The CX Iconoclast

In this episode of the CX Iconoclast podcast, host Richard sits down with Bob Cooper, a leading expert in AI and business strategy, to explore the true impact of AI across various industries. Bob and Richard note the contrast between the highly visible, consumer-facing AI applications, such as robo taxis and smart devices, and the less glamorous but profoundly impactful uses of AI in engineering,...

In this episode of the CX Iconoclast Podcast, Richard Owen hosts Joe Pine, thought leader, academic, and author of The Experience Economy and several other influential books including Mass Customization , Authenticity , and Infinite Possibility . The conversation with Joe Pine covers the evolution of The Experience Economy over the past 25 years, the impact of digital technology, the shift in cons...

In this episode, Richard Owen speaks with Eric Tagliere, Chief Technology Officer at Humana, about the challenges and opportunities present in the healthcare industry. They emphasize the importance of a customer-focused approach and the convergence of technology and consumer expectations, highlighting the potential for significant progress in the industry over the next five to ten years. Additiona...

In this episode, Richard Owen sits down with Don Peppers, a global authority on marketing and business competition, to discuss the intricacies of customer behavior, customer-centric companies, and the evolving landscape of customer experience (CX). Don, renowned in the world of CRM for co-authoring the landmark book "The One to One Future," shares his invaluable insights on the challenge...

This new edition of the CX Iconoclast podcast is a timely panel discussion on the evolution of language understanding. Richard Owen hosts three panelists: Brian Curry, Co-founder and Head of Engineering Customers at OCX Cognition; Maurice FitzGerald, Head of Content at OCX Cognition; and special guest Alyona Medelyan, CEO and co-founder of Thematic. Alyona, originally from Ukraine, holds a PhD in...

In this episode hosted by Richard Owen, Stanford professor Erik Brynjolfsson, an economist and a contributing author to the recent HAI report on the current state of AI on the planet, discusses the impact of AI on productivity. He highlights the rapid technological advances in AI and the significant productivity gains observed in various sectors. Erik emphasizes the importance of focusing on prove...

Join Richard Owen's discussion with Simon Paris, the visionary CEO of Finastra, a leading force in global enterprise software solutions tailored for the financial sector. Here’s a summary of their engaging conversation:   Empowering Banking Evolution Finastra, a powerhouse in enterprise software, caters primarily to banks and related entities worldwide. With a robust suite covering lending, p...

In this episode of the CX Iconoclast, Richard Owen hosts Kevin O’Meara, a supply chain expert and head of business transformation at Shaw Industries.  After discussing Kevin’s transition from military to commercial life, the conversation moves to supply chain logistics, where Kevin underscores its evolution from a cost-cutting focus to a competitive weapon for companies. He attributes this shift t...

In this episode of the CX Iconoclast Podcast, host Richard Owen welcomes guest Chris Gopal, a renowned global supply chain expert. Chris shares his insights on the challenges faced by companies in managing their supply chains and how AI and analytics can enhance predictability and mitigate risk. Chris Gopal’s extensive experience in supply chain management includes leading the corporate transforma...

In this podcast, Joe Wheeler, Richard Owen, and Maurice FitzGerald discuss the evolution of customer experience. Wheeler, author of ‘The Digital-First Customer Experience’, highlights how AI and machine learning drive growth and scalability in companies like Spotify and Lemonade. The trio explores the economic implications of AI in businesses, balancing cost reduction and job creation, and the imp...

Is customer success indeed dead? That’s just one of the questions answered during this discussion. (Spoiler alert: it may well be dying at your company.) Join host Richard Owen and Chris Adlard, co-author of ‘The Customer Catalyst’, as they discuss the essence of customer transformation. Chris introduces us to the ‘C-change diagnostic’, a tool that companies can use to evaluate their CX progress a...

In this podcast featuring Sean Albertson, a call center expert and author of '4ROCKS', host Richard Owen explores the dynamics of customer experience and business challenges. Sean's four metaphorical rocks—Sedimentary, Metamorphic, Igneous, and Meteoric—symbolize layers of complexity, organizational changes, unexpected events, and external factors affecting customer struggles.   The...

Das Narayandas is the Edsel Bryant Ford Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. In this engaging podcast hosted by Richard Owen, Das reflects on their early connection and dives into decades of B2B client relationship expertise. Das shares insights from his groundbreaking marketing dissertation, emphasizing the nuances of long-term supplier-customer dynamics. The conve...

In this insightful podcast with host Richard Owen, Joe Pinto reflects on his years at Cisco and the transition to his role as Chief Customer Experience Officer at Pure Storage. Moving from Cisco to Pure, Joe notes the significant size difference and praises Pure's CEO for championing Customer Success. Managing the challenge of maintaining high NPS during rapid growth, Joe highlights Pure&apos...

CX Iconoclasts are people who break with tradition by bringing new ideas and new ways of doing things to our attention. These short extracts from the full discussions set out some fascinating marketing-centric views on the future of customer experience strategies and tactics. Richard Owen’s three guests in this video are the famous marketing cartoonist Tom Fishburne, marketing veteran Andy Lark, a...

CX Iconoclasts are people who break with tradition by bringing new ideas and new ways of doing things to our attention. These short extracts from the full discussions cover some great sales and marketing views on the future of customer experience strategies and tactics in the digital age. Richard Owen’s four guests in this short video are: Bill Binch - Former sales & marketing leader at Market...

CX Iconoclasts are people who break with tradition by bringing new ideas and new ways of doing things to our attention. Join us in this captivating episode as we explore the remarkable journey of Chris Bishop, Chief Customer Officer at Conga, a trailblazer in revenue lifecycle management software.  From Advocacy to Data Science Mastery: Conga's Evolution Chris unfolds his five-year odyssey at...

2023 was a great year for our CX Iconoclast podcast Richard Owen interviewed many business leaders, and we have picked out some highlights in these short videos. You will get interesting and entertaining advice in these clips from Mark Templeton (Citrix), David Tudehope (Macquarie Telecom), Tom Monahan (CEB), and Steve Byrne (Travel Counsellors). Richard is of course a CX industry veteran and neve...

CX Iconoclasts are people who break with tradition by bringing new ideas and new ways of doing things to our attention. Where better to find such thinking than from major thought leaders and academics, who do not have to live with the restrictions imposed by quarterly business targets and results. These short extracts from the full discussions set out some fascinating views on the future of custom...

Today, we sit down with Joe Wheeler, the author of the insightful book “The Digital First Customer Experience.” We dive deep into the design strategies used by top brands like NIKE, Amazon, and Starbucks, and how these strategies have evolved to meet the demands of an increasingly digital marketplace. Highlights: Insights from “The Digital First Customer Experience”: 1. Discussion about the book a...

Today's conversation explores several key themes, including the intensely personal nature of B2B relationships, the impact of generative AI on the buying process, and the many changing roles in today's corporate landscape. Richard Owen, Liam Fahey and Ralph Oliva delve into the evolving nature of B2B marketing within various industries, particularly those facing competition from innovati...

Have you ever experienced something like “marketing funnel vision?” Been trapped in a “sub-silo?” Feared a case of “data-blindness?” What a relief to laugh at the challenges of business, which is what cartoonist Tom Fishburne helps us do.  Tom Fishburne took an unconventional career path, which might be true of all cartoonists. He started cartooning as a child and continued through his time at Har...

Why do only software companies and drug dealers call their customers “users”? Has “CX washing” diluted to overall impact of CX in the business world? Why do so many acquisitions fail to consider the customer experience? And could OCX Cognition really be in pursuit of the “holy grail” of CX? Just a few of the questions our guest, former Citrix CEO Mark Templeton, discusses in this episode. Everybod...

Our guest Steve Byrne would almost certainly not have a business to run if it weren’t for the differential power of the customer experience. He’s the CEO of Travel Counsellors, a company that works hard to live by its own rules and to do right by every person involved in its value chain – customers, employees, and partners.  Steve had a lot to say about how he approaches these interconnected oblig...

Our guests today are business partners and academic collaborators: Peter Fader and Daniel McCarthy. Their entrepreneurial and academic pursuits are intertwined in interesting ways. On the entrepreneurial side, they co-founded a predictive analytics firm, called Zodiac, that they sold to Nike in 2018, and now they are co-founders and directors of Theta, a predictive customer value analytics company...