Can large companies successfully innovate? 

The popular narrative is the bigger firms become, the less nimble and dynamic they are. Small startups are the disruptors, while big companies are doomed to being static and inflexible. 

But according to Gary Pisano of Harvard Business School, this is a myth: large businesses can be just as innovative as startups. But to reach that point, you need to understand the four distinct types of innovation, how to devise a strategy for implementing transformation and, crucially, the importance of  an innovative culture.  

In this episode, Minds Worth Meeting speaks with Pisano about his recent book, “Creative Construction: The DNA of Sustained Innovation” (PublicAffairs, January 2019). In “Creative Construction,” Pisano criticizes both the fatalism about the ability of Big Business to innovate and the overly simplified notion that to be dynamic, companies need to “be like Uber.” Large, established firms are entirely different from those born as startups; they need to think about innovation in terms of how best to leverage existing strengths rather than undertaking a wholesale (and potentially destructive) disruption of their own business models. 

Accordingly, Pisano urges leaders to determine which of the four types of innovation – disruptive, architectural, routine and radical – best suit a company’s position. And, drawing on his widely cited Harvard Business Review cover story “The Hard Truth About Innovative Cultures,” Pisano urges business leaders to recognize the key trade-offs between dynamism and stability that make for successful transformations. He offers a warning specifically to financial services firms about how failing to consider the role of new technologies can impede their ability to innovate. 

For more information about innovation, growth and Pisano’s work as discussed in this episode, visit the links below:

•	The Hard Truth About Innovative Cultures (Harvard Business Review)
•	Large Businesses Don’t Have to Be Lousy Innovators (Strategy + Business)
•	Fostering an Innovation Culture: Talent, Discipline and Leadership (The Wall Street Journal)

Visit Pisano’s website: gpisano.com
Follow Pisano on Twitter: @motogp61  

Gary Pisano is available for speaking engagements and advisory/consulting services through exclusive representation by Stern Speakers, a division of Stern Strategy Group®.

For more from Minds Worth Meeting, follow us on social media @sternstrategy, @sternspeakers and visit https://sternstrategy.com/minds-worth-meeting/.

Episode 23: How Big Companies Can Innovate Like Startups with Gary Pisano

Despite progress over the past few decades, women still face immense barriers to advancement in the workplace – both systemic and psychological. Women continue to command lower salaries and are under-represented in senior leadership roles across corporate America. How do women not only challenge their organizations to give them their due, but overcome their own uncertainties about being able to succeed in male-dominated companies and industries?

In this episode, Minds Worth Meeting converses with Kimberly Ramalho, vice president of communications and public Affairs for Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems (RMS). As a high-ranking executive with the world’s largest defense contractor, Ramalho has more than 25 years of experience in navigating obstacles to climbing the corporate ladder within an industry that is – historically – overwhelmingly male. 

Women in business, says Ramalho, must ensure they bring their own expertise to the top table and are heard by their colleagues on the issues that matter. Unconscious or deliberate, bias often causes male counterparts to ignore female voices, reinforcing uncertainty and insecurity. To succeed, women must overcome their own doubts and voice their opinions consistently and effectively, as well as not be timid in demanding equal treatment. In doing so, women can change the narrative of gender in the workplace, getting what they need, want and deserve. 

There is still a long way to go in achieving gender equality, whether in the corporate world or in society more broadly. But that journey hinges on individuals’ courage in standing up for themselves and their fellow women. Women truly can “have it all” as leaders – and Kimberly Ramalho helps show you how that’s possible. 

Follow Kimberly Ramalho on Twitter: @kimberlyramalho and on LinkedIn.

For more from Minds Worth Meeting, follow us on social media @sternstrategy, @sternspeakers and visit https://sternstrategy.com/minds-worth-meeting/.

Episode 22: #WomenAtWork: How to Change the Narrative with Kimberly Ramalho

Neither poverty nor prosperity are permanent conditions for societies; poor countries have risen from hardship to wealth within decades. But, by and large, we lack an understanding of how that transformation takes place. 

In a recent, critically acclaimed book, “The Prosperity Paradox: How Innovation Can Lift Nations Out of Poverty” (HarperBusiness, January 2019), authors Clayton Christensen, Efosa Ojomo and Karen Dillon provide the missing framework. 

Prosperity, the authors argue, is generated by market-creating innovations – products and services that create consumers where none previously existed – and these which have the potential to not only uplift entire nations from poverty but allow innovative businesses to reap enormous returns on investment and dominate markets for years and even generations to come. 

In the latest episode of the Minds Worth Meeting podcast, co-author Efosa Ojomo, Senior Research Fellow at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, reveals what constitutes market-creating innovations and how businesses can use them to prosper in unexpected places. Drawing on the examples contained in “The Prosperity Paradox” ranging from the Ford Model T to Tolaram instant noodles, Ojomo offers a blueprint for companies seeking a new way to invest and thrive in frontier markets. 
Often, according to Ojomo’s framework, the key is not to go where the money already is, but to where it isn’t. Only then can you develop the kind of innovative product or service that transforms the way of life for millions of people – and launches your company to the status of a household name. 

For more information about “The Prosperity Paradox” and Efosa Ojomo’s work as discussed in this episode, visit the links below:

•	How Innovative Companies Help Frontier Markets Grow (Harvard Business Review, February 2019) - https://hbr.org/ideacast/2019/02/how-innovative-companies-help-frontier-markets-grow
•	Want to Foster Prosperity? Focus on Market-creating Innovations (Knowledge at Wharton, February 2019) - https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/prosperity-paradox-clayton-christensen/
•	“The Prosperity Paradox” Review: A Better Way to Fight Poverty (The Wall Street Journal, January 2019)- https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-prosperity-paradox-review-a-better-way-to-fight-poverty-11548890942#comments_sector
•	How 1 Company – and Its Insanely Popular and Cheap Noodles – Transformed Nigeria (Inc., January 2019) - https://www.inc.com/leigh-buchanan/clayton-christensen-prosperity-paradox.html
•	Visit Efosa’s website: https://efosaojomo.com/
•	Follow Ojomo on Twitter: @EfosaOjomo 

Efosa Ojomo is available for speaking engagements and advisory/consulting services through exclusive representation by Stern Speakers, a division of Stern Strategy Group®.

For more from Minds Worth Meeting, follow us on social media @sternstrategy, @sternspeakers and visit https://sternstrategy.com/minds-worth-meeting/

Episode 21: The Transformative Power of Market-Creating Innovations with Efosa Ojomo

From declining rural villages to the inner cities of the world’s great metropolises, ruined buildings and abandoned spaces stand waiting to be repurposed and revived. Doing so not only restores function to these structures but can potentially reinvigorate entire communities.  

In this episode, Minds Worth Meeting sits down with Dan Barasch, leading expert on the future of architecture and design and co-founder and executive director of New York’s The Lowline, a technology-enabled underground park inside a long-unused Manhattan trolley terminal, the first of its kind in the world. Barasch’s insights can inspire not just designers, architects and urban planners but community leaders and real estate developers. Drawing on his experiences conceiving and directing the ongoing Lowline project, Barasch reveals how to reimagine and rebuild in abandoned spaces in a way that strengthens community bonds, honors the historic character of neighborhoods and towns and contributes to the aesthetic inheritance of humanity. 

Barasch also discusses his new book, “Ruin and Redemption in Architecture” (Phaidon Press, April 2019), and how it can provide examples and creative motivation to those seeking to resurrect buildings and spaces which have been destroyed or allowed to decay. 

For more information about the future of design and urban planning and Dan Barasch’s work as discussed in this episode, visit the links below:

•	The Big Business of Ruins 
•	From Ruin to Redemption: Incredible Before-and-After Images Show How Abandoned Buildings Have Been Given New Leases on Life
•	The Upside Down: Inside Manhattan’s Lowline Subterranean Park

Follow Dan on Twitter: @kineticdb and @thelowlinenyc

Dan Barasch is available for speaking engagements and advisory/consulting services through exclusive representation by Stern Speakers, a division of Stern Strategy Group®.

For more from Minds Worth Meeting, follow us on social media @sternstrategy, @sternspeakers and visit https://sternstrategy.com/minds-worth-meeting/.

Episode 20: Redeeming Ruins and the Future of Architecture with Dan Barasch

More people from lower-income backgrounds may be going to college, but they continue to drop out at higher rates than their higher-income peers. They also struggle to manage both work and academics and face enormous levels of student-loan debt whether they graduate or not. 

One problem is that educators and policymakers have been focused only on access – getting students into college – rather than on success, or what happens to them once they’re there. How can we ensure that more people, especially those from lower-income backgrounds and disadvantaged groups, not only get into college but thrive once they are there, and graduate with minimal (or no) debt?

In this episode of Minds Worth Meeting, we speak with Melissa Fries, executive director of the College & Alumni Program (CAP) at the Making Waves Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports students of the Making Waves Academy charter school. Serving the underprivileged students of the Richmond, California area, Making Waves emphasizes long-term college planning for students as early as fifth grade, providing financial education and career advice in addition to the basics of a K-12 curriculum. Once students go on to college, the CAP program maintains continuous communication and support, ensuring that the mission of student success does not end with their acceptance letter at the age of 18. 

Fries reveals how Making Waves and its CAP program have pioneered a new approach to education that can be replicated, and how it has demonstrated success in promoting not just college enrollment but graduation and career success for underprivileged young people. As we struggle to address issues like inequality, lack of social mobility and the skills gap at the national and global levels, a solution may be found in a local organization – and with philanthropists like Melissa Fries.

Episode 19: Future of Education: How to Set Up Students for Success with Melissa Fries

Minds Worth Meeting, a podcast produced by Stern Strategy Group®, connects you with experts and thought leaders at the forefront of today’s issues and tomorrow’s trends – from artificial intelligence to strategies for business growth. Featuring the broad Stern Strategy Group client roster of influential innovators, researchers, thinkers, doers and practitioners, Minds Worth Meeting illuminates the advancements in a wide range of topics, industries and disciplines.

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