Innovation Storytellers

What helps an innovation earn the support, time and investment it needs to reach customers? I explore that question with David Ring, Vice President, Group Innovation at Synthomer.

David's own experience taught him that meeting a technical brief does not guarantee a product will succeed. One project delivered what had been asked for, yet missed what customers actually needed. That lesson now shapes how he thinks about listening to customers, finding problems they may not voice directly, and making the case for new ideas in language decision-makers understand

In this episode, of the Innovation Storytellers...

Why do so many brilliant innovators become less persuasive the more expert they become?

In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I speak with Bob Rogers, founder of BRC Imagination Arts, about something I think many innovation leaders forget when they walk into the office: people don't leave their emotions at the door just because the conversation has become technical.

Bob has spent a career creating experiences that move people to feel something and then act. His story began as a magician at Disneyland, where he learned an idea that has stayed w...

Why do so many promising innovations succeed as pilots but struggle to become part of everyday operations?

In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I speak with Ian Small, Innovation Lead at Expedition Engineering and convener of the Water Innovator Alliance, about the difficult work that begins after someone has already had the great idea.

Ian works at the intersection of innovation, engineering, infrastructure, and the UK water sector, where new technologies have to satisfy regulators, operators, customers, commercial partners, and teams responsible for assets that may remain in service for more than a...

How do you get employees to believe in an AI strategy when the future you are asking them to believe in has not happened yet?

In this solo episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I want to address a question I am hearing increasingly from organizations undergoing major AI transformation: can you really manage AI-driven organizational change through storytelling?

I am not sure there is another way to do it. When leadership announces an AI strategy, employees do not immediately experience that future. They experience what leaders tell them about it. 
When the e...

What happens when AI makes it easier than ever to produce work, but organizations still struggle to turn that activity into meaningful results?

In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I speak with Dr. Mik Kersten, creator of the Flow Framework and founder of Tasktop. Mik is the author of Project to Product, and Output to Outcome, about why the AI era demands a very different way of thinking about innovation.

He has spent much of his career studying how ideas move through organizations, from his early work at Xerox PARC to building technology...

What if the biggest weakness in AI-powered innovation is that we are getting better at predicting human behavior while becoming worse at understanding what that behavior actually means?

In this solo episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I want to talk about something I believe is becoming increasingly important for innovation leaders: AI can identify patterns, surface signals, and predict what customers may do next, but prediction is not the same as understanding.

My background in anthropology has always shaped how I think about innovation. Anthropologist Clifford Geertz wrote about "thick description," the idea that...

What happens when AI gives your organization more ideas than your people actually want to own?

In this solo episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I want to challenge something I am seeing more frequently across innovation teams: the assumption that because AI can generate hundreds of ideas in seconds, it should automatically become our ideation partner.

I think we need to question that.

Most organizations are not suffering from a shortage of ideas. Employees, customers, partners, suppliers, and markets are already full of observations about products that could be improved, processes that...

What happens to visual storytelling when everyone suddenly has access to the same powerful AI tools?

In this solo episode of Innovation Storytellers, I'm looking at what it takes to create visual stories that still feel distinctive, credible, and unmistakably human in an AI-generated world.

AI has made it incredibly easy to create polished graphics, videos, presentations, and infographics in seconds. But when every organization can do the same thing, visual sameness quickly becomes another form of noise. Producing more content is no longer enough. The real challenge is deciding what deserves to be communicated...

What if the stories you tell about innovation are actually working against you? In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I do something a little different. I open a new series by inviting other storytellers I deeply admire, people who bring their own lenses, frameworks, and lived experience to the craft of story.

I want you to think about storytelling as an expansive, evolving practice, not a single narrative you perfect once and reuse forever, but a skill you keep refining as your audiences, challenges, and ambitions change.

To begin that journey, I sat...

How do you bring discipline to innovation without stripping away the creativity that makes it powerful in the first place?

In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I sit down with Stephen Parkins, Innovation Strategist and Founder of Culturedge, to unpack what it really takes to turn innovation into a strategic asset rather than a side project fueled by hope and enthusiasm. 

Stephen brings an outside-in perspective shaped by an unconventional career spanning financial markets, startup entrepreneurship, and senior innovation roles within complex global organizations. That distance from the usual corporate playbook allows him t...

In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I sit down with Amy Freeze, a meteorologist, innovator, and public safety advocate who has spent decades helping people understand risk when it truly matters. Everywhere I go lately, conversations circle back to AI, but this one brings it out of the abstract and straight into our homes, our screens, and moments where trust can make all the difference.

Amy shares her remarkable journey from broadcast journalism to becoming one of the most recognized voices in weather. We talk about her work forecasting major events like Superstorm Sandy and...

What allows someone to see a technology years before the rest of us realize we need it?

In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I speak with Kevin Surace, the serial entrepreneur and inventor whose pioneering work on human-like virtual assistants helped create the path toward Siri, Alexa, and the AI assistants we use today.

Kevin takes me back to the late 1990s, when leaving your desktop computer meant leaving your email, contacts, calendar, and digital information behind. His team saw that frustration and asked a remarkably simple question: could everyone have access to...

What does it take to create a store that people visit even when they are not planning to buy anything?

In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I speak with Ron Johnson, the creator of the Apple Store, former CEO of J.C. Penney, and author of Shop Different: How Retail Revealed Apple's Genius. Ron shares the experiences that shaped his approach to leadership, beginning with an unlikely high school soccer transformation and continuing through his work at Target, Apple, and some of the most influential retail innovations of the past several decades.

Ron...

What happens when everyone in an organization claims to support innovation, but each person has a different idea of what innovation means?

In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I speak with Iffat AlRowaithy, Corporate Innovation and Innovation Center Unit Head at a globally recognized bank in Saudi Arabia. Iffat has spent more than a decade building innovation functions, developing employee capabilities, and connecting new ideas with corporate strategy and measurable business value.

We begin with a problem many innovation leaders will recognize about how people define innovation. One department may view innovation as...

What does it really take to turn bold ideas into billion-dollar businesses inside large enterprises?

In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I'm joined by Paul Campbell, one of the world's leading experts on corporate innovation and co-author of The Corporate Innovator's Playbook. Over the course of his career, Paul has helped create more than 50 new businesses that have generated over $5 billion in growth while advising companies including Hewlett-Packard, Philips, Schneider Electric, Mercedes-Benz, and W.L. Gore.

Our conversation moves beyond brainstorming and ideation to focus on the reality of making innovation succeed inside...

How do you build something nobody asked for—and turn it into an overnight obsession?

In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I speak with Ross Richardson, Chief Design Officer at SharkNinja, about the thinking, testing, storytelling, and consumer obsession behind some of the company's most successful products.

Ross leads a global team spanning mechanical and product engineering, industrial design, product innovation, and R&D. But his path into product design began much earlier, from taking things apart and borrowing his father's tools as a child to studying product design engineering and building a ca...

What if the most valuable asset in your career is not your expertise, your technology, or even your latest idea, but the people you already know?

In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I welcome Yaron Flint back to the podcast to discuss his new book, Beyond Networking: Making Connections That Matter, and why many professionals are failing to make the most of one of their greatest business assets.

Networking has become easier than ever. LinkedIn gives us access to thousands of people, conferences create endless opportunities to exchange contact details, and AI can...

In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I sit down with Priyank Jain, Enterprise Strategy & Innovation Leader at Atlassian, for a conversation about AI storytelling for business leaders and why the success of any innovation often depends on the story told long before a product is introduced.

Priyank shares the personal journey that took him from a childhood ambition of becoming a doctor to building enterprise systems that improve outcomes for millions of people. That perspective has shaped his belief that technology should always begin with people, making this an insightful conversation for anyone asking how...

Have you ever wondered why some people push bold ideas forward while others hesitate, even when they know they're onto something valuable?

In this episode, I speak with Dr. Zakia Ghafari, a behavioral scientist, pharmacist, storyteller, and creator of the WIRE Framework. Our conversation explores a topic that every innovator encounters but rarely talks about openly: fear. Not the fear of technology or market competition, but the deeply personal fears that shape how we show up, speak up, and share our ideas with the world.

Zakia explains how experiences from childhood, family history, and even...

Could a company best known for TVs, appliances, and consumer electronics become a launchpad for entirely new businesses? In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I sat down with Sokwoo Rhee, Corporate Executive Vice President for Innovation at LG Electronics and Head of LG NOVA, to discuss why some of the world's largest organizations are rethinking how innovation happens and what it takes to build the next generation of companies from within a corporate environment.

Sokwoo shares his journey from entrepreneur and government innovator to leading LG NOVA, LG's Silicon Valley-based innovation center focused on creating...

What happens when an insurance company thinks like an engineering lab? And how does a deeper understanding of risk create opportunities for innovation rather than slowing it down?

In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I sit down with Dr. Jaap De Vries, Staff Vice President and Principal Innovation Specialist at FM, to explore how one of the world's leading commercial property insurers approaches innovation, risk management, and emerging technologies. From fire protection robotics and structural digital twins to AI-powered risk analysis, Jaap shares how his team is helping organizations anticipate challenges before they become costly...

What if the biggest challenge with AI isn't the technology itself, but how it makes people feel?

Lately, almost every conversation I'm having with clients comes back to AI. Not surprisingly, it's dominating boardroom discussions, strategy sessions, and innovation agendas everywhere. But what fascinates me most isn't the technology. It's the human response to it.

In this solo episode, I'm talking about something I believe doesn't get nearly enough attention in the AI conversation: empathy.

I recently read that companies like Anthropic are hiring storytellers at salaries approaching half a million dollars a...

What does it really take to turn a promising European startup into a successful US business?

In this special fifth-anniversary episode of Innovation Storytellers, I sit down with Simone Tarantino, Managing Director of the Transatlantic Innovation Hub and Managing Partner at HVentures, to discuss the challenges, opportunities, and realities of building bridges between two of the world's most influential innovation ecosystems.

From its flagship location on Fifth Avenue in New York City, the Transatlantic Innovation Hub is creating a launchpad for European startups, scaleups, corporates, and innovators looking to expand into the United States. Simone...

What happens when elite endurance training, wearable data, artificial intelligence, and peptide therapy collide? In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I sat down with Tony Medrano, CEO and co-founder of LongevityPlan.AI, to unpack how the future of longevity is being shaped by technology that once felt more science fiction than healthcare strategy.

Tony's journey alone feels like a case study in reinvention. A former naval officer, Stanford entrepreneur, AI startup founder, and three-time Ironman triathlete, he has spent decades building companies around emerging technologies long before the market was ready for them. From helping...

In this solo episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I wanted to pause the constant conversation around AI capability and talk about something far more human. I'm talking about empathy. 

Everywhere I look, organizations are racing to deploy AI faster, automate more workflows, and chase productivity gains before competitors pull ahead. But behind every rollout, every implementation plan, and every AI strategy deck are real people trying to process what all of this change means for them.

I share why I believe empathy has quietly become one of the most valuable strategic skills in business t...

How do great companies stay distinctive when everything around them is pushing them toward sameness?

In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I sit down with Anthony Reeves, speaker, consultant, and author of Eat the Donkey: Why Great Companies Embrace Discomfort, for a conversation about creativity, brand identity, AI, and why discomfort may be one of the most valuable forces in innovation.

Anthony shares how growing up in the Australian outback shaped his understanding of progress, boredom, resilience, and the creative power of empty space. From LVMH and Amazon to WPP, Nike, Jaguar, Kohler...

What does it really take to turn a great idea into something that works in the real world?

In this episode, I sit down with Kofi Gyasi, Founder and CEO of NotedSource, and Joia Spooner-Fleming, an innovation consultant with deep experience at companies like P&G and SharkNinja, to unpack what lies behind successful innovation. 

We explore why research and validation are often the difference between ideas that scale and those that quietly disappear. From rooftop laundry lessons in Mexico City to product design decisions shaped by culture and human behavior, this conversation brings innovation b...

What does it really take for large organizations to keep innovating when speed, disruption, and AI are changing the rules faster than ever before?

In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I'm joined by two returning guests whose work has shaped how many leaders think about innovation inside large organizations: Dr. Diana Joseph, CEO of the Corporate Accelerator Forum, and Dan Toma, co-author of The Corporate Startup and Innovation Accounting. Together, they return to discuss their new book, Open Innovation Works, and why open innovation has become a business necessity rather than a nice idea for...

What happens when innovation shifts from a strategic advantage to a matter of survival?

In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I sat down with Itai Green, Co-Founder and CEO of Global Innovation & Strategy and author of Innovation or Elimination. With more than two decades of experience connecting global corporations with startups, Itai brings a direct and unfiltered perspective on why so many organizations struggle to stay relevant and what it actually takes to change that trajectory.

Our conversation moves beyond theory and into the real mechanics of innovation. Itai challenges the long-standing belief...

What does real AI implementation actually look like when the hype fades, and the hard work begins?

In this episode of Innovation Storytellers, I sit down with Brett Norton, President of Buffalo Construction, and Mike Gadsby, Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer at O3XO, for a candid conversation about what it takes to move AI from curiosity to business impact. This is not a discussion about vague transformation promises or shiny tools looking for a problem. It is a practical story about how one construction company partnered with an AI-focused innovation team to rethink workflows, identify friction...

How do you tell a story that people actually believe, trust, and remember long after the meeting ends?

In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I sit down with Neal Foard, Founder of Storyfire, to explore what separates a good idea from one that truly lands. Neal brings decades of experience from the world of advertising, where he created campaigns for brands like Budweiser, Lexus, and Sony, and shares how storytelling is never just about the words you say. It is about the experience you create, the signals you send, and the way you make people...

What does it take to turn innovation from a string of promising pilots into a repeatable growth engine that finance leaders can actually believe in?

In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I sit down with Alice Ponti, Senior Vice President of Innovation and Strategy at VentureFuel, to talk about why so many innovation teams are being restructured, absorbed into the business, or quietly shut down altogether. Drawing on leadership roles at L'Oréal, Diageo, AB InBev, and now at VentureFuel, Alice shares what she has learned about building systems that connect strategy, governance, execution, and a...

In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I sit down with Rob Bearden, CEO of Sema4.ai, to explore how AI is transforming enterprise infrastructure from the inside out. Rob brings decades of experience from the front lines of enterprise technology, with leadership roles spanning Oracle, Hortonworks, Docker, and Cloudera. He shares how his early exposure to ERP systems sparked a lifelong fascination with automation and how that same mindset is now being applied to a new generation of AI-driven workflows.

We go deep into how AI is no longer sitting at the edges of the...

What happens to storytelling when AI can write, summarize, and generate content in seconds, yet the world still depends on humans to make ideas matter?

In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I sit down with Joe Lazer, Fractional CMO at Pepper, former head of marketing at Contently, and co-author of The Storytelling Edge. We talk about his new book, Super Skill: Why Storytelling Is the Superpower of the AI Age, and why he believes the most human skill we have may become even more valuable as AI grows more capable. 

Joe sh...

How do you bring innovation to life inside an organization whose job is to help other people see risk before it shows up on a balance sheet?

In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I sit down with Jason Lee, Chief Intelligence Officer at Moody's Analytics, for a conversation that lives at the crossroads of national security tradecraft, financial crime investigation, and modern data-driven decision making. Jason has spent decades inside large, complex systems, from federal intelligence work to investment banking to building a security consulting firm, and he shares what he has learned about creating...

If every headline feels like it is rewriting the rules of business, leadership, and even identity, where does that leave the people tasked with driving innovation?

In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I sit down with Tommy Knoll, Co-Founder of the Human Innovation Institute, to make sense of a moment that feels both historic and deeply personal. 

Tommy and I have worked together in the innovation community for years, and what I value most about his perspective is that he refuses to treat change as a buzzword. He sees this era as a t...

What does it really take to move innovation from idea to impact inside a 95,000-person organization?

In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I sat down with Vlora Muslimi, Senior Manager at TD Bank, whose path into innovation did not begin in a lab or a product team. It began in contact centers, in the daily friction of legacy tools, imperfect processes, and frontline employees trying to do their best work under pressure.

With more than 15 years of experience across digital, omni-channel, and contact center operations, Vlora now leads a centralized innovation team responsible...

What does it really take to close a digital divide in a city as complex, diverse, and dynamic as Long Beach, California?

In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I sit down with Lea Eriksen, Director of Technology and Innovation and CIO for the City of Long Beach, to unpack the human stories behind civic innovation. We met in an unexpected setting, a steakhouse in Los Angeles during a CXO Rise gathering, where conversations about AI flowed alongside cream spinach and big ideas. That evening sparked a deeper discussion about how technology, when grounded in people...

In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I sit down with John Elbing, Business Storytelling Strategist and founder of Standpoint, for a thoughtful conversation on how organizations can tell stronger innovation stories by shifting perspective outward. This interview is the second in The Storytellers Series, where I invite other storytellers I deeply admire, people who bring their own lenses, frameworks, and lived experience to the craft of story.

John introduces his Story Building Method, a three-stage framework built around recognition, perception, and projection. He explains why compelling stories help customers recognize themselves first, understand where a...

What if the stories you tell about innovation are actually working against you? In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I do something a little different. I open a new series by inviting other storytellers I deeply admire, people who bring their own lenses, frameworks, and lived experience to the craft of story.

I want you to think about storytelling as an expansive, evolving practice, not a single narrative you perfect once and reuse forever, but a skill you keep refining as your audiences, challenges, and ambitions change.

To begin that journey, I sat...