What is Innovation? – Details, episodes & analysis

Purandar Das, a two-time CTO and the current CEO of a leading data protection company, shares his insights on redefining innovation in the tech world:

"Innovation is creating a new process, a new product, or a new approach to doing something better—solving a problem that's not been solved before." - Purandar Das

------------------------------------------------------------

Episode Guide:

0:00 - Intro

0:56 - What is Innovation?

2:30- The Role of Mobile Technology in Innovation  

3:19- From Physical Media to Streaming: A Case Study  

9:53 -  What Isn't innovation?

11:25 - Innovation, Optimization and AI

13:57- Innovation in Cybersecurity

14:31 - Data security innovation and ransomware protection

20:03 - Evolution of data protection and data governance

23:45 - Advice for future innovators
------------------------------------------------------------
Purandar has been a 2x CTO of 2 of the largest marketing services companies & is now the CEO of one of the leading data protection companies; Sotero. Purandar went from Collecting & monetizing personal data to protecting personal data. He made the transition because he was very concerned about the security products on the market & decided they needed a new approach.

More about our guest:

• Purandar Das
• Company: Sotero

OUTLAST Consulting offers professional development and strategic advisory services in the areas of innovation and diversity management

In a world where the term 'innovation' risks becoming a buzzword, understanding its true essence is crucial. Joia Spooner-Fleming, a seasoned innovation executive with a decades-long track record of developing people and products at Procter & Gamble, joins the show to discuss what innovation looks like in practice.

Throughout the process of transforming ideas into value, it's critical to distinguish invention from innovation. Joia emphasizes that true innovation requires a solution that is not only novel but also significantly improves upon existing alternatives.

------------------------------------------------------------

Episode Guide:

0:00 - Intro

0:57 - What is Innovation?

2:48 - Market's Feedback Loop

4:53 - Decision Making Process

6:18 - What isn't innovation?

8:11 - Human Curiosity and Solution

9:41 - Organizational Innovation

10:32 - Holistic Innovation Strategy

14:43 - Sustainability Innovation

17:31 - Innovation in Life

25:00 - Advice to Innovators
------------------------------------------------------------
Joia Spooner-Fleming is an innovation executive and independent consultant, after a 22 year successful career with P&G.  Most recently she was R&D VP for Gillette.  Joia has a proven track record of transformational innovation leadership and results.  She is adept at partnering with leaders across the business to build unified strategies that capitalize on emerging trends and grow brands. Joia excels at building innovation organizations. She holds a chemical engineering degree from MIT.  Outside her professional life, Joia is a voracious reader, devoted mother of two children, and loves walking with her dog.

More about our guest:

• Joia Spooner-Fleming

OUTLAST Consulting offers professional development and strategic advisory services in the areas of innovation and diversity management

Dive into the world of innovation with Kevin Bailey, a celebrated product designer and expert in hardware market launches. With over three decades of industry leadership, Kevin has empowered over 1,000 entrepreneurs and global firms to transform ideas into tangible, successful products. His approach? Fusing individual talents in a dynamic team to craft uniquely valuable products. Join us in this compelling discussion and share your views: Which is key to innovation success—deep thought, teamwork, or focused opportunity?

------------------------------------------------------------

A passionate product designer and business executive, Kevin Bailey helps guide CEO’s, start-ups, and established companies through the maze of product development to a successful, manufacturable physical product fast. After spending over 35 years in design, Kevin is an expert at assessing risk and opportunity when making the hundreds of decisions required to move a vision into a physical product the users will love. Since the late 1980’s Kevin has been on the ground floor of global hardware product innovation, cutting his teeth with Bell Research Lab before moving to Nortel Networks where he worked on the first smartphone development. After founding Design 1st in 1996, Kevin has emerged as one of the most experienced in Canada at stickhandling product development from concept to design, engineering, manufacturing, and go-to market strategies.  

As CEO and President of Design 1st, clients and staff rely on Kevin’s strategic vision to guide funding, market entry and the full suite of development decisions. The company’s results with new product development speaks for itself. More than 1,000 entrepreneurs, start-ups, and global corporations such as Ericsson, Motorola, Acer, Stanley Tools, and Christie Digital have brought product ideas to life under Kevin’s guidance. Kevin is a Professional Engineer, Angel and VC Investor and one of Canada’s leading experts at bringing new hardware products to market.

------------------------------------------------------------

Episode Guide:

0:00 - Intro

0:54 - What is Innovation?

2:55 - The Role of Teams in Innovation  

6:58 - Examples of Effective Team Models

11:24 - Balancing Competition and Collaboration

18:07 - Facilitating Innovation in Teams

26:09 - Distinction Between Useful Products and Business Viability

29:00 - Constraints and Innovation

32:28 - Advice for Innovators
--------------------------

OUTLAST Consulting offers professional development and strategic advisory services in the areas of innovation and diversity management

Brett Simmons, Sr. Consultant at OUTLAST Consulting LLC talks on innovation across the entire value chain--with examples from various industries.
 

More about our guest: 

Brett Simmons brings years of experience in warehousing, transportation, and operations in industries such as Mining, Railroad, and Consumer Packaged Goods. Brett uses his unique experience and education to deliver solutions that build on capabilities to offer lasting effects on an organization. Brett further reinforces process excellence and ensures cohesion between planning and structural requirements. You may contact Brett at: brett@outlastllc.com

------------------------------------------------------------

Episode Guide:

1:29 - What Is Innovation

2:27 - What Is a Value Chain

3:39 - Innovation vs Day-to-day work

4:20 - Article: The Discovery of Penicillin

7:46 - Incorporating new work as frontline supervisors

8:47 - Understanding failure

12:08 - Rejections at work

12:51 - Chopped: the cooking show and 'baskets'

14:30 - Ron Howard's Apollo 13

16:06 - Innovation is not a job title nor workshop

17:36 - Innovation and constraints

18:54 - Defining Innovation as brothers: from experience and looking back

21:06 - Necessity: Mother of Invention?

22:42 - Learning is about exposure

23:49 - Collaborative environment in learning

25:03 - Fortune 500 companies and Innovation

26:21 - What is not Innovation

30:11 - Advice for innovators

------------------------------------------------------------

OUTLAST Consulting offers professional development and strategic advisory services in the areas of innovation and diversity management. 

Grady Powell and Haley Robison Dake, collaborators on an innovative learning experience called Metatrack and leaders with distinguished careers as innovators shares their point of view on innovation as a way of viewing the world. 

More about our guests: 

Grady Powell is a future-oriented strategist, executive, and entrepreneur. The founder and CEO of Openfields, a research, strategy, and design firm committed to helping leaders imagine and implement a more creative and just future. He is also co-founder and trustee of Capita, a creative think tank for harnessing the power of big ideas to ensure a future in which all young children and their families flourish. 

Haley Robison Dake advises early-stage companies and teaches at the University of Texas Austin. Previously the CEO at Kammok, an outdoor brand based in Austin, Texas, that designs performance gear to elevate time outside. Haley's most inspired at the intersection of design, business, and education. 

------------------------------------------------------------

Episode Guide:

2:10 - What is Innovation

3:07 - Innovation as a skill

4:53 - Engaging in the creative process with Jim Gilmore

5:51 - 2 Types of Innovators

6:46 - Incremental innovation value  

7:34 - Act of courage and stamina

8:12 - Relative value: Incremental vs Revolutionary innovations

10:10 - Work Collaboration  

11:46 - MetaTrack  

14:21 - Equipping People to be lifelong learners

15:41 - If MetaTrack existed years ago...

18:01 - Beauty of Hindsight at work

22:05 - Domain expertise  

23:16 - Hiring 'T-shaped' people

25:46 - Experience, Hobbies, Views, and Innovation

29:40 - Haley's 90 days in Wyoming Wilderness

32:28 - Os Guinness: Contrast is the mother of clarity

35:04 - Advice for Innovators

--------------------------

OUTLAST Consulting offers professional development and strategic advisory services in the areas of innovation and diversity management. 

Raj De Datta, Co-Founder and CEO of Bloomreach, talks on seeker mindset and creating culture in tech-forward business industries.

More about our guest:

Raj De Datta is the Co-Founder and CEO of Bloomreach, the leading digital experience platform for e-commerce that powers brands representing 25% of retail e-commerce in the US and the UK. A multiple-time entrepreneur, before launching Bloomreach, he was entrepreneur-in-residence at Mohr-Davidow Ventures, served as Cisco’s director of product marketing, and was on the founding team of telecom company FirstMark Communications. He also worked in technology investment banking at Lazard Freres. Raj serves on the Council for Player Development for the US Tennis Association, as a Founder Partner at seed-stage venture capital firm Founder Collective and an individual investor in over 20 Silicon Valley start-ups. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering with a certificate in Public Policy and International affairs from Princeton University and an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.

------------------------------------------------------------

Episode Guide:

2:13 - What is Innovation

3:33 - Working in labs

5:07 - Technical problem definition vs Consumer back approach

5:33 - Bloomreach

6:42 - Creating Culture from the top-down

8:09 - Consumer Side culture role-modeling

10:24 - Seeker mindset, To-do lists, and Uber

12:27 - Technology: Solving the seeker's problems

13:59 - Tech-forward business industries

15:34 - Solving for reassurance vs solving for information

16:31 - What isn't innovation

17:42 - Creating Cross-functional innovation teams

20:08 - "Product Manager" job titles

22:24 - Incorporating hobbies: Tennis

26:35 - Shaping career through innovation  

28:03 - Advice to innovators

--------------------------
OUTLAST Consulting offers professional development and strategic advisory services in the areas of innovation and diversity management.

Heather Wray talks on Collaboration vs Energy tradeoff, coaching pre-and-post COVID through an innovation outcome and interaction standpoint.

More about our guest:

Heather Wray has over 20 years experience in the field of leadership development as an executive coach, talent management consultant, and sought-after group facilitator. She has worked extensively with high potential and senior leaders and is often sought out for her expertise in design thinking, leadership presence, mindfulness-based emotional intelligence, and navigating complex influence challenges. She is a Certified Integral Coach (New Ventures Wes) and a certified facilitator of the ExperienceChange and ExperienceInnovation simulations. Heather is also a Certified Teacher by the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute to teach the SIY program, developed at Google, a mindfulness-based program that builds the core emotional intelligence skills needed for peak performance and effective leadership.

------------------------------------------------------------

Episode Guide:

0:00 - Intro

2:10 - What Is Innovation?

2:54 - Coaching is The Innovation of The Human Being: How It Comes Up

5:03 - Running Into Coaching Misconceptions

5:37 - Coming Together: Mindsets, Behaviours, Design Thinking

7:25 - What Does Truth Look Like?  

8:14 - Delivering High-Quality Impact in COVID environments

9:15 - Tradeoff: Collaboration vs Energy

10:25 - Post-COVID: Continuing Virtual or In-person

13:18 - Innovation Standpoint: Outcomes and Interaction

16:34 - Weaving Through Innovation Terms

18:20 - Ashtanga Yoga: Structure, Flow, Creativity, Freedom

23:50 - Energy: An Art

25:56 - Key Skills Diagram of a Coach

26:53 - Fun in Coaching

28:00 - Advice for Innovators

--------------------------
OUTLAST Consulting offers professional development and strategic advisory services in the areas of innovation and diversity management.

Rob Morgan shares his point of view on marketing strategy, innovation, technology commercialization, and marketing in emerging markets.

More about our guest:

Rob Morgan is a marketing professor at the University of Alabama and directs the STEM Path to the MBA and CREATE Path to the MBA programs. Rob attended pharmacy school at the University of Kansas, completed his MBA at the University of Dallas, and his PhD in business at Texas Tech University. Rob researches and teaches marketing strategy, innovation, technology commercialization, and marketing in emerging markets.

------------------------------------------------------------

Episode Guide:

1:39 - What is Innovation

2:43 - Creativity, Innovation, Solutions

4:06 - What isn't innovation

7:10 - Current Academic Programs

10:32 - 5-year program

12:52 - innovation is what drives the growth in our economy

13:38 - How the academic projects are decided

15:43 - State differences in accessibilities

17:54 - Insights from having both programs

20:21 - Career shaped by Innovation

22:36 - Advice to innovators

24:54 - Generational difference with future innovators 

--------------------------
OUTLAST Consulting offers professional development and strategic advisory services in the areas of innovation and diversity management.

Mark Jeffreys, Founder & CEO of 4Sight, talks on how connection and inner peace plays a role in innovation both in the private and public sector.

More about our guest:

Mark is the Founder & Chief Executive Officer of 4Sight, and an award-winning, seasoned Senior Executive & start-up Founder with more than 25 years of success delivering profitable sales growth for some of the world’s most visible brands. His experience spans consumer packaged goods, food manufacturing, home furnishing, non-profit, government and start-up as well as across geographies – having lived & worked in Asia, Europe and North America. 4Sight was born out of Mobile Agent Now as clients from Procter & Gamble and Clorox to Nestle and Energizer saw value in mining their reviews (and those of competitors) for actionable insights. Mark has held positions with go Vibrant (a non-profit that he founded, and is still Chair of the Board), the Cincinnati Parks Foundation, the Carnegie Visual & Performing Arts Center, and the University of Chicago Alumni Committee.

------------------------------------------------------------

Episode Guide:

2:34 - What is Innovation

3:47 - Connection and inner peace

7:03 - 4Sight: Discovering truth

09:12 - Marketer by Training  

12:34 - Dealing with "customer is always right"  

14:14 - What Isn't Innovation

15:34 - Consumer Fatigue

16:32 - Setting up your benchmarks

18:29 - Working with Pampers

20:19 - NGO: Vibrant

25:24 - Working for the government sector

27:18 - Positively impacting people's lives

28:35 - Advice for future innovators

--------------------------
OUTLAST Consulting offers professional development and strategic advisory services in the areas of innovation and diversity management.

Johnmark Oudersluys, Executive Director of CityLink Center (Cincinnati), discusses the importance of energy and activating energy to spark change in your community, re-aligning your values and professional life. 

More about our guest:

CityLink Center’s Executive Director is Johnmark Oudersluys, a former corporate strategist with a passion for creating large-scale solutions for critical social issues. At CityLink, Johnmark has led the formation of a scalable, integrated center that breaks down barriers for Greater Cincinnati’s unemployed and the working poor to progress out of poverty. Cincinnati has been home for 15+years during which engagement with community has led to deep friendships, the opportunity to meet an amazing wife and start a family, and a profound appreciation for our city.

------------------------------------------------------------

Episode Guide:

0:00 - Intro

1:32 - What Is Innovation

2:56 - Importance of Energy and Energy Activation  

8:22 - Moments of resistance

12:27 - Citylink  

13:55 - Crafting a personal mission statement

14:28 - Rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina

16:08 - Leading Citylink Center

19:10 - Program rich - System poor

21:40 - What's next for Citylink Center

22:12 - Fundamental issues as a sector

25:17 - Innovation: Unnatural?  

29:07 - Advice to future innovators

--------------------------
OUTLAST Consulting offers professional development and strategic advisory services in the areas of innovation and diversity management.