Inside CVC by u-path

Send us Fan Mail Otto Scharmer is a Senior Lecturer at MIT and the originator of Theory U, the foundation of U-Path. In this conversation, Otto walks Philipp and Steve through what it actually means to lead from an emerging future rather than the past, and why that distinction matters more now than ever. They dig into the four levels of listening. Downloading. Factual. Empathic. And the one most l...

Send us Fan Mail Oliver Zeidler made history at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, winning gold in the men's single scull and breaking the Olympic record by nearly five seconds in the semi-final. But he will tell you the medal wasn't won in Paris. It was won three weeks earlier, at a World Cup race in Lucerne, where he finished second. In this episode of Inside CVC, Philipp and Steve sit down...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Inside CVC, Joanna Massey explores how AI and digital platforms are reshaping boardroom governance. The conversation examines how polarization, employee stress, and shifting expectations around free speech are impacting decision-making inside companies. Joanna introduces the concept of “mass incitement” and explains why boards must take a more active role in ove...

Send us Fan Mail The CVC Open Innovation Summit began as a small gathering of corporate venture, strategy, and innovation leaders looking for something missing in the market: a trusted environment where decision-makers could collaborate on the challenges shaping industry. In this special episode of Inside CVC , Steve Schmith speaks with Philipp Willigmann of U-Path Advisors and Daniel Kennel of Bo...

Send us Fan Mail When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration illegally imposed tariffs under IEEPA, markets reacted fast. But relief quickly gave way to confusion. In this episode, Deborah Elms, Head of Trade Policy at the Singapore-based Hinrich Foundation , explains what happened in the first 72 hours, why some countries now feel blindsided, and how the administration’s pivot...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when you leave a world class platform like Deloitte without a plan, and then choose to spend your next chapter on a problem hiding in plain sight? In this episode of Inside CVC, we sit down with Janet Foutty, former CEO of Deloitte Consulting in the United States and Executive Board Chair of Deloitte US, now focused on driving impact across women’s health, tech for go...

Send us Fan Mail Longevity is not just a healthcare issue. It is a workforce issue. It is a competitiveness issue. It is an everything issue. In this episode of Inside CVC, we sit down with Katharina Janus, founder of Fourth Quarter Life and a longtime healthcare leader across managed care, hospitals, academia, and consulting. She shares the personal moment that changed her work forever. Navigatin...

Send us Fan Mail What do the Hindenburg, the Titanic, Boeing, and the Challenger disaster have in common? According to historian and author Edward Tenner, they were not failures of incompetence. They were failures born from success, confidence, and blind spots. In this episode of Inside CVC, Tenner explains why highly capable organizations still make catastrophic mistakes. From the smoking lounge...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Inside CVC , we’re joined by David Homan , author of Orchestrating Connection , for a wide-ranging conversation on why trust, gratitude, and intentional community building are no longer “soft skills,” but strategic advantages in corporate venture capital and M&A. Drawing from more than a decade of building a global, high-trust network spanning family offices...

Send us Fan Mail In Part Two of our special Inside CVC series recapping the CVC Open Innovation Summit in Berlin , the conversation moves from diagnosis to execution. Episode One explored urgency.  Episode Two focuses on alignment. As Europe faces accelerating technological change, geopolitical pressure, and widening capital gaps, the challenge is no longer awareness. It’s how leaders align capita...

Send us Fan Mail In late November, leaders from across Europe gathered in Berlin for the first European edition of the CVC Open Innovation Summit. What emerged was not another debate about whether innovation matters, but a far more urgent question: is Europe actually set up to execute? In Part 1 of this special two-part Inside CVC series, host Steve Schmith takes listeners inside the Berlin summit...

Send us Fan Mail Europe once led the world in autonomous driving. Massive public investment. Breakthrough demonstrations. Real vehicles on real highways long before autonomy was mainstream. So what happened? In this episode of Inside CVC , we sit down with Christian to unpack the rise, stall, and potential resurgence of autonomy in Europe. Drawing from decades of experience across research labs, O...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Inside CVC, Steve and Philipp sit down with Jen Randle , co-founder of SGNL , a strategic advisory and content firm known for helping leaders communicate with clarity, coherence, and purpose. Jen has spent her career advising executives, founders, and institutions on how to build trust by aligning what they say with what they do. Her work at SGNL focuses on narr...

Send us Fan Mail Engineer, board director, and Shifting Gears author Kristin Slanina joins Inside CVC for a candid conversation on what it really takes to lead transformation in an industry that’s been “five years away” from disruption for more than a decade. Kristin shares how discomfort became one of her greatest teachers, what she learned building Ford’s original Blueprint for Mobility, and why...

Send us Fan Mail Innovation inside large companies often runs on instinct, scattered pilots, and wishful thinking. Yaron Flint joins us to explain why so many corporates still lack a true playbook — and how a more structured approach can turn chaos into clarity. Listeners will hear Yaron discuss: Why he wrote Innovative Business Development and the gap he saw across global organizations. The four...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Philipp Mueller , Vice President, Public Sector at DriveLock and Co-Founder of the European Resilience Summit Series , joins Inside CVC to explore why resilience — not sovereignty — is becoming Europe’s defining strategy in an age of constant disruption. He shares how leaders can rethink governance, investment, and collaboration around adaptation and trust rather...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Inside CVC , hosts Steve Schmith and Philipp Willigmann speak with Andy Binns , co-founder and Managing Director of Change Logic , and co-author of Corporate Explorer and the forthcoming Corporate Explorer Fieldbook . Andy has spent his career helping CEOs, boards, and innovation leaders at companies like Analog Devices, RELX, and UNIQA Insurance build new growt...

Send us Fan Mail In this powerful episode of Inside CVC , Steve and Philipp are joined by Gerald Knaus , founding chairman of the European Stability Initiative and author of The European Miracle and Its Enemies . Knaus reflects on how post-war Europe built an unprecedented framework of peace, democracy, and economic cooperation—and why that “European miracle” is now under its greatest threat since...

Send us Fan Mail Disability is often seen through the lens of charity — but what if it’s actually one of the greatest drivers of innovation? In this episode of Inside CVC , hosts Steve Schmith and Philipp Willigmann speak with Pete Horsley , founder of Remarkable , a global accelerator for disability technology startups. From Sydney, Pete shares why inclusion isn’t just the right thing to do — it’...

Send us Fan Mail What if the greatest untapped driver of innovation isn’t found in Silicon Valley, but in the lived experience of people with disabilities? In this episode of Inside CVC , Steve Schmith and Philipp Willigmann sit down with Regina “Gina” Kline , founder of Enable Ventures and a pioneer at the intersection of civil rights and impact investing. From her years litigating landmark ADA c...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Inside CVC , we sit down with Howard Ross —author, consultant, and one of the nation’s preeminent thought leaders on unconscious bias and organizational change. Howard brings a candid, historical, and forward-looking perspective on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at a time when the topic is both urgent and contested. Listeners will hear: Why DEI has alway...

Send us Fan Mail Europe is at a crossroads in shaping its technological future. In this episode of Inside CVC , Martin Hullin , Managing Director of the Network for Technological Resilience & Sovereignty Europe’s Future Program Bertelsmann Stiftung introduces Eurostack —a visionary framework designed to strengthen Europe’s sovereignty, resilience, and competitiveness in the digital age. Listen...

Send us Fan Mail As experts gather in Berlin and Brussels to debate climate policy, MIT Sloan’s Jason Jay joins Inside CVC to cut through the ESG noise. He introduces the Four Lenses Framework , showing how boards can focus on what matters, align purpose with business value, and invest for long-term impact. You’ll hear: How to separate signal from noise in ESG Why short-termism blocks real progres...

Send us Fan Mail Robotics is moving from the lab to the loading dock, farm, and job site—and the playbook is changing. In this episode, Sam Abidi —robotics expert and member of the U-Path Advisory team—explains how to pick the right first use cases, redesign operations around machines, and structure partnerships that actually scale. We cover ROI beyond simple labor displacement, how CVCs de-risk t...

Send us Fan Mail In a moment when AI is rewarding efficiency and headlines spotlight shrinking management layers, strategist and author Kaihan Krippendorff argues the real advantage comes from optionality —and from empowering intrapreneurs across the enterprise. We dig into why the MVP-and-hyperscale era is giving way to longer feedback cycles and thesis-driven bets, what distinguishes innovation...