beehives in the United States, but that today there are only about 2 million? In what promises to be a fascinating new topic for a Friday Fireside Chat, I’ll be talking to Noah Wilson-Rich, a beekeeper, biologist, TED speaker and founder of the Best Bees Company, a premier beekeeping service. He’s a citizen-scientist who has created the world’s first mass sampling of data on bee behavior, enlisting thousands of people who have access to unused urban spaces and other places where bees can be raised. If you eat food, you should care about bees! Noah will share insights about climate change resilience, food system stability and other things we all too often take for granted. I’m very much looking forward to it.

Procedures that defy logic. Requirements that no one can meet. Practices that are designed to frustrate and confuse. These are all crazy, says my Friday Fireside Chat guest Martin Lindstrom. Martin, who is a world renowned expert on branding and one of the most influential marketing experts in the world will be joining me to discuss, among other things, his brand-new book “The Ministry of Common Sense.” In it, he argues that so much of what we accept about organizational life is actually nuts, a product of bureaucracy and siloed thinking that ultimately harms our well being, our brands and our customers. I’m excited to share stories about his journey, the new book and what he’s thinking about as we look forward to whatever comes next.

Chris Yeh and his partner in the Global Scaling Academy and I get together to discuss Blitzscaling, what it means to be entrepreneurial, the company they have just started and predictions for whatever happens after we're done with the pandemic.  Have a look at the replay!

One of the most exciting frontiers in medicine is the use of huge amounts of patient data to help design personalized and highly effective individual treatments which never would have been possible before. My Friday Fireside Chat guest, Glen de Vries, is the co-CEO and co-founder of Medidata, a company which provides an analytical platform that has completely transformed the way clinical trials are done, making them faster, better targeted and more effective. He is also the author of the recent book, "The Patient Equation" which promises to give us a glimpse of the data-intensive future of healthcare.

My good friend Dorie Clark is a master of personal and professional reinvention. After starting out as a journalist and political operative (what careers could have brighter prospects?) she has transformed her career multiple times. She’s written three great books on how to be your own entrepreneur, is an accomplished and sought after speaker, and been at the leading edge of many career trends. While there is a lot we can talk about, I’m particularly interested in her take on how we are all going to be approaching what I call the “tour of duty” career, now and as we get to wherever we’re going to be post-pandemic. I suspect a lot of wisdom will come from her book “Entrepreneurial You.” And if we’re lucky, we’ll get a chance to check out her individualistic cats!

Some of the most magical things that happen at work aren't expensive, hard or risky. Simple human connections, treating each other with dignity and kindness and leveraging the power of appreciation are things anyone at any level can do. My Friday Fireside guests this week are Chester Elton, the "Apostle of Appreciation" and his co-author and co-conspirator Adrian Gostick. Author of several best-selling books about corporate culture, teamwork, and leadership skills, they'll be joining me to leverage their perspective on what we can do to build better organizations now, and whenever we come out of whatever this is.