Human Innovation
Human Innovation explores leadership at the intersection of decisions, responsibility, and scale.
Hosted by Jens Heitland, CEO of Heitland Media Group and former Global Head of Innovation at IKEA Centres, the show features long-form conversations with CEOs and senior leaders from international organizations.
Each episode focuses on how leaders think, decide, and navigate complexity, not just what they have built. The conversations move beyond surface-level success stories to examine judgment, trade-offs, and the human realities of leadership at scale.
© All Content - Human Innovation Podcast - Produced by Heitland Media Group
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EP272: Scott Murphy on Building an E-Bike Company Through Community
In this episode of the Human Innovation Podcast, Jens Heitland speaks with Scott Murphy, co-founder of Clover, an e-bike subscription company in Valencia that offers unlimited battery swapping through an asset-light model in which the company owns none of its bikes. Scott shares how a planned sabbatical in Spain turned into Fin, a sustainable last-mile logistics startup in London, how investor pitching has changed since 2021, why he treats rejection as a necessary part of the founder journey, and how a teenage habit of applying every week to a local TV station shaped his persistence.
The conversation also covers co-founder leadership, the principle of praising in public and correcting in private, how community has carried Clover’s growth on a small budget, and where urban mobility is heading as car ownership becomes harder to justify in European cities.
EP271: Sandra Silva: Growth Through Discomfort
Sandra Silva, CEO of Veolia Portugal, joins Jens Heitland on the Human Innovation Podcast to talk about how leaders grow through uncomfortable moments, why a manager once told her to make herself dispensable, and how Veolia builds that thinking into its trainee program, its employee shareholder model, and its approach to new managers.
The conversation also covers ecological transformation across water, energy, and waste; the growing importance of resource sovereignty in Europe; and how Veolia is piloting full automation, with HR involved from the start, to protect the human skills efficiency could otherwise remove.
EP270: Jeff Helfgott on the Real Risks of Owning a Franchise
Jeff Helfgott of Boardroom Salon for Men joins Jens Heitland to discuss franchising, the real risks of small business ownership, mentorship, and how technology is changing location-based businesses.
EP269: Stephen Brooks on Entrepreneurship, AI and Culture
Stephen Brooks joins Jens Heitland on the Human Innovation Podcast to discuss entrepreneurship, AI adoption in small and large businesses, and why culture is always set at the top. Drawing on 38 years in business and his new book : “The £10 Business Tool Box: An Entrepreneur's Guide”.
Stephen explains why every venture should start with a clear problem, why failure becomes the foundation of lasting success, and why there is no such thing as an overnight success.
EP268: The Real Challenge Starts After the Training Ends with Amit Kasliwal
Amit Kasliwal, founder of Dehurdle and former Ford India leader, joins Jens Heitland on networking, reinvention, AI voice simulation and practice after training.
EP267: Building Community Into Every Business
Julia Wagner started investing in real estate before most people start their careers, and now runs a coworking space and software company across Europe.
In this episode, she talks with Jens Heitland about long-term thinking, community, and why Europe needs to build its own technology.
EP266: Ben Timpson: The ROI of Communication
Ben Timpson spent thirteen years in the Royal Navy before building a communication practice for CEOs and their teams. In this conversation, he and Jens Heitland discuss what military briefing culture reveals about gaps in how businesses prepare their leaders.