In this episode, we are joined by award-winning author, David Pearl, to discuss his career as a creative confidante and personal development advisor to a number of the world’s top CEO’s and organisations. David is a respected public and keynote speaker and is the founder of Pearl Group, Opera Circus, Lively Arts and Impropera, as well as the non-profit organisation, Street Wisdom.

In this episode we’re joined by Tyler Gage, co-founder of the organic tea company Runa, and author of the book, Fully Alive: Using the Lessons of the Amazon to Live Your Mission in Business and Life. Tyler shares how his immersion into life in the Amazon guided him in building a socially responsible business able to thrive in the hyper-competitive soft drinks segment.

What Was Covered

• How Tyler’s interest in peak performance led him to indigenous elders in the Amazon and how life there inspired him to build a business
• The parallels to be found from the Amazonian concept of wisdom and modern business and entrepreneurship
• Discovering strength in vulnerability and how admitting what we don’t know creates an environment to learn from others

Key Takeaways and Learnings

• How the sophisticated listening and landscape awareness skills that are required to provide food in the Amazon can deliver success for an executive or entrepreneur
• Seeing obstacles as teachers, and how this tribal practice of the South American rainforests is a winning strategy for business problem solving
• How businesses can use their “taproot”, their reason for existence, to create cultures that inspire employees

Links and Resources Mentioned in this Episode

• Tyler Gage's website
• RUNA website
• Get the book Fully Alive: Using the Lessons of the Amazon to Live Your Mission in Business and Life by Tyler Gage
• Get in touch with Tyler via LinkedIn or email
• The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answer, a book by Ben Horowitz
• The Republic of Tea: Letters to a Young Entrepreneur, a book by Mel Ziegler, Bill Rosenzweig and Patricia Ziegler

Christoph Goppelsroeder is the Chief Executive Officer and President at DSM Nutritional Products. Christoph talks on how a large organisation can create the right space for innovation and sustainability. He believes in order to create impactful and disruptive innovation, you must understand precisely what it is that your company lives for.

What Is Covered

• 01:50 - What is DSM?

• 03:15 - How does Christoph develop a long term plan in an ever-changing environment?

• 04:35 - What does the company live for? How do people see DSM?

• 05:10 - The three things that the company lives for are: safety, growing children, and sustainability. 

• 13:25 - Do not delegate innovation. Don't push it down to your team.

• 14:15 - What kind of disruptive innovation has Christoph seen in his company?

• 18:05 - Christoph talks about project 'Clean Cow'.

• 22:15 - Who are the drivers of innovation in your country?

• 24:15 - How does Christoph encourage your team to be more innovative and creative?

• 30:15 - Collaborating with third parties was key to the growth of the organization.

• 30:35 - How does Christoph and his team reach out to third parties and collaborate with them?

• 34:15 - Celebrate your successes.

• 37:25 - Does Christoph have any daily rituals?

• 39:45 - What has Christoph changed his mind about recently?

• 41:00 - What advice would Christoph give his 25-year-old self?

• DSM Nutritional Products: https://www.dsm.com/corporate/home.html 
• Connect with Chris Goppelsroeder: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christoph-goppelsroeder-996b4260/ 

This week we are joined by entrepreneur, author and venture capitalist, Brad Feld. Brad is a co-founder of Techstars, a platform for startups to access funding and entrepreneurial networking, and is also the co-founder of venture capital firm, Foundry Group. Brad is the author of several books on startups as well as an entrepreneurial advice blog. He sits on the board of several technology startups and was an early investor in Fitbit, Zynga, and Harmonix.

What Was Covered

• How startup ecosystems have changed – and become more democratized – in the 30 years in which Brad has been active within them
• How digitization of production, distribution, customer relationships, etc., is making strategic “moats” much more penetrable than they were before
• How diversity of an ecosystem builds resilience but how our biases (both conscious and unconscious) make this difficult for us

Key Takeaways and Learnings

• Those large organizations that are extracting greatest benefit from startup ecosystems are doing so not through control (typical of a hierarchy) but through engagement and feeding back learning into their own institution – creating high levels of “return on learning”
• This large company engagement with entrepreneurs also builds loyalty, so that as startups grow they can become a positive weapon rather than a threat
• Great innovation leaders combine continua practical skills development (getting good at your work) with endless and radical self-inquiry (embracing lifelong learning and exploration)

Resources and Links Mentioned in this Podcast

• Brad's blogs Feld Thoughts and Venture Deals
• Get in touch with Brad on Twitter, LinkedIn and via email
• The companies co-founded by Brad Feld: Foundry Group, Techstars, Mobius Venture Capital
• The companies Brad invested in: Uber, Fitbit, Zynga, Harmonix
• Other mentions: Kauffman Foundation, Cox Enterprises, Amazon, Target, Metro, Barclays, Cedars-Sinai, Rover, Reboot.io
•  Brad Feld's books
• The Ideal Financial Reporting Tempo for a VC-Backed Company, blog post published on Feld Thoughts (January 2017)
• Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger, edited by Peter D. Kaufman
• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't, a book by Jim Collins

In this episode, Annalisa Gigante, former Head of Innovation and R&D at LafargeHolcim, joins us. With over 25 years of experience, her expertise includes management, HR, strategy, marketing and innovation. She is currently a Board member of ZIS.

What was covered

• How Annalisa’s experience in different industries throughout her career has given her the opportunity to see parallels in business innovation
• Annalisa’s unique approach on handling project failures and how to regain momentum as an individual and as a team
• Annalisa’s view that innovation is present in all areas of business and not limited to within innovation teams, and how this multi-disciplinary approach ultimately helps creative growth

Key Takeaways and Learnings

• The importance of recognizing 'fast failure’ in innovation projects
• Finding the ‘Goldilocks’ zone – the middle ground between innovation in technology and market interests, and bridging the gap by adapting a multi-disciplinary approach
• Recognizing the finite number of standard business models present within an organization and using these analytics to assist in the external and internal innovation of a business

Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• The Business Model Navigator: 55 Models That Will Revolutionise Your Business by Oliver Gassman - http://amzn.to/2aKJEFu