Agile Innovation Leaders

Visit www.agileinnovationleaders.com for the full episode shownotes (including interview transcript and bonus resources - free chapter of Where to Play and Navigator worksheets). Guest Bio: Dr. Marc Gruber is full professor at the College of Management of Technology at EPFL where he holds the Chair of Entrepreneurship and Technology Commercialization (ENTC) and was Vice President for Innovation at EPFL in the 2017-2021 presidency period. Marc also acted as Associate (2013-2016) and as Deputy Editor (2017-2020) at the Academy of Management Journal (AMJ), the highest ranked empirical research journal in the management domain. Furthermore, Marc is co-author of the book "Where to Play: 3 Steps for Discovering Your Most Valuable Market Opportunities", which introduces the Market Opportunity Navigator – a practical business tool that was recently added to the 'Lean Startup' toolset by Steve Blank and is used by tens of thousands of startups and established firms to improve their capabilities in opportunity identification and new wealth creation. Marc Gruber joined EPFL in the fall of 2005 coming from the Munich School of Management, University of Munich (LMU), where he held the position as vice-director of the Institute of Innovation Research, Technology Management and Entrepreneurship (INNOtec) and established the LMU's Center for Entrepreneurship. He has held several visiting scholar posts at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, where he conducts research on technology commercialization and entrepreneurship. He is also a visiting professor at the Business School of Imperial College, London. Marc has published his research on innovation, strategy and entrepreneurship in several leading journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, Management Science, Strategic Management Journal, and the Journal of Business Venturing. In an independent research study on the most impactful entrepreneurship scholars (Gupta et al., 2016), Marc was ranked as the worldwide #1 researcher in entrepreneurship for the 2005-2015 period (shared #1 spot), and among the worldwide top 5 for the 2000-2015 period. Beyond his research work, he is currently authoring a textbook on technology commercialization and was the co-editor of a textbook on entrepreneurship as well as a regular contributor to a weekly column on entrepreneurship in the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung". Marc Gruber received a doctorate from the University of St. Gallen (UNISG) in 2000. In spring 2005, he received a venia legendi from the Munich School of Management (LMU) for his habilitation thesis on marketing in new ventures. Websites/ Resource URLs Where to Play website: https://wheretoplay.co/ Download WhereToPlay_Part1_Sample Chapter pdf here Download Navigator and Worksheets here Steve Blank's Blog on Flyability https://steveblank.com/2019/05/07/how-to-stop-playing-target-market-roulette-a-new-addition-to-the-lean-toolset/ Steve Blank's Blog on the Market Opportunity Navigator https://steveblank.com/2020/06/23/winners-rising-out-of-the-crisis-where-to-find-new-markets-and-customers/ Scott Shane's article on Prior Knowledge and the Discovery of Entrepreneurial Opportunities https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/orsc.11.4.448.14602 MIT articles on commercializing 3D printing: http://meche.mit.edu/news-media/new-era-3d-printing https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/innovation-lessons-from-3-d-printing/ Marc Gruber contact/ social media: Email: [email protected] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbgruber/ Twitter: @MarcBGruber Books/ Resources: Where to Play: 3 Steps to Discovering Your Most Valuable Market Opportunities by Marc Gruber and Sharon Tal Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Products That Win by Steve Blank The Startup Owner's Manual: The Step by Step Guide for Building a Great Company by Steve Blank and Bob Dorf The Lean Startup: How Constant Innovation Creates Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers by Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur Value Proposition Design: How to Create Products and Services Customers Want by Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur The End of Competitive Advantage: How to Keep Your Strategy Moving as Fast as Your Business by Rita Gunther McGrath The Theory of the Growth of the Firm by Edith Penrose The Entrepreneurial Mindset: Strategies for Continuously Creating Opportunity in an Age of Uncertainty by Rita McGrath and Ian MacMillan Related podcast episodes Steve Blank (Episode 1): http://podcast.agileinnovationleaders.com/website/1-steve-blank-on-the-need-for-innovation-showing-up-and-learning-from-failure Alex Osterwalder (Episode 3): http://podcast.agileinnovationleaders.com/website/s1e003-alex-osterwalder-on-the-3-characteristics-of-invincible-companies-and-how-he-stays-grounded-as-a-leader Sharon Tal (Episode 6): http://podcast.agileinnovationleaders.com/website/s1e005-sharon-tal-on-how-to-iden

Bio: William Korsinah is a leader, Agile Coach, trainer, and consultant with sound commercial skills and business acumen. With experience gained from the Ministry of Defence (MOD), public and private sectors and exposure across strategy, portfolio, product and project lifecycle, from initiation to close, he has the ability to effectively promote organisational objectives to a range of audiences and inspire stakeholders. William is the Founder and Director of Lean Icon Technology and Training Ltd, an organisation with a presence in Ghana and the UK specialising in: Agile Project Management & Delivery Strategy & Business Planning, Effective Communication, Stakeholder Management Team Formation & Development CRM, Process Engineering Business reports and data Insight Training and Coaching. Website/ Contact/ Social Media: Email: [email protected] Website: www.leanicontechnology.co.uk LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/williamkorsinah/ Twitter: @william.korsinah Books: The 1-Page Marketing Plan: Get New Customers, Make More Money and Stand Out From the Crowd by Allan Dib The 7 Habits of Highly-Effective People by Stephen R. Covey How to Have a Good Day: The Essential Toolkit for a Productive Day at Work and Beyond by Caroline Webb Leading Change by John P. Kotter Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers and Challengers by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur Resources Mentioned: Scaled Agile Framework (big picture) https://www.scaledagileframework.com/ Portfolio Canvas https://www.scaledagileframework.com/portfolio-vision/?_ga=2.28959996.1785629069.1618711092-789794333.1552987440 Business Model Canvas: https://www.strategyzer.com/canvas/business-model-canvas Alexander Osterwalder episode: http://podcast.agileinnovationleaders.com/website/s1e003-alex-osterwalder-on-the-3-characteristics-of-invincible-companies-and-how-he-stays-grounded-as-a-leader Interview Transcript: 00:00 Ula: 00:04 Hello and welcome to the Agile Innovation Leaders podcast. I'm Ula Ojiaku. On this podcast, I speak with world-class leaders and doers about themselves and a variety of topics spanning agile, lean innovation, business, leadership and much more – with actionable take-aways for you, the listener. My guest for this episode is William Korsinah. William is the Founder and Director of Lean Icon Technology and Training, an organisation with a presence in Ghana and the UK. He is an Agile Coach, Trainer and Consultant and his motto is 'Never stop learning because life never stops teaching'. I enjoyed speaking with William about his background (including his time with the British Army). We also touched on a few agile frameworks and his view on value delivery using the Scaled Agile Framework. Without further ado ladies and gentlemen, my conversation with William Korsinah. Enjoy!! Thank you very much for joining us, William Korsinah. Could you tell us a bit more about yourself? Who is William Korsinah? William: 01:15 Thank you, Ula, for inviting me. It's an absolute pleasure for me to be on air with you. Myself, I'm a training Agile Consultant, and a Coach who's been working with organizations for the last five years. Prior to that, I worked as a Product Director for a company based in Bristol, went on to work for One Housing as a Business Analyst and Consultant within an agile team. And I worked as a strategy analyst and I served in the army. All these experiences I bring to the table when I'm sharing on Agile and how organizations should take on change at different stages of their transformation lifecycle. Ula: 01:57 You told me you had been in the army. Can you tell us what made you to sign up in the first place, and what was your experience? William: 02:05 So, when I finished Uni in Ghana, I had two options: whether to join my dad in his shipping business, or to follow my friends who were having a good time in the army. And I think youthful exuberance led me to sign on to the British Army. I look back on it as a great experience, having this passage regiments in Colchester, and all those experiences helped drive the way I approach things today. So, the Army's been a good experience. I could have joined dad in his business but I think the army was the right choice at that point in time. Ula: 02:43 And how long did you stay in the army? William: 02:44 For four and a half years, I served for four and a half years. Yeah. Ula: 02:48 Wow! I did have thoughts about joining the military. Because in Nigeria, I did my first degree in Nigeria, and I graduated with a degree in Electronic Engineering. And there is a mandatory paramilitary training graduates are expected to go through in Nigeria - the National Youth Service Corps. I found out that on doing that, you know, the first few weeks of joining the Corps, you went through drills and early morning jogging and all those... I really quite enjoyed it and I thought maybe I should I join the army. But I think other things called... But how do you think

"Make the days count…" Bio: Jane Egerton-Idehen is the Head of Sales for Facebook Middle East and Africa (MEA). Prior to that she was the Country Manager, Nigeria, and Regional Sales Manager, West Africa at Avanti Communications Group Plc (a satellite company). She is a Master's degree holder from Warwick Business School, UK and an Executive Education from Harvard Business School and Yale School of Management. In 2019 she received the 50 Leading Ladies in Corporate Nigeria Leadership award. In 2021 she was featured as one of the Change Makers by University of Warwick. Her passion is seeing women like herself fulfilling their purpose, growing their careers. She has a history of promoting girls in STEM (science, technology engineering and mathematics). This can be traced to her undergraduate days when, as a member of the International institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers (IEEE), she co-founded IEEE Women In Engineering Nigeria. A quintessential extrovert, Jane enjoys golf, cycling, and salsa. She is married to Egerton Idehen and they have a son, Asher and a daughter, Sarah, who inspires Jane to continue to push for diversity in male-dominated fields. -- Complete show notes available here: www.agileinnovationleaders.com -- Guest website/ contact/ social media: Website: https://janeegerton.com/ Email: [email protected] Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jane.egertonidehen Instagram & Twitter: @nk_amadi LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jane-egerton-idehen-6716a39/?originalSubdomain=ng Authors (and books) mentioned*: Be Fearless: Give Yourself Permission to be You by Jane Egerton-Idehen Becoming by Michelle Obama Political Risk: How Businesses and Organisations Can Anticipate Global Insecurity by Condoleezza Rice and Amy B. Zegart Beloved by Toni Morrison Blink: The Power of Thinking By Not Thinking by Malcom Gladwell Interview Transcript: Ula: 01:49 So, I have with me a very special guest that I'm very excited to introduce. She is a Tech Executive, an author and also a speaker - Jane Egerton-Idehen. Welcome! Jane: 02:02 Thank you so much. It's good to be on your platform and on your show. Ula: 02:08 My pleasure. Now I know that my listeners will be excited to hear your story. So, Jane, let's start off with knowing a bit more about you as a person, can you tell us a bit about your childhood? Jane: 02:19 So, I was born the second child of four kids. So, my parents had four of us. I have an older sister and two younger brothers – so, yeah kind of in the middle. The middle kids is kind of… sometimes ignored… because either people focus on the first ones to make them role models, or on the last ones to keep them together. But I did have a very interesting childhood. My dad was so driven, he wanted to give us the best education because he was exposed. So, even though he wasn't educated, you know, he was working for companies where he got that exposure like, well, if I give my kids a good education, that'll be good for them. So, there was a huge importance given to education in the whole. We went in like, we're very humble beginnings, we're just people, humble beginnings. But I think some things happened sometime around 1983, that didn't really work out well. So, we really became like, went downward like, now humble beginnings like - we really went down. Because my dad at that time had resigned, he was running a bakery business, and the government had banned the importation of flour. And I think that moment started an evolution for us as kids, because now this is us; we sit at the table and have discussions with our parents about school fees. And they'll be very transparent that they can't afford it. They would they would recommend you go to school, but if the school sends you back then you know, we have to figure it but he can't afford it right now. So, I think that was just the whole awakening, realizing sometime when I was six that, 'wow, this is not as easy as we thought.' But I did love my parents for somehow imbibing that passion back to us. Because it's one thing to desire, you know, good education for your kids, and you can't afford it, is another thing for your kids to buy into that idea and want it for themselves. Somehow, they found a way of selling it to us, and we wanted it for ourselves. So, even… I was fortunate… even though I was living in the slums in Lagos, Nigeria, in a place called Ajegunle. And normally I would have just gone to one of the public schools, which I did go, but I had taken an exam for a government sponsored federal school, which is like a school for the middle class, quite good. It was actually sponsored by the government. So, it's a very good school. Ula: 04:26 The Federal government schools. Yeah, yes. I know that. Yeah. Jane: 04:30 So, after I had taken the exams, even when the names came out, I didn't you know, nobody saw my name. So, you know, I just went on to the public school, which was very depressing. I write about that in my book. It was a depressing si

Episode Summary: In this episode Dr Sharon Tal and I discuss how the book she co-authored with Prof Marc Gruber, 'Where to Play' complements the Lean Start Up movement and Design Thinking. She also explains how the Market Opportunity Navigator could benefit large organisations as well as start-ups. Bio: Dr. Tal helps entrepreneurs and managers identify, evaluate and prioritize market opportunities for their business. Together with Prof Marc Gruber she wrote the book 'Where to Play' to help companies choose a promising strategic focus and move forward with confidence. Dr. Tal is the co-founder and former Executive Director of the Entrepreneurship Center at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, and a Senior Lecturer in Marketing and Entrepreneurship. She runs courses and workshops in accelerators and universities around the world, and serves as a mentor in many organizations that aim to help budding entrepreneurs. Sharon has vast experience in marketing, as she served as a marketing manager for firms in several industries, as well as extensive experience in strategic consulting. Her PhD research looked at market entry decisions of hundreds of startups and its consequences on firm performance and flexibility. Website/ social media: Where to Play website: https://wheretoplay.co/ Sharon's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharon-tal-itzkovitch-a390414a/ Where to Play LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wheretoplay/ Twitter: @WhereToPlayCo Books mentioned in this episode: [NOTE: We currently bear all costs for organising, producing and hosting the podcast series. To help us offset costs, would you consider purchasing the mentioned books via our Amazon affiliate links below? Doing this could give us a commission from Amazon at no extra cost to you. Thank you!] Where to Play: 3 Steps to Discovering Your Most Valuable Market Opportunities by Marc Gruber and Sharon Tal End of Competitive Advantage: How to Keep Your Strategy Moving as Fast as Your Business by Rita Gunther McGrath Seeing Around Corners: How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen by Rita Gunther McGrath The Corporate Startup: How Established Companies Can Develop Successful Innovation Ecosystems by Tendai Viki, Dan Toma & Esther Gons Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Products That Win by Steve Blank The Lean Startup: How Constant Innovation Creates Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers by Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur Value Proposition Design: How to Create Products and Services Customers Want by Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur Building a Story Brand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen by Donald Miller Articles: Steve Blank's Blog on Where to Play https://steveblank.com/2019/05/07/how-to-stop-playing-target-market-roulette-a-new-addition-to-the-lean-toolset/ Steve Blank's 2nd blog on Where to Play: https://steveblank.com/2020/06/23/winners-rising-out-of-the-crisis-where-to-find-new-markets-and-customers/ Interview Transcript: Ula Ojiaku: 01:16 So, we have with us today, Sharon Ta1, who is the co-author of the book Where to Play. Sharon, thank you so much for making the time to be our guest on this podcast. Sharon Tal: 01:28 My pleasure - hi, Ula! Ula Ojiaku: 01:30 Hi! So, let's start! I did a bit of research, you know, just to find out a bit more about you before this conversation and I Googled (the name) Sharon Tal - it seems like it's a very popular name for famous people. So, I saw an actress who is famous and a notable TV producer who used to be with Amazon… What do you think about that? Sharon Tal: 01:53 Actually, that's a unique question Ula - original one. So it's true - Sharon is a very popular Israeli name. I come from Israel, and it's a very popular Israel name, especially for women around my age. The meaning of Sharon is actually a geographical area in Israel. And I've never been the only Sharon in class, university, work, wherever. And of course, there are many others with even the same surname. So, I'm used to some of these confusions by now. Ula Ojiaku: 02:26 Okay, I love the name. And I remember seeing the reference to it for the first time in the Bible, you know - the Rose of Sharon. It has a significant meaning to me as well. Sharon Tal: 02:36 Thank you. Ula Ojiaku: 02:38 You are a very accomplished person, having written the book, the significant work you did with your PhD that culminated in the co-authoring of the book, Where to Play with Professor Marc Gruber. And yet in my limited interaction with you, you come across as a very personable, down to earth person, very easy to communicate with. Can you tell us a bit about your journey so far? How did you get to where you are currently? Sharon Tal: 03:05 Well, first of all, thank you for the warm words. And always nice to hear that other think you are well-accomplished. I started my journey as a Marketing Manager. Bu

Bio: Heather is a social entrepreneur who is passionate about creating communities focused on assets, abilities, and abundance. Heather leads the design and strategy behind Pause for Change, co-hosts the online "talk show" Possibility Project, and speaks at national and local conferences about social impact disruption and innovation. Heather has launched several ventures that benefit the social impact sector, connecting organizations to the training, skills, and resources they need to deepen their impact. What brings Heather to life is teaching and seeing those a-ha moments, and connecting and collaborating with amazing changemakers around the world. Book mentioned: The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth by Amy Edmondson Websites: Pause for Change https://pauseforchange.com/ Possibility Project www.PossibilityProject.org Social Media: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-hiscox-1a61623a/ Twitter: @pausechange Interview Transcript: Ula: [01:12] Heather. Thank you so much for being my guest on the podcast. Heather: [01:15] Thank you. I'm so excited to be here. Ula: [01:18] Yeah - so let's get started! In our pre-recording session you mentioned that you've always wanted to be an entrepreneur since you were a young girl. Can you tell us a bit more about that? Heather: [01:30] Yeah. I didn't know about entrepreneurship. There's no one in my immediate family that were entrepreneurs. And as I got older, I realized that in every job that I was working at, I always wanted to be the head person. I didn't agree with what everyone was doing. And I really wanted everyone to kind of think of a new way to work. And as I got older, I realized like, oh, there is this thing called entrepreneurship. And it's more than small business, right? It's really how you cultivate ideas and how do you solve problems and became really exciting. And entrepreneurship really changed my life. I think my first venture I started about eight years ago, and very empowering to go on your own very scary. It was really great to have that experience, but for me, it gave me the confidence and the skills to really apply that strength and that grit to other parts of my life. So I was able to leave some negative relationships, really have a new vision for my passion and purpose, and put these new skills into action for solving problems: generating revenue, working community, and yeah, entrepreneurship just changed everything for me. Ula: [02:39] Hmm. I do resonate with you in the sense that as a young child also, I always felt like I'd want to own my own thing and build my own thing. And I'm still on that journey, but unlike you, my father was an entrepreneur anyway. So he had his own business and I grew up seeing what it means to be an entrepreneur. So it is interesting Steve Blank in my interview with him mentioned that entrepreneurship is a calling. Now, could you tell us a bit more about your career journey? So you said you've gone into entrepreneurship, but what's your career story so far? Heather: [03:14] Yeah, I like to start it when I was young even I think it's really formative. You know, how we grew up then we grew up with, I grew up with, two very middle-class parents. My dad was an air force guy for decades and was a hurricane Hunter and a meteorologist for the air force. And so a little bit of risk-taking, but lots of practicality and dad was the one that was like, you've got to back up what you say - if you want something you have to state your case. And it's really shocking my sister and I are not attorneys instead of entrepreneurs because we really had to beef up our messaging. And then my mom was a teacher for decades, English as a second language teacher, and really involved in social justice issues and issues for the community. And I think growing up with that practicality, some of that risk-taking was that there was some social impact and social justice really gave me that foundation that I can see has completely been that uniting thread through my life. And I also had the privilege of growing up in a very diverse community, and that was extremely important that it made me understand. And I think it started to build my very early empathy muscle of what it is and what the variety of walks of life are and the variety of experiences. So that was really an important jumping-off point. But my background is a lot of liberal arts. I did my degrees in sociology and African-American studies focused on social inequality and I have a master's in public health, focused on health disparities. And I was actually in clinical research for seven years. I led clinical research studies and cardiology for about half that time and the other half was in skin cancer and melanoma. And so really interesting that, you know, I had this whole science background, but what I love about the research piece is totally connected to entrepreneurship, which is being hypothesis-driven, righ

In this episode, my guest Alex Osterwalder shares 3 common traits you'd expect to find in an invincible company, the back story of how his book Business Model Generation came about from his PhD thesis, how he stays grounded as a leader and much more. You'll need a pen and notepad ready for taking some notes! Bio: Dr. Alexander (Alex) Osterwalder is one of the world's most influential innovation experts, a leading author, entrepreneur and in-demand speaker whose work has changed the way established companies do business and how new ventures get started. Ranked No. 4 of the top 50 management thinkers worldwide, Osterwalder is known for simplifying the strategy development process and turning complex concepts into digestible visual models. He invented the Business Model Canvas, Value Proposition Canvas, and Business Portfolio Map – practical tools that are trusted by millions of business practitioners from leading global companies. Strategyzer, Osterwalder's company, provides online courses, applications, and technology-enabled services to help organizations effectively and systematically manage strategy, growth and transformation. His books include the international bestseller Business Model Generation, Value Proposition Design: How to Create Products and Services Customers Want, Testing Business Ideas, The Invincible Company, and the recently-published High-Impact Tools for Teams. Books/ Articles: The Invincible Company: Business Model Strategies From the World's Best Products, Services, and Organizations by Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur High-Impact Tools for Teams: 5 Tools to Align Team Members, Build Trust, and Get Results Fast by Stefano Mastrogiacomo & Alexander Osterwalder Testing Business Ideas: A Field Guide for Rapid Experimentation by David J. Bland & Alexander Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers by Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur Value Proposition Design: How to Create Products and Services Customers Want by Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur Brain Rules, Updated and Expanded: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home and School by John Medina Article: The Culture Map https://www.strategyzer.com/blog/posts/2015/10/13/the-culture-map-a-systematic-intentional-tool-for-designing-great-company-culture Article: Allan Mulally (former President and CEO, Ford Motor Company) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Mulally Article: Ping An (Banking & Insurance Group/ owner of Medical Platform 'Good Doctor') https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping_An_Insurance Alex's website & social media profiles: Website: https://www.strategyzer.com/ Twitter handle: @AlexOsterwalder LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/osterwalder/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexosterwalder/ Interview Transcript Ula Ojiaku: [00:28] In this episode we have Dr. Alex Osterwalder. To many, he needs no introduction. He is known for his phenomenal work on developing the Business Model Canvas. He has authored or co-authored a growing library of books including Business Model Generation; Value Proposition Design - How to Create Products and Services Customers Want; Testing Business Ideas, and one of the topics we focused on was his book that was released back in 2020, The Invincible Company. Since then, he has released a new book that's titled, Tools for Teams. I must mention though, that some of the references to concepts like travelling around the world may not be relevant in this current COVID-19 pandemic situation. However, the key principles of entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship, innovation, leadership (mentioned in this conversation with Alex), I believe these are still timeless and valid. Anyway, ladies and gentlemen, with no further ado, my conversation with Alex Osterwalder. Ula Ojiaku: [01:49] Thank you, Alex, for joining us. It's an honour to have you on the show. Alex Osterwalder: [01:53] My pleasure. Great be here. Ula Ojiaku: [01:55] Great. So, what would you say is your typical day, typical day in the life of Alex? How does it start? Alex Osterwalder: [02:04] It depends. So, you know, there's two typical days, one typical day is when I travel, and one typical day is when I don't travel, so they're very different - if you want. I probably spend about 50% of my time traveling all across the world talking about innovation, growth and transformation strategies. And then, you know, my day is I wake up, and it's "Oh, what country am I in now?"... And just trying to get the best out of the day and talk to people about growth and transformation. When I don't travel, my typical day is mixed between helping grow and manage, Strategyzer, the company I founded, but also spending a lot of time thinking about how, can we really help business leaders, business doers do a better job, right? So, I spend a lot of time thinking, sketching out things, I wouldn't say writing because when my co-authors and I create some content, it's usually more drawing first and writing after

Bio Entrepreneur-turned-educator, Steve Blank is the Father of Modern Entrepreneurship. Credited with launching the Lean Startup movement, he's changed how startups are built; how entrepreneurship is taught; how science is commercialized, and how companies and the government innovate. Steve is the author of The Four Steps to the Epiphany, The Startup Owner's Manual -- and his May 2013 Harvard Business Review cover story defined the Lean Startup movement. He teaches at Stanford, Columbia, Berkeley and NYU; and created the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps -- now the standard for science commercialization in the U.S. His Hacking for Defense class at Stanford is revolutionizing how the U.S. defense and intelligence community can deploy innovation with speed and urgency, and its sister class, Hacking for Diplomacy, is doing the same for foreign affairs challenges managed by the U.S. State Department. Steve blogs at www.steveblank.com Books/ Resources: Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Products That Win by Steve Blank The Startup Owner's Manual: The Step by Step Guide for Building a Great Company by Steve Blank and Bob Dorf Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers by Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur The Lean Startup: How Constant Innovation Creates Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries Where to Play: 3 Steps to Discovering Your Most Valuable Market Opportunities by Marc Gruber and Sharon Tal Social media profiles: Blog/ website: steveblank.com Twitter handle: @sgblank Steve's students' slides: https://www.slideshare.net/sblank Interview transcript Ula Ojiaku 00:52 So we have Steve Blank, the legend himself. Thank you so much for making the time to join me on the show. Steve Blank 00:59 I'm excited to talk to you and your listeners. This should be fun. Ula Ojiaku 01:03 Definitely. I've listened to other podcasts or shows where you said you grew up in a dysfunctional family and growing up in chaos kind of helped shape you into who you are. And there was some sort of silver lining in that cloud. Can you elaborate on that? How did that shape you into the Steve Blank we see and admire today? Steve Blank 01:22 Sure, you know, my family circumstances, while difficult, aren't unique. I mean, lots of people in the world too wake up and not quite know what's going to go on the next day but I think there's a couple things. One is it makes you focus on survival, and also helps you shut out all the things that are not important for survival. So I grew up not understanding, but actually you did much later in life that when there's chaos around me, I'm able to figure out about what I consider the fog of war, where are we heading, where everybody else is running around, going, Oh, it's confusing, or you know, things are going off around you to kind of go rifle shot in figuring out where the exit is. And it turns out that that's the world's cruelest but most effective training ground for early stage entrepreneur. And that's exactly the physical danger is, it's exactly what a founding CEO encounters the first year to their company. Nothing goes right, everything's unpredictable, things are going on around you yet you need to stay focused on what it is to do and have a bias for action rather than passively sitting around waiting for things to be fixed. And I didn't understand that until I was in a war zone in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. Luckily, I was well away from where people were actually shooting at me but in the Air Force, I got to do things that I never would have gotten to do anywhere else in a civilian life at a very early age. And realize that combined with some other skills I had, which probably were only two. But you know, the other one was I was pretty good at pattern recognition. And then three is I was curious about everything way beyond my paygrade. Four is I showed up a lot, which I think is 80% of what a young entrepreneur needs to do, is show up more than most people. And those are the skills that have lasted me the last 40 years. Ula Ojiaku 03:09 Wow, you've launched about eight companies, and some of them went on to IPO. So how did that quality of showing up help you? Steve Blank 03:19 Showing up a lot, you know, varied throughout my career. But it was consistently being where other people were out drinking or partying or said it's too hard to do, or Gee, I don't want to volunteer for that. And, you know, in the military, the version was working extra hours to help people just because I was interested in what they were doing. And by accident getting noticed, I mean I wasn't trying to get noticed, but I did. The rule was never volunteer for anything but I volunteered for everything. And half of them really were crummy jobs but the other half were incredibly interesting. My entrepreneurial career, my test of whether you're cut out to work these hours is when I was living in Silicon Valley, I often would call people

Bio: Darren has a background in commercial management, being an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers following sixteen years in Retail Banking. This culminated as a Senior Personal Banking Manager within the Guildford Group of Branches, which was comprised of 9 branches and 140 staff. A career change into IT in the late 1990s has led to a number of roles within IT including three Head of Department positions covering the complete spectrum of IT. Also, as an accomplished Project Manager and a Prince2 Practitioner he has a phenomenal record in delivering complex programmes and business transformations and an impressive record of negotiating and implementing multi-million pound contracts including Outsourcing, Off-shoring and ERP systems. He is also a Chartered IT Professional. Darren is now a Director of Radtac, a Global Agile Consultancy Business based in London. In addition, he is DSDM Atern Agile PM Practitioner, APMG Facilitation Practitioner, PRINCE2 Agile Practitioner, Certified Scrum Master, Kanban Practitioner. Darren is an active agile practitioner and coach and delivers training courses in Leading SAFe and more recently, Darren is now a SAFe Fellow, one of about 30 worldwide. He is also a SAFe Program Consultant Trainer (SPCT), contributor to the SAFe Reference Guide 4.5 and founder of the London SAFe Meet-up Group. Finally, he is the Treasurer of BCS Kent Branch and co-founder of the Kent Scrum User Group. Also a co-author of the BCS Book "Agile Foundations – Principles Practices and Frameworks", a reviewer of "Valuing Agile; the financial management of agile projects". Books/ Resources: Tribal Unity by Em Campbell-Pretty Leading Change by John P. Kotter The DevOps Handbook: How to Create World-Class Agility, Reliability, and Security in Technology Organisations by Gene Kim et al Agile Foundations – Principles, Practices and Frameworks y Peter Measey, Darren Wilmshurst and Radtac SAFe Reference Guide 4.5 by Dean Leffingwell SAFe 5.0 Distilled; Achieving Business Agility with the Scaled Agile Framework by Richard Knaster and Dean Leffingwell * NOTE: * As of the time of publishing this episode, the most-current version of SAFe is 5.0 and so I would recommend getting this version. Websites: The Agile Manifesto: https://agilemanifesto.org/ SAFe Principles: https://www.scaledagileframework.com/safe-lean-agile-principles/ Darren's social media profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darren-wilmshurst-89b0931/ Twitter handle (for fellow Arsenal fans!): @dazzawilmshurst Interview Transcript: Ula Ojiaku: [00:27] My guest for this episode is Darren Wilmshurst. He is the director and head of consulting at Radtac. Darren is a Scaled Agile Framework Fellow, an achievement realized by less than 30 people globally. He's also an SPCT - that is, a SAFe Program Consultant Trainer. Darren trained me as an SPC, and I am honored to call him my mentor as well. This episode, be aware, was recorded before the COVID-19 pandemic so parts of our conversation about travel around the world, conducting a big room planning with all team members physically in the same space might not reflect the current pandemic situation as people aren't traveling as much. And of course, there's social distancing in place, and people are working more remotely than ever. The release of this episode coincides with the 20th anniversary of the Agile Manifesto. Darren and I talked about the Agile Manifesto. And in my opinion, the pearls of wisdom that he shared about applying the values and principles are as valid as ever. Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, my conversation with Darren Wilmshurst. Enjoy! Main Interview Ula Ojiaku: [01:51] Thank you so much, Darren, for making the time for this conversation. Darren: [01:55] Real pleasure to join you today. Thank you for inviting me. Ula Ojiaku: [01:58] Darren, why don't you start off by telling us a bit about yourself? Darren: [02:02] Oh, yeah that will be good, I have a probably interesting background. Because I spent 16 years in retail banking, I was a bank manager. And banking was all good until the first week of November 1997. Not that I remember the (exact) date. But that was the date that the bank decided to automate my job. So, some bank managers were really good at lending. Some bank managers are really bad at lending. And they wanted to manage the credit risk to 1% of the portfolio. And they can't do that with individual discretion. So, on that date, everything was credit scored. If you wanted an overdraft, (a) personal loan or mortgage, everything was credit scored. I went from being a bank manager of nine branches and 140 staff to being a sales manager, selling financial products, and not something I really wanted to do. So, I made the entirely logical leap from being a bank manager into IT, because that's where my job got (absorbed). I started off as a business analyst, I did some testing, test management, did project management, and then I joined an outfit called

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