TRIUM Connects

Search Amazon for the word ‘innovation’ in its ‘Business, Finance & Accounting’ book section, and you will find more than 60,000 volumes. The trick is finding stuff worth reading in this deep and wide ocean of material. The new book, Ideaflow: Why Creative Businesses Win, by Jeremy Utley and Perry Klebahn is just such a book. I welcomed Jeremy to this episode of TRIUM Connects to discuss the book as well as his general views on creativity and innovation. In the book, Jeremy and Perry argue that we shouldn’t think of innovation as an event, a workshop, a sprint or a hackathon…but rather as a more general capability that can be learnt and is relevant to everyone. Their core principle is that you need ideas to solve problems – in contrast to completing tasks where you just need to get on with the work. But, instead of obsessing over quality, successful innovators focus on the generation of many ideas. Volume is key. Once you have a sufficient volume, then you run quick and cheap experiments to gather more information, revise and test again. Jeremy knows what he is talking about. He is one of the world's leading experts in innovation. As the Director of Executive Education at Stanford's renowned Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (aka "the d.school"). His courses [K1] have been experienced by nearly a million students of innovation worldwide. He advises corporate leaders on how to embed[K2]  the methods and mindsets of design thinking into their organizations, and works with professionals to cultivate a robust personal creative practice. He also co-hosts the "Stanford Masters of Creativity," program where Jeremy shines the spotlight on exemplars of creative practice across disciplinary boundaries.What makes Ideaflow a great book, and what I really enjoyed in my conversation with Jeremy, is the concrete, actionable innovation practices described and the fact that they are backed up by solid research and evidence. I hope you enjoy the conversation!Cited WorkMcKeown, Greg (2015) Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. Virgin Books.Koestler, A. (2014) The Act of Creation. One 70 Press.Lotto, B. (2017) Deviate: The Creative Power of Transforming your Perception. Weidenfeld & Nicolson.Lucas, B.J. & Nordgren, L.F. (2020) ‘The creative cliff illusion,’ Psychological and Cognitive Sciences: Volume 117 (33), pp 19830-19836.Mackinnon, D. W. (1962). The personality correlates of creativity: A study of American architects. In G. Nielson (Ed.), Proceedings of the XIV International Congress of Applied Psychology. Vol. 2. Personality research (pp. 11–39). Munksgaard.Randolph, M. (2021) That will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life on an Idea. Endeavour.

We have all become aware how important data is as everything becomes more digitalised. Data is everywhere – nearly our every moment and movement is recorded and stored. Connected devices offer more and more convenience. Our cars exchange information with our phones, which exchange information with our smart houses, which exchange information with our home computers,… and on and on. Without the digital exchange of information our personal and professional lives have become practically impossible. To be ‘disconnected’ is not really an option for most. But, the more connected we are, the more nodes in our network, the more we rely on digital exchanges, the more we are susceptible to cybercrimes.My guest for this episode, to discuss all things cybersecurity, is Todd Wade. Todd is a chief information security officer with over 20 years of experience working with cybersecurity and technology and the author of the recently published book, Cybercrime: Protecting your business, your family and yourself.He has led the information security departments for multiple financial services and technology organisations. He is passionate about championing cyber risk governance and empowering organisations to protect themselves against cybercriminals.Todd has worked with leading information security organisations like the Information Security Forum and Chartered Institute of Information Security and is currently an advisor to several cybersecurity start-ups, including the Cyber Risk Management Group and Scapien. And last, but certainly not least, he is a member of the Class of 2009 of TRIUM!Cited Work:Wade, T. (2022) Cybercrime: Protecting Your Business, Your Family and Yourself. London: BCS Learning and DevelopmentWhite, G. (2022) The Lazarus Heist: Based on the No 1 Hit Podcast. London: Penguin Business

We are at the start of a time when humans will be able to program cells and organisms in analogous ways to which we now program computers. Our technology and understanding of the basic structures of life, augmented by computer simulations driven by AI, are driving breakthrough innovations at an ever-increasing rate.What will this mean for us all? It could mean the end of most diseases and the actual process of aging. I could mean that the current existential risks of climate change and bio-diversity collapse could be removed. It could also mean that our exposure to the existential risks of bioterrorism grows exponentially. I could mean a radical new social class structure based on different access to, and use of human ability enhancements will generate political upheaval and violence. What is inarguably true, is that advances in our understanding and ability to manipulate biological systems will disrupt business, governance, culture and geopolitics in fundamental ways. This may not happen this year, or next, but make no mistake, the challenges are coming.Amy Webb, my guest for this episode, believes we desperately need to start these conversations now, while we still have some time to shape what the future will hold. Amy’s, and her co-author Andrew Hessel’s book, The Genesis Machine: Our Quest to Rewrite Life in the Ague of Synthetic Biology, is a wonderful, guided tour of synthetic biology’s past, present, and likely future. It is also a catalyst to the discussion about how we balance the risks and amazing promise of these innovations. As Amy says, the best way to understand this technology is that it gives us options which we have never had – how we choose amongst those options is what we need to think about now.Amy is a quantitative futurist and is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the New York University Stern School of Business. Her research focuses on strategic foresight and using data to model probable, plausible and possible scenarios for the future. She was named to the Thinkers50 Radar list of the 30 management thinkers most likely to shape the future of how organizations are managed and won the prestigious 2017 Thinkers50 RADAR Award for her research and work in strategic foresight. She is also the CEO and founder of the Future Today Institute, a leading strategic foresight and future forecasting firm that researches emerging technology on behalf of Fortune 500 and Global 1000 companies, government agencies and financial institutions around the world. In addition to being a best-selling author of multiple books, Amy’s future forecasting work has been featured in the New York Times, Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review and more.It was an absolute pleasure to discuss with Amy the issues raised in her book. It is unsurprising that so many people and organisations turn to her when they want a view of what our possible futures may be! Her knowledge is deep and her ability to communicate is exceptional – I hope you enjoy the conversation! Citations Bostrom, N. (2019) ‘The Vulnerable World Hypothesis,’ Global Policy 10:4.The Boys. Developed the Amazon Prime Video by Eric Kripke, based on a comic book of the same name, written by Garth Ennis and Darick Roberson.Huxley, A. (1932) Brave New World. Chatto and Windus.Niccol, A.(Director) (1998) Gattaca. Columbia Pictures and Jersey Films.Severance. Created by Dan Erickson, Apple TV+Webb, A. (2019) The Big Nine: How Tech Titans and Their Thinking Machines Could Warp Humanity. New York: Public Affairs.Webb, A. (2022) The Genesis Machine: Our Quest to Rewrite Life in the Age of Synthetic Biology. New York: Public Affairs.