S1 Episode 15: The Future of Disruptive Thinking with Nicole Yershon

Do you think disruptively? In this episode we spoke with self-described "Rough Diamond", Nicole Yershon about what it means to think like a disruptor and how disruption can be turned into an advantage.

Nicole is not new to disruption. When Nicole joined Ogilvy in 2000 she was given the simple brief of “bringing the agency into the 21st century”.

She achieved this by building relationships with third party suppliers and embracing new technologies that saw Ogilvy digitise some 10,000 tapes of adverts dating back to the 1950s. 

Nicole later went on to be the founding partner of Ogilvy’s London Digital Innovation Lab – the dedicated Innovation unit of Ogilvy & Mather Group where she worked with brands such as Amex, IBM, BP, Selfridges, Unilever, BA and Wetherspoons. She’s also famous for her “black book” of leading suppliers.

In 2016 she founded the NY Collective with a mind to remove the traditionally opaque practices of consulting and marketing agencies.

We spoke about topics such as:

• Turning disruption into an advantage
• Why we need disruptors in any business
• The prayers, players and stayers
• The Ogilvy Lab Rats and Lab days
• Measuring the impact of disruption
• Can disruptors be made or are they born?
• How a “black book” of suppliers became a community
• 3 Things for next week 
• Be curious
• Get outside your comfort zone
• Be authentic