Innovation Answered

How do Chief Technology Officers build roadmaps to implement new technologies? Leo Barella, Chief Technology Officer at Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, explains. He also discusses best practices for working with data and using data to inform digital strategy. 

How do chief innovation officers they set priorities? And, what do they do to influence culture? Debbie Brackeen, Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer at CSAA, explores how  she approaches the insurance company’s innovation portfolio, the metrics that matter, and disruption in the insurance space. Frazer Bennet, Chief Innovation Officer of PA Consulting, also shares insights.

Dewayne Hankins, the Chief Commercial Officer of the Portland Trail Blazers, shares how the basketball team shifted the fan experience in response to challenges created by COVID-19. During the conversation, he covers how the team kept fans connected to players in the NBA’s 2020 bubble, how the team is approaching empty seats this season, and storytelling tips. He also shares his past experiences at Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Innovation Officer at the organization.

How can AI and machine learning provide patients with personal, preemptive healthcare? Rajeev Ronanki, the Chief Digital Officer of Anthem, shares his experience. He also discusses how his team works with large data sets, the skills he looks for in employees, and how AI can improve telehealth.  

How can organizations build a culture of innovation and effectively create buy-in for change? Sarah Chavarria, the Chief People Officer of Delta Dental, explains. Chavarria also shares how the dental insurance company developed its core values, the importance of gathering feedback from employees, and how the company responded to challenges caused by COVID-19.

Innovation Answered, the podcast for corporate innovators, is back for its fifth season. And this season of our podcast is very special: We’re going to take you inside of the C-Suite of some very well-known, well-established organizations. In each episode, we’ll interview a different C-level leader to talk about their innovation priorities. That includes how to secure their support and how to push projects across the finish line. Subscribe for updates. New episodes debut starting February 23. 

COVID-19 has changed the way people get around. Instead of public transportation, cycling has become a preferred mode of mobility, as well as a way to safely exercise outdoors. A spike in demand might seem like a clear win for bike makers. But, more sales means greater stress on supply chains and longer wait times. To find out how the bike sector is dealing with the unexpected surge of interest, we talked to Chad Manuell, Director of Engineering at Trek Bicycle. Manuell also discusses how his team approaches early innovation and R&D project.

2020 has been a year of racial reckoning — with discussions about police brutality and systematic racism stretching from the streets to the dinner table to the virtual conference room. To take a deeper dive, we gathered a panel to discuss how to make DEI initiatives at big companies more effective. Our panelists include: Irina Kozlovskaya, a Director of Industrial Design at Fitbit; Alfred Jones, Head of Mechanical Engineering at Lyft Level Five; Jessica Hansen, Executive Director of the Alliance for Smiles; and Simone Hadley Wilson, a marketing strategist, formerly of Lyft.

In so many ways, 2020 has been defined by sudden, dramatic change — from the shift to remote work, to redesigning brick and mortar locations, to changing buying habits, to the national dialogue around racial reckoning, to the aftermath of the presidential election. To find out how big companies have been responding to it all, Innovation Leader’s Editorial Team released four research reports this fall.

This episode of Innovation Answered explores the most important data points from that research that can help teams finish the year strong. Scott Kirsner, CEO and Co-founder of Innovation Leader, and Alex Slawsby, a Senior Researcher at IL, join for the conversation.

Yellow boxes with CD-ROMs made Rosetta Stone an iconic brand in the 2000s. Since then, the company has transformed itself into an educational technology powerhouse. Matthew Hulett, President of Language at the company, discusses how Rosetta Stone pivoted from a physical product to a subscription service. He also discusses the company’s approach to digital innovation and how his team is working through the COVID-19 pandemic. 

While demand for shipping to office spaces is down, the team at UPS has seen an increased in customers shipping purchases to their homes. In this installment of Innovation Answered: Essentials, David Lee shares how his team has adapted to these new needs. He also discusses how his team has changed their approach to storage and gives best practices for innovators in 2020. After the conversation, Lee reads “The Biggest Barriers to Innovation”, an article he contributed to Innovation Leader’s magazine, aloud.

Our Essentials segment is designed for busy innovators in big organizations. In each episode, we discuss a recent article from our site or magazine, and read a portion aloud. Want to read along? See the full article.  

After planning for hybrid classes all summer, this month the team at Barnard College pivoted suddenly to another semester of online learning. What goes into making these decisions? And how will today’s pivots affect the future of higher education?  We gathered an online panel of higher education experts to share. This episode features Barnard President Sian Beliock, Len Schlesinger of Harvard Business School, and the co-CEO of edX, Adam Medros. 

The sudden onset of a global pandemic shifted priorities at many large companies. Innovation teams have been tasked with facing new challenges that can help save lives and keep people safe. Colleen Hau of Carhartt discussed how her team worked quickly to make PPE for frontline workers. Firdaus Bhathena of CVS talks about how the company’s COVID-19 testing efforts and acceleration in digital health care. Rhett Alden, Chief Technology Officer of Health and Commercial Markets at Elsevier, shares how his team created a COVID-19 Resource Center in four weeks. 

What does it mean to practice empathy? Teams need to think about end-users as real live human beings — not just a rectangle on a PowerPoint slide labeled “the customer.” To learn more, we sat down with Irina Kozlovskaya, Director of Industrial Design at Fitbit. Kozlovskaya shares how the team at Fitbit listens to customers and pairs the process with design thinking to build better products. Lisa Somogyi, Director of Business Development at Cooper Perkins, shares tips for practicing empathy in a remote world. Cooper Perkins is also a sponsor of this podcast.  

What’s changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic? What’s likely to come back? And when? Innovation Leader’s What the Future Looks Like report seeks to answer that question. Kaitlin Milliken, Multimedia Editor at the publication, shares data from the report. Stephan Chase, a futurist and founder of the consultancy Chase Intel, discusses how the pandemic has affected life downtown and the hospitality space. Peter Berger, Director of Innovation for the aircraft manufacturer EmbraerX, explains why drastic innovation cuts are short-sighted. 

Consumer packaged goods (CPG) describes any product that requires routine replacement — from personal care to food. Companies in this space have to create new offerings that shoppers will buy again and again. To find out how big R&D bets empower the process, we talked to Ranjani Varadan, VP of R&D at the meat alternative company, Impossible Foods. Jodi Benson of General Mills discusses how her team used customer insights to refresh the yogurt category. Jeff George of Hain Celestial Group also shares how his team has shifted to respond to COVID-19.

Steve Jobs once said it’s better to be a pirate than to join the Navy. Pirates refer to startups, built by nimble teams. Large organizations, which are slower to innovate, are compared to the bureaucratic Navy. But how do corporate innovators fall into this metaphor? In this installment of Innovation Answered: Essentials, Tendayi Viki explains. Molli DeRosa from Innovation Leader also reads a passage from Viki’s most recent book, Pirates in the Navy. 

How does AARP use innovation to empower people as they age? During a conversation with Innovation Leader, VP of Product and Startup Engagement Rick Robinson explains how his team uses design thinking to solve unmet needs in the 50-years-and-older community. He also discusses the importance of testing products with end users and the dangers of over relying on data.

Innovators in the public and private sectors face many of the same challenges: There’s resistance to change and internal politics that can bog down progress. However, teams in the government may have tighter budgets that come directly from tax payer dollars. These teams also face demands from both supervisors and constituents. To gather best practices for changemakers in government, we sat down with Tanya Hannah, the former Chief Information Officer of King’s County Washington. Steve Rader, Deputy Manager of NASA’s Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation, also shares insights. 

Pursuing new ideas can be difficult when employees bogged down with day-to-day business. To foster new processes, many companies created separate innovation teams and labs. But how have these labs shifted during this period of remote work? What sets labs up for success? Linda Elkins, Chief Technical Officer of W.L. Gore’s Silicon Valley Innovation Center, shares. Other guests include Frankie James from General Motors, Jeffrey Welser from IBM, and Sara Husk of Planbox.