Phenomena

What makes a conversation feel natural rather than scripted? What kills it in three seconds? What makes someone feel understood versus processed? In this episode, we are joined by Larry McGrath, a User Research Lead at Amazon, where he has spent the past four years working on Alexa Plus, Amazon’s conversational AI platform, to talk about how to build AI that actually works for people. With deep ro...

How to design strategies that keep pace with our changing world? In this episode, we are joined by Carrie Yury, Head of UX Research within Digital at JPmorgan Chase, who brings decades of experience combining critical thinking, creativity, and deep human understanding. In conversation with ReD Partners Maria Cury and Morgan Ramsey Elliot, Carrie shares her insights on creating a more agile strateg...

Network Economics has dominated business strategy for 40 years. But what happens when important anomalies challenge this theory? Take TikTok surpassing Instagram in user engagement despite a smaller network, or Hermès commanding a market cap 17X its revenue. These successes can't be explained by network size alone. In our piece, "Beyond Network Economics", co-authored by ReD and leading strategy t...

How do you turn cultural insights into products that make a difference in people’s lives? In this episode, we are joined by Stefan Biel, a scientist turned innovator who for over 25 years has looked to uncover unexplored opportunities and translate them into meaningful products. Having worked for various large players across the consumer goods industry, he now finds himself at Tesa, the global adh...

How to build a corporate strategy for Africa's largest international health NGO? In our latest episode of Leading with Perspective, we are joined by Dr. Githinji Gitahi, Group CEO of Amref Health Africa. Amref is committed to transforming the health of African communities serving 30 million people in 35+ countries annually.​ Since joining as CEO in 2015, Dr. Gitahi has led Amref through a remarkab...

How has the financial sector looked to regain trust with consumers and play a more meaningful role in their lives? In this episode, we are joined by Camilla Dahl Hansen who was most recently with Saxo Bank where she held a number of roles including its Global Chief Saxo Experience Officer and Senior Executive Vice President. Before that, Camilla spent 14 years with Danske Bank as the Head of Group...

What foundational ideas should guide our thinking around future approaches to care? In 2026, the Mary Elizabeth Hospital in Copenhagen will open to the public. It is a hospital that will revolutionise the experience for children, teens, pregnant women and their relatives before, during and after treatment. And they are doing this by centering the hospital all around play. Alongside Elisabeth Ida G...

In another live edition of the ReD podcast, we are joined by Taylor Price, a leading Gen Z financial expert with over a million followers on TikTok, and Matt Klein, a writer, cultural theorist and head of foresight at Reddit, to discuss what spaces or figures people are turning to as trust in traditional sources of authority is in decline. In the conversation, we get into the "who" – has relatabil...

In our age of AI and hyper-replication, who really is the author? To explore this question we sat down with with Charles Gorintin (co-founder of Mistral AI and co-founder and CTO of Alan) and Neil Beloufa (artist and co-founder of the collective EBB) who alongside ReD’s Charlotte Vangsgaard discuss: How should companies that thrive on originality respond to this new age of mass participation? What...

How to embrace uncertainty and channel chaos as the leader of a legacy brand? In this episode, we are joined by Alvin Lu, CEO of Kodansha USA Publishing, fresh from the opening of Kodansha House – an immersive space where people can experience all things Manga – which runs throughout October in New York City.  Kodansha USA Publishing, or KUP, is a subsidiary of Kodansha, one of Japan’s largest and...

In today’s data-abundant landscape – where everything from website clicks and customer smiles to our own heartbeats is measured – what makes a metric meaningful? This episode was recorded live at an event a few weeks ago in San Francisco and is part of our ongoing series looking at authority; where authority is coming from today. And this episode will focus on the authority of numbers. To explore...

What are the do's and don’ts of mobilising change within an organisation? In today’s episode, ReD’s Charlotte Vangsgaard sits down with one of Denmark’s most experienced executives, Mads Ryder, an expert in change management and transformation.  Currently CEO of LeDap, an international group of padel companies, Mads has previously served as CEO of Rosenthal, one of Europe´s largest porcelain manuf...

It’s one thing to come up with a great strategy in theory, but leaders often get stuck when it comes to execution. In the first episode of our brand new series Leading with Perspective, we welcome renowned strategic thinker Professor Roger Martin – named the number one management thinker in 2017 – to talk through how to overcome some of these challenges and what good strategy creation and implemen...

'Leading with Perspective', a new season of the Phenomena Podcast all about leadership, transformation and strategic thinking with a brand new episode each month. Leading with Perspective is all about having engaging conversations with top industry leaders and hearing about how they effected change within their organisation, their industry and the wider culture.

In a special edition of the ReD podcast, we’re bringing you the best bits of a conversation that took place last week in our offices in NYC, where Ian Dull sat down with neuroscientist and entrepreneur Vivienne Ming and VP of Research Science at Meta’s Reality Labs, Richard Newcombe, to discuss the role of bodies in the age of AI In front of a packed room on a cold New York evening, they discussed...

In this special edition of the podcast, we are live from Copenhagen, Denmark where we hosted a discussion with Oluf Borbye Pedersen, a world expert on the gut microbiome, and Theis Brydegaard, head chef at the Alchemist. Are We Listening to the Gut? was the topic of conversation, and as part of our ongoing content series all about our changing relationship to flesh, offers us a novel lens through...

This is a special edition of the ReD podcast live from Paris, France, where we hosted a discussion with British photographer Maisie Cousins, and Pernod Ricard’s head of foresight, Daphnée Hor, at the beautiful Lafayette Anticipations, a gallery space in the heart of Paris. Are We Afraid Of The Body? was the topic of conversation, a question that sits right at the heart of our ongoing content serie...

Since the sexual revolution of the 1970s, the Western world has been obsessed with representations of sex. And within this historical explosion of sexual imagery, many companies capitalised on the powerful narrative that consumption could deliver sex appeal and in turn, increase one's chances for finding a partner. More recently, however, we're seeing a shift where sex appeal is becoming increasin...

Money is one of the great stressors of our age, and learning to manage our finances one of our most important life needs. So why do the financial products we are offered still feel so out of sync with how we really experience money? In this episode, host Eliot Salandy Brown sits down with Martin Gronemann, a partner at ReD Associates leading our work in finance, and John Dalton, Vice President of...

While there are still many questions about what the metaverse of the future will look and feel like, nearly everyone is in agreement that it’s a big deal. And while the metaverse has been well covered from a technological angle, what is often missing from the debate are questions about the human and social implications of its evolution. In this episode, Eliot is joined by ReD partner Iago Noguer S...

Companies use the word “strategy” more than ever, while strategy consultants with MBAs march the halls of companies penning sensible “strategic plans” that boards enthusiastically approve. Yet companies with a unique perspective on why customers spend with them and how they will win in their chosen space are in the minority. In this special edition of the podcast we speak about strategy with Roger...

People use brands to shape social identities. We see this time and again in our work, as we help brands figure out how to deliver more value to their consumers. But what role fundamentally do brands play in people’s lives, and why do some resonate better than others? In this episode, host Eliot Salandy Brown is joined by ReD partner Filip Lau, to share ReD’s latest thinking on brands, the shifting...

Discussions around mental health are everywhere. But as different industries ask themselves how to get mental health right, our research points towards the need for a shift in how we understand its causes and, by extension, deliver solutions. In this episode, host Eliot is joined by ReD partner Anne Mette Wørose Lottrup and Emily Mendenhall, medical anthropologist and professor at Georgetown Unive...

Belonging is in crisis. While it is seemingly easier than ever to build connections with people - either online or IRL - we are lonelier and more fragmented than ever. When we talk about the mental health crisis, political polarisation, or how to build a meaningful workplace culture, what we're really talking about is belonging. In this episode, Eliot is joined by ReD partners Maria Cury and Mikke...

The luxury industry excels at selling desire. But in recent years, it has also successfully weaved sustainability into its appeal to consumers, altering people's assumptions about what can be considered valuable, authentic or desirable. In this episode, Eliot speaks to fellow ReD partner Charlotte Vangsgaard and Dr. Stéphane Girod, a professor at the Swiss-based International Institute for Managem...