Agile Giants: Lessons from Corporate Innovators

On this week's episode of Agile Giants, we're going to do something just a little different. There's a lot of questions that I'm regularly asked when it comes to corporate innovation and agile product development. I've combined some of those questions with questions that I heard from you on social media and I've come up with five common questions that I get.   We'll see how this works, but if this...

Christina has had executive roles in a number of types of healthcare companies. In most of these organizations, at least part of her time was focused on leading innovation. Healthcare is a sector that seems to naturally lend itself to corporate innovation, given balance sheet and incumbency advantages that are often necessary for transformative innovation. This is likely why we've had so many heal...

Tanya Baker is the Global Head of GS Accelerate. A new initiative inside Goldman Sachs that is " a platform for people at Goldman Sachs to be able to apply, submit an idea, and go through various rounds of pitching and ultimately they get funded, be an intrapreneur, as we call it within Goldman Sachs." In many ways, this is similar to many other corporate startup labs being set up at other Fortune...

This is something a little unique for Agile Giants. I was at the IRI Conference and got just a few minutes to sit down with Peter. As you'll hear on the interview, Peter's part of a team at NASA that has quite an ambitious mission: to get people back to the moon and then ultimately to Mars.  I'm sure when you think about the projects you're working on in your organization, they may be characterize...

On this week's episode of Agile Giants, I'm joined by Eric Chaniot, the Chief Digital Officer of Michelin. Most people probably know Michelin as a tire company, but as you'll hear in the interview, they actually have a number of different divisions focused on mobility.  Eric runs a group that's responsible for digital transformation across each of these different divisions. Eric had some great per...

This week's episode of Agile Giants is a little different. A few weeks ago I had a chance to moderate a panel at the 3 Rivers Venture Fair in Pittsburgh, PA.  The panel focused on corporation venture capital, and specifically the corporate venture capital value proposition. We had guests from Covestro, Bayer and UPMC, each participated as panelists talking about how each of their individual compan...

After the last two episodes interviewing two individuals I'd never met but respected from a distance (Beth Comstock & Jeff Sutherland), this week is a little different. I sit down with Dr. Richard Florida — someone who has shaped my career very significantly and I've known for over 17 years.   Richard is one of the world's leading urbanist. He's a researcher and professor. He has written multiple...

Jeff's work has really had a profound impact on the way I approach a lot of problems. I remember when one of the companies I ran switched to Scrum (mSpoke) and it was like a light switch went on in the organization. I can't really talk enough about how positive Scrum's impact was on that organization and a lot of the companies I've worked with since then. It was really amazing to meet Jeff. He's a...

For this tenth episode of Agile Giants, we have quite a treat. I'm joined this week by Beth Comstock. Beth is probably best known as the former Vice Chair of GE, specifically leading innovations. She wrote a really transparent book called Imagine It Forward: Courage, Creativity, and the Power of Change, which is a really interesting blend of a reflection on her time at GE, the good and the bad, al...

Peter Steinberg is rapidly becoming a key partner of ours at the Carnegie Mellon Corporate Startup Lab. He is a well know Rugby coach as well as a leader in thinking through executive education. I'm more focused on the later, but the synergy between these is interesting. The first part of the interview gives you a lens into how Pete approaches exec ed and innovation. Then, the second half of this...

Every time I sit down with Priscilla, I come away so impressed. The work she's doing at Bayer partnering with startups to solve internal challenges is a great model for any large company. We first met at a local (Pittsburgh) roundtable discussion and then she recently participated in a reverse pitch the CMU Swartz Center which my lab did in partnership with another local organization Innovation Wo...

On this week's episode of Agile Giants, I'm joined by Gustavo Lopez a general manager at MS The Safety Company. MSA is over 100-years old. They historically have sold safety devices, things like portable gas detectors.  Over the last few years, those devices have started throwing off more and more data about the detection that they're doing. Two years ago made a decision to launch a new startup wi...

On this week's episode of Agile Giants, I'm joined by Laurie Barkman. I've known Laurie for a long time. She ran marketing for a startup that I invested in years ago and more recently she's been an advisor and mentor at the Corporate Startup Lab that I run at Carnegie Mellon.  We're also — for full disclosure — on an advisory board together of Safetyio, a corporate startup within MSA, that will ac...

On this week's episode of Agile Giants, I sit down with Sylvia Vogt. Sylvia is the President of the Carnegie Bosch Institute, and a co-instructor of the leading innovation executive education course that I talked with last week at the beginning of Dennis Boecker's interview. Show Links:  Tepper Executive Education Leading Innovation Course (the executive education course Sylvia & I teach together)...

On this week's episode of Agile Giants, I have Dennis Boecker. In some ways, this is really a continuation of last week's conversation with Terry Lonier. Dennis built one of the innovation labs that she talked a little bit about, the Chicago Connectory. It's a fascinating coworking space and innovation center that I would encourage you to check out if you're in the Chicago area.   Show Links: Chic...

On this episode, host Sean Ammirati, Co-Founder and Director of the Carnegie Mellon Corporate Startup Lab, sits down with an advisor to Cheif Innovation Officers Terri Lonier.       Terri and Sean have a great conversation, including Terri's insights on:  opportunities and traps around companies setting up innovation labs (starting at 9:07) the Creative Canvas she developed (starting at 12:01)  th...

Host Sean Ammirati, Co-Founder and Director of the Carnegie Mellon Corporate Startup Lab, sits down with Ryan Thomas Vice President, Innovation at The J.M. Smucker Company.     As a leader of innovation within a $8B Food, Beverage & Pet company, Ryan provides great perspective.  There's a ton of lessons here both for how to do innovation inside a consumer-facing brand like Smucker's, as well as ju...

The premiere episode of Agile Giants. Host Sean Ammirati, Co-Founder and Director of the Carnegie Mellon Corporate Startup Lab, sits down with author and entrepreneur Neil Soni.     Author of the book "The Startup Goldmine," Neil and Sean discuss the hidden innovation agendas of large companies to grow your business and how Neil's insights apply to both startups and Fortune 500 companies alike.   ...

Each week, join Sean Ammirati, Co-Founder & Director of the Carnegie Mellon Corporate Startup Lab, as he interviews guests who are doing the important work creating startups inside large corporations. If you already are a corporate entrepreneur, want to become one or are just looking for some advice around commercializing transformative innovation, this podcast is for you.