Podcasts on disruptive innovation, IT as differentiator, communities and more

Some english podcasts of note, collected in the last few weeks, for all of you that got a little time on their hands …

For a start, Alex Osterwalder has published two more Arvetica podcasts of note (mp3), here he’s talking with Scott Anthony of Innosight, and here he’s talking with John Hagel. How cool is that.

Some notes from the talk with Scott:

a first simple recipe to avoid falling victim to disruptive innovation:
– we must keep looking a the world through our customer’s eyes not by the way our companies are organized internally
– we shouldn’t just focus on our best customers. We must keep looking at the fringes, because it is there that disruptive innovation occurs.
– we have to create the organizational space for innovation. Else, the importance of running the core business will crowed out any innovative activity

And here’s the gist from the talk with John:

The podcast is about three distinct topics John has worked on: first, his approach to strategy, second, a concept he developed called “unbundling the corporation”, and third, “IT as a tool for strategic differentiation”. […]
IT as a differentiator: John points out that IT is today becoming even more strategically important as a foundation for rapid incremental business innovation than previously. He explains this through new and flexible architectures which allow companies to continuously achieve IT innovation and keep a constant head start. This contrasts with the past, when companies made heavy punctual investments in IT innovations every few years, but were then copied. Finally, John also refers to the innovation potential of newer technologies that help people come together, collaborate and create value rather than just create savings through automation.

Pretty much what I am recommending all the time, especially when consulting.

The same topic is dealt with here (mp3), in a new favourite podcast of mine called Spark, which is published by CBC. It’s an interview with Nicholas Carr who speaks about his new book (“The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, From Edison to Google”):

[…] The Big Switch is about the massive changes this move to what’s called ‘cloud computing’ may have. For Carr, its effects go beyond the business of technology. Just as electrification changed North American life profoundly, the ‘big switch’ will change economics, culture, and society, raising questions about security, privacy and more.

Knowledge@ Wharton has excellent stuff too, see e.g. this podcast with Larry Huston, formerly of Procter & Gamble on their Connect + Develop program, and the challenges of making a company into a connected innovation company, i.e. building up the strategic capability to cooperate (here’s themp3). In the same direction here’s a short BBC In Business podcast called “Men In White”, asking if giant corporate research laboratories have outlived their usefulness (mp3):

Peter Day visits Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Centre in California, where the scientists hope their inventions will lead the next wave of technological innovation.

Then there’s an older interview (mp3) in the Knowledge@Wharton series on business model innovation that’s fueled by communities and social networks (“trying to harness communities to reshape their businesses”). John Spector of the Wharton School talks with Craig Newmark of Craigslist, more here.

I like Craigs approach to business, he disrupts and redesigns this media industry, while valuing corporate ethics and keeping “serving the community” at the center of business. More on him here.

  1. Martin: Dan from CBC’s Spark here. Thanks so much for mentioning us and the podcast. All the best.