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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: May, 2018
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

 

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