Jörg is driving Innovation and Digitization for one of Europe’s most successful E-Commerce companies based in Germany. His favorite topics are IoT, Smart Home and Conversational Commerce. He founded a fishing mail order company in 1999 and since then loves E-Commerce, Marketing and Digitization since that time..

In this episode we talk about technology and tech innovation. Jörg shares his experience of visiting IFA Berlin and we talk about e-commerce innovation in corporations and the challenges of the German culture for innovation.

In this episode I let the listener look into my big list of things I have written down during the last 20 years that I did not like about how people lead me.

I call this list how I will not lead. I am looking at this list at least once per year to remind myself about all the topics.

Topics I cover:

I will not micromanage my team

I will not jump in and solve every problem

I will not be a tank / asshole

I will not let people “hurt” me in public

I will not be the grumpy manager

I will not shout at others

I will not type while a person talks to me

I will not blame my team members in public

I will not talk negative about people behind their back

I will not wait to long to take decisions

Natalie is an experienced innovation specialist having spent over 25 years working as a corporate innovation director, a business consultant and entrepreneur. She has worked for and consulted with some of the world’s leading organizations including Cisco Systems, GSK, LEO Pharma Asia, Edgewell, and the Singapore Government, helping them build innovation systems, culture and capabilities as well as generating new ideas to help them grow their teams and businesses.

As Founder of The Entheo Network, based out of Singapore, she has made her passion for purpose and people driven innovation practical as well as inspirational to elevate people’s thinking on not only what they can create, but how - the mind, skill sets and cultural environments - that make everyday innovation happen.

The topic of the episode: Corporate Innovation - How to build an innovation team?

• Questions I answered in the live show:

• What is the right org setup for innovation?

• How do I find the right people for innovation?

• Do I need to lead innovators differently?

• How do I train people to innovate?

Adam is the founder of Treehouse Innovation, a London-based innovation consultancy. He specializes in collaborative design, innovation, design thinking, creativity and cross-boundary collaboration. He has led numerous innovation projects and design events for global organizations across sectors. In addition, he has designed and delivered learning programmes with leading business schools including Cambridge University, Imperial College London, Rice University and others.

He is the author/co-author of several published works (IBA, Managing Partner, CIPD, Others) focused on strategy, innovation, and learning with special focus on the professional services industries.

The topic of the episode: Corporate Innovation - How can human innovation change business results?

Questions I answered in the live show:

Because of covid it is all about saving costs right now in our company. How can I still innovate?

Everyone talks about innovation in our company but all we do are small improvements rather than real innovation. How to change that?

I am a new leader in an organization and responsible for +100 people. How do I motivate people that are long term in the company to innovate themselves?

How could I measure our innovation efforts differently? I am working in finance administration and am responsible for producing the weekly reports. How can we measure innovation?

I don’t have an innovation question but hope you can help me. I am working in a large organization and would like to hire a new person but don’t have the head count. How can I get a new headcount approved?

I am a manager with 5 direct reports, 5k employee company. My manager has no idea how to lead people. He is micromanaging me and the other managers. I am considering leaving the company but want to give it another last try, any idea what I could do?

Steve Hill is Commercial Director at Auticon UK, a unique, multinational IT consultancy and social enterprise, which exclusively employs autistic adults as IT consultants. Previously Steve was Business Strategy & Development Director within the Predictive Analytics and IoT sector of McLaren Applied, leading the strategy around “Intelligent Fleet” and "Intelligent Operations" as part of the Intelligent Transport programme.

HIQA - Human Innovation Questions Answered

The topic of today’s episode is: Corporate Innovation - How to engage the organizational silos?

Questions I answer in the show:

What can I do as a leader in mid management to encourage my team to work better with other teams when innovating?

Other departments work against us, how do I turn this around as a leader?

The other departments (marketing and Finance) are not supporting the innovation efforts despite that it is a clear goal in our company strategy. What can I do as a leader?

Our innovation team works a lot but we don’t get recognized from the organization. What should we do to improve ourselves?

Matthew Hunt, founder of Automation Wolf, helps busy CEO’s to scale their business leveraging invisible automated marketing funnels. We talk about personal branding, the power of linkedin and relationship building and he shares how he helps busy CEO’s to build a system for success.

Ocean Jangda Urban Technologist world traveler and passionate about Real Estate and City Development.

Ocean shared his personal story living in different spaces and we explored technology development in urban design and the impact of it. We talk about cycling and the innovation district in Barcelona.

Jimmy Burroughes The Expert for ways of working helps leaders to change and nurture the culture.

Jimmy shares his story from his leadership development inside the Army and we explore leadership from different angles. We talk about leadership training, leadership culture and performance.

Niraj Kapur, LinkedIn top Voice in Sales, Trusted Sales Coach and LinkedIn Trainer joined me to connect the dots of innovation and entrepreneurship. Niraj shares sales advice for startups on how they can use LinkedIn and the importance of relationship management.

Lemuel Lasher International Executive, Investor, CEO of Boehme Eckhart LCC and Chairman of the Board of LEO - Leading Edge Only joined me to connect the dots of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Lem shared his story being Chief Innovation Officer at CSC, the setup, structure and how he changed the innovation culture in CSC. We talk about how he is helping organizations to innovate and the 4 critical questions he is asking before he agrees to support a company. Furthermore we talked about LEO and the opportunities of a true global innovation marketplace. And last but not least he shares a dirty little secret about innovation.

Marina Specht CEO of McCann WorldGroup Spain. She spent the first half of her career as an entrepreneur, building a successful branded content agency. The last 15 years she focused on digital marketing, data strategy and digital business transformation, driving innovation and bottom line growth for Fortune 500 companies

Marina was awarded:

#Ad Age Women to Watch 2016

#PWC Women to Watch 2017-18

#Top 100 Leading Women Spain 2021

Marina shared her story and the superpower behind her success, and of course we talked about the innovation and changes in marketing and businesses over the last decades.

HIQA - Human Innovation Questions Answered

The topic of today’s episode is: How do I manage stakeholders - the human way?

Questions I cover in the show:

• How do I manage stakeholders - the human way?

• How to map stakeholders - the human way?

• Why should you build a relationship with your stakeholders to innovate?

• How to collaborate with stakeholders - the human way?

Andrew Dupy Chief Relationship Officer at Leaders Press, Author of the Book Don't buy the watch, joined me to connect the dots of innovation and entrepreneurship

Andrew shared his story, how he wrote his book and we explored the process of writing a book with the Leaders Press and the great potential for entrepreneurs.

HIQA - Human Innovation Questions Answered

The topic of today’s episode is: How to empower people to innovate?

Questions I cover in the show:

• How to transform a business the human way?

• How to lead a business transformation the human way?

• How to communicate a transformation the human way?

• How to involve employees in a business transformation the human way?

• How to ensure long term success in a business transformation the human way?

Sid Mofya, Executive Director at Draper Venture Network - a global alliance of our member funds, who are present on all continents, former Kauffman Fellow and musician joined me to connect the dots of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Sid shared his story growing up in Sambia living in the UK and Tanzania before moving to Silicon Valley. We talk about which problems startups should solve, how startup founders develop, funding of startups and dive a bit into education and music.

HIQA - Human Innovation Questions Answered

The topic of today’s episode is: How to empower people to innovate?

Questions I cover in the show:

• How to empower people to innovate?

• How to delegate to innovate?

• How to build trust to innovate?

• How to collaborate to innovate?

• How to support personal and professional growth to innovate?

HIQA - Human Innovation Questions Answered

The topic of today’s episode is: What is the magic zone in human innovation?

Questions I cover in the live show:

What is the magic zone in human innovation?

Why do you call it the magic zone?

How does the magic zone play a role in my human innovation system?

How can I lead in the magic zone?

How do I engage with the community with the magic zone?

How do I impact a business with the magic zone?