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OutsideVoices with Mark Bidwell

In OutsideVoices Mark Bidwell talks to remarkable and compelling leaders from the worlds of business, exploration, arts, sports, and academia. In these conversations he explores topics of fundamental importance to many of us today, both in work and in life, topics ranging from leadership and performance to creativity and growth. OutsideVoices has a clear purpose: to bring fresh and diverse perspectives that help listeners navigate the world we live in.
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Now displaying: 2018
Nov 20, 2018

In this episode, we are joined by writer and speaker, Adam Fisher, to discuss his latest book, Valley of Genius: The Uncensored History of Silicon Valley (As Told by the Hackers, Founders, and Freaks Who Made It Boom). Adam has previously worked as a freelance journalist for a variety of prestigious publications and as Features Editor of New York Magazine and Wired Magazine.

  • The Silicon Valley of today, and why Adam believes the industry is now a game between the old and the young
  • The origins of gaming, and the declining role played by women over the course of its evolution
  • The counterculture of Silicon Valley, and why today’s social media obsessed society has corrupted the science of computing

Key Takeaways and Learnings

  • Nerd culture: how today’s popular culture has been taken over by the less popular
  • Morality: how a social media obsessed world is failing humanity
  • Doing: why the future of computing innovation relies on doing and not talking

Links and Resources Mentioned in this Episode

Nov 14, 2018

In this episode, we are joined by Wanda Draper, who is the Executive Director at Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture to discuss her experience on the board of a museum and how museums can influence innovation. Wanda has over 40 years of experience in both broadcast and print journalism and has previously worked as Director of Programming at NBC-affiliated WBALTV, Director of Public Information for the Governor of Maryland, and as a reporter for The Baltimore Sun.

  • How Wanda uses her transferable communication skills from her time as a journalist to create a new communicative culture.
  • Why museums can offer fresh and creative perspectives that can help spark innovation.
  • How Wanda is helping to shape a new and different kind of museum experience.

Key Takeaways and Learnings

  • Inclusivity: how museums are helping to influence visitors of all generations and ethnicities to learn and connect.
  • Lessons: why exhibitions and artworks offer a lesson to be learned.
  • Growth: how museums today are offering unique and personal learning experiences.

Links and Resources Mentioned in this Episode

Nov 6, 2018

In this episode, we are joined by cognitive psychologist, Christopher Chabris, who is perhaps best known for his collaborative research on the Ig Nobel prize-winning ‘Gorillas in Our Midst’ experiment and his subsequent popular psychology book, The Invisible Gorilla. Chris is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Union College in New York and a Senior Investigator at Geisinger Health System.

  • Why Chris believes companies often fail the test of inattentional blindness during the product design phase.
  • Why our attention is more limited than we think and how learning self-control can help us to take in more information.
  • Why we overvalue confidence and how we can work to recognize and overcome our own cognitive biases.

Key Takeaways and Learnings

  • Inattentional blindness: the surprising facts on how limited our attention is.
  • Illusion of attention: why we think we pay more attention to things than we actually do.
  • Human cognitive architecture: how understanding the limitations and foibles of the human mind can lead to successful product and technology design.

Links and Resources Mentioned in this Episode

Jun 12, 2018

In this episode, we are joined by economist and entrepreneur, Ricardo Amorim. Ricardo is founder and CEO of Ricam Consultoria, a financial and investment consultancy, and recent startups AAA Academy and Smartrips. Ricardo is also the author of the best-selling book, After the Storm, is a host on Brazil’s leading news channel, GloboNews, and is a lecturer and keynote speaker.

  • Why Brazil’s market has been historically volatile, and what Ricardo believes are the solutions to this
  • Why Ricardo forecasts that despite a recent ‘economic depression’, Brazil’s economy is set to boom in the next three to five years
  • Why Brazil’s agribusiness is set to soar in the near future, and how available land and advancing technology is helping to bring investment to the country’s farmlands

Key Takeaways and Learnings

  • How the country is recovering from recent economic crisis by focusing on innovation and startups to rival South America’s smaller markets and the larger global markets
  • The challenges that Brazilian companies face in attracting home and foreign business investments, and why this creates hidden opportunities for potential investors
  • The role that culture and history have played in Brazil’s tendency towards short term thinking in business and the steps being taken to encourage more of an ‘owners mindset’ to to take advantage of the enormous opportunities in that market

Links and Resources Mentioned in this Episode

May 29, 2018

In this episode, we are joined by entrepreneur and innovation influencer, Jean-Claude Bastos. Jean-Claude is the founder of Quantum Global Group, Banco Kwanza, Angola’s first investment bank, and The African Innovation Foundation (AIF), which aims to support sustainable projects in Africa and hosts the annual Innovation Prize for Africa.

  • Jean-Claude’s perspectives on Africa developed from his long experience through education, innovation hubs, and technology training and why he sees the continent as “the last frontier in business and innovation"
  • How the demographics of Africa - where in 60% of the population is under 19 -years of age - impacts its approach to innovation
  • How the African Innovation Foundation has helped innovators transform $13m of investment into $200m of valuations

Key Takeaways and Learnings

  • How the AIF’s created an innovation ecosystem, which includes an incubator, accelerator, co-working spaces, make it spaces, and cultural hubs to connect innovators and investors in Africa
  • How companies who have invested in Africa have used employee ”loyalty programs” as an approach to retain local talent, where social safety nets are often weak
  • The traps international businesses risk falling into if they view Africa as a monolith. Its diversity of histories, languages and cultures, etc., mean that approaches to business vary widely across the continent

Links and Resources Mentioned in this Episode

 

May 1, 2018

In this episode, we are joined by Whitney Johnson to discuss her upcoming book, Build an A-Team. Whitney is the author of the bestselling book Disrupt Yourself: Putting the Power of Innovation to Work, and is the founder of the accompanying Disrupt Yourself podcast. Whitney is also a noted speaker, and executive and innovation coach, and is a regular contributor to the Harvard Business Review.

What was covered

  • The S-curve, and how it can be used to gauge not only product growth and investment, but individual learning and innovation
  • The stages of learning in the S-curve, and how to predict challenges and boredom in the individual learning process in order to drive growth and prevent a lack of innovation
  • Why Whitney believes organizations should hire “disruptively”, taking on market rather than competitive risk for this core business process

Key Takeaways and Learnings

  • ‘Onrampers’ and ‘boomerangers’, and how organizations can benefit from hiring these ex-employees who return with fresh skills and competitor and client knowledge
  • ‘Taking the pulse of the workplace’ and how to optimize your people for innovation and predict disruption by analyzing the different stages of learning within your team
  • ‘Learn, leap, repeat’; Whitney’s theory for leaders on how to use the S-curve model to lead teams towards innovation by implementing fresh learning cycles

Links and Resources Mentioned in this Episode

 

Mar 6, 2018

In this episode, author and journalist Warren Berger joins us to discuss his book, A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry in Sparking Breakthrough Ideas, which examines the ways in which deep questioning fuels innovation. Warren has contributed articles and stories to The New York Times, GQ, New York magazine, and The Los Angeles Times, and was previously magazine editor for CBS and contributing editor for Wired.

  • How questioning leads to innovation and why Warren believes the best innovation is fuelled by an endless cycle of questioning at every stage
  • The benefits of both informed and uninformed questioning and how these differences interplay within different work cultures
  • How to get into deep questioning within the constraints of existing processes and routines

Key Takeaways and Learnings

  • How to use combinatorial thinking and sharing questions with other people, colleagues, and experts to learn perspectives and arrive at solutions that others hadn’t necessarily looked at before
  • How ‘Why?’,‘How might I?’ and ‘What if?’ questions help to create new realities by combining things that don’t typically work together
  • How to develop the habit of asking questions as a leader, and how to encourage your colleagues and team members to question with courage, curiosity, and focus

Links and Resources Covered in this Episode

Feb 7, 2018

In this episode we are joined by Piyush Chowhan who is the Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer for Arvind Lifestyle Brands, which operates more than a thousand apparel retail stores across India. Piyush has extensive experience in retail strategy, business analytics, customer loyalty and CRM, retail business consulting and supply chain management.

What was covered

  • How technology is rapidly changing the apparel retail industry and how Arvind implements innovation to help to keep up the pace with changing consumer behavior
  • The digital transformation happening in retail as brands look to move from simply selling a fashion product to offering the customer a fashion experience
  • How the next generation of employees in India is leading the change towards a more open, communicative, and grassroots innovation process

Key Takeaways and Learnings

  • The concept of ‘jugaad’, an Indian term that is used in a number of situations, including the application of frugal innovation and carving a path for yourself
  •  How a focus on design-led innovation and a marketing shift towards online influencers is helping to Indian brands to reach a global audience in the rapidly and massively changing apparel retail industry
  • Piyush’s observations of the key differences within Indian based organizations compared to the US and Europe, including structural and management differences, and innovative processes

Links and Resources Mentioned in this Episde

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