Stanford eCorner

Meg Whitman, president and CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, describes how she learned to lead companies big and small to success by adjusting to different environments, building on what a business does best, and approaching work with urgency and initiative. In conversation with Stanford Professor of the Practice Tina Seelig, Whitman recounts the explosive growth during her time as president and...

It may not be rocket science, but there’s still much to consider when inventing children's toys, starting with all the ideas for what to build. Within the famous design firm IDEO, a small team toils away in a toy lab founded by Brendan Boyle, who also teaches design thinking at Stanford University. In conversation with Professor of the Practice Tina Seelig, Boyle discusses the importance of playfu...

Tech entrepreneur Bob Tinker was humbled when he stepped down as CEO of MobileIron, a leading provider of mobile security that went from being a three-man startup to a public company with nearly 1,000 employees, earning $150 million a year. Over those eight years, however, he learned how to position a business just right, how a CEO’s job and behavior must change over time, and how a leader can dev...

If you really want to win at negotiation, stop fighting and start listening. In this episode of Stanford Innovation Lab, host Tina Seelig speaks with Margaret “Maggie” Neale, professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, for answers to the burning questions about negotiating. Is emotion your most powerful tool? When does deference earn you more than dominance? Will setting a walk-away pri...

If you really want to win at negotiation, stop fighting and start listening. In this episode of Stanford Innovation Lab, host Tina Seelig speaks with Margaret “Maggie” Neale, professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, for answers to the burning questions about negotiating. Is emotion your most powerful tool? When does deference earn you more than dominance? Will setting a walk-away pri...

What if you removed failure from your vocabulary? Patricia Ryan Madson, Improv pioneer and retired Stanford University lecturer, sees improvisation - and the art of "yes, and" - as a route to innovation. In this episode of Stanford Innovation Lab, Tina Seelig meets with Patricia to discuss re-framing experiences as experiments and practicing attentiveness.

Imagine a collective brain shaped by human insights and powered by technology - that's crowdsourcing. Michael Bernstein, computer scientist at Stanford University, explores how to harness crowdsourcing to tackle daunting challenges. In this episode of Stanford Innovation Lab, Tina Seelig meets with Michael to discuss examples of successful crowdsourcing, tools to gather collective insights, and th...

What makes a story stick with you? From campfires to boardrooms, master storyteller JD Schramm studies the habits of powerful storytellers and teaches students at Stanford business school how to captivate audiences. In this episode of Stanford Innovation Lab, Tina and JD discuss how entrepreneurs and executives use stories to motivate teams and drive business.

Stanford Professor of the Practice Tina Seelig, host of the Stanford Innovation Lab, gives a brief preview of the new season and what you can expect to learn about in the weeks ahead.

Stanford Professor of the Practice Tina Seelig, host of the Stanford Innovation Lab, gives a brief preview of the new season and what you can expect to learn about in the weeks ahead.

Entrepreneur Jay Kaplan, co-founder and CEO of Synack, describes how the idea of creating a cybersecurity service for enterprise businesses by crowdsourcing hackers went from sounding like a long shot to launching as a venture capital-backed startup. Kaplan, previously a senior analyst at the National Security Administration, talks about the virtues of government work and the nuances of “white hat...

Julie Zhuo, vice president of product design at Facebook, describes how the development of new features starts with three questions: What people problem are we solving? How do we know it’s a real problem? And how will we know if we’ve solved it? Zhuo explains how answering those fundamental questions at the outset reveals the most urgent problems to tackle — and yields features that truly enhance...

Michael Ackermann, CEO of a med-tech startup that created a tear-stimulation device for those with dry-eye disease, explains how acquisition by a global pharmaceutical giant is helping him achieve his goal of reaching as many patients as possible. Ackermann, a graduate of the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign, also discusses why big tech companies have yet to disrupt healthcare and how that tran...

Retired serial entrepreneur Steve Blank, creator of the “Lean LaunchPad” methodology for startups, discusses Silicon Valley’s roots as the epicenter of electronic warfare in the mid-20th century and how the region’s innovation ecosystem formed. An adjunct professor in Stanford’s Department of Management Science & Engineering, Blank also walks through the lean-startup movement and how its principle...

Four alumni of entrepreneurship-education fellowships offered through the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP) return to share what starting businesses in the fields of virtual reality, med-tech, renewable and solar energy have taught them about these industries. In conversation with STVP Faculty Co-Director Tina Seelig, the panel discusses strategic decision-making, defining success, facin...

Jane Marie Chen, co-founder and CEO of Embrace Innovations, describes how her social-enterprise startup’s infant warmer for premature and low-birth-weight babies came into the world. She discusses how passion fuels the drive to overcome setbacks big and small, how Embrace has expanded into retail to support its humanitarian efforts, and explains why we should “choose to see the world through the l...

Go to a good college. Be in the Olympics. Work in TV and become a pilot. These were the goals of a 14-year-old girl who grew up in a town tucked into the mountains just east of Los Angeles. That girl went on to compete in three Olympics, become a sports commentator, an airplane pilot and three-time Stanford graduate. Here’s how Bonny Simi, now the president of JetBlue Technology Ventures, did it a...

Distinguished professor and serial entrepreneur Joseph DeSimone discusses the vibrant chemistry that takes place at the intersection of science and the humanities, academia and industry, and within the walls of his 3D manufacturing startup Carbon. He describes how on-demand parts manufacturing could one day eliminate the need for business inventory and even end up in hospitals.

Distinguished professor and serial entrepreneur Joseph DeSimone discusses the vibrant chemistry that takes place at the intersection of science and the humanities, academia and industry, and within the walls of his 3D manufacturing startup Carbon. He describes how on-demand parts manufacturing could one day eliminate the need for business inventory and even end up in hospitals.

What is the number one cause for failure in early-stage startups? Team issues! In this episode of Stanford Innovation Lab, Tina Seelig interviews executive coach Michael Terrell. Michael is the founder and managing partner of Terrell Leadership Group, and co-author of The Inside Out Effect, which focuses on effective leadership. In this conversation, Michael shares his insights on effective team d...

Diversity in tech has become a national conversation. In this episode of Stanford Innovation Lab, Tina Seelig speaks with software engineer and diversity advocate Tracy Chou. Tracy graduated from Stanford with degrees in electrical engineering and computer science, and was an early employee at both Quora and Pinterest. In this episode, Tracy talks about her own experiences as a woman in software e...

What does the next generation of venture capital look like? In this episode of Stanford Innovation Lab, Tina Seelig speaks with venture capitalist Chi-Hua Chien. Chi-Hua started his career working in startups, and entered the VC world through roles at Accel Partners and Kleiner Perkins. He recently started his own VC firm, called Goodwater Capital. In this episode, he shares insights into the worl...

“The enemy of delivering a product is trying to deliver the perfect product.” In this episode of Stanford Innovation Lab, Tina Seelig interviews Gabriel Parisi-Amon, co-founder of Nebia, where he focuses on building breakthrough shower nozzles that are beautifully designed, create a luxurious experience, and use only 25 percent of the water. During this conversation, Gabe covers a diverse set of t...

What is the number one cause for failure in early-stage startups? Team issues! In this episode of Stanford Innovation Lab, Tina Seelig interviews executive coach Michael Terrell. Michael is the founder and managing partner of Terrell Leadership Group, and co-author of The Inside Out Effect, which focuses on effective leadership. In this conversation, Michael shares his insights on effective team d...

In a world where consumers are inundated with information, how can a company use social media to stand out? In this episode of Stanford Innovation Lab, Tina Seelig interviews Clara Shih, CEO and co-founder of Hearsay Social, and author of two books on social-media strategy. Clara discusses the history and future of social media, highlighting the opportunities many companies are missing in their ow...