Innovation Storytellers

Why do so many people still picture utilities as dusty infrastructure, monthly bills, and storm alerts, when in reality they sit at the centre of some of the most inventive work happening in our communities today? This question sets the stage for a conversation that opens the door to a world most listeners rarely see. In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I speak with Robb Dussault, Manager of Grid Edge Innovation at Duke Energy, who brings decades of experience in engineering, product development, customer programs, and safety innovation. Robb helps listeners understand how a modern utility actually works and why the future of energy depends on the ideas emerging from teams like his. From early work on hazardous switchgear to the rise of remote sensors, robots, drones, and even autonomous flaggers on road crews, Robb explains how practical questions about safety and reliability often drive innovation. He shares stories about customer research that shifted major programs, the growing influence of agile methods in a traditionally conservative field, and the value of checking every shiny idea against real human behaviour. Listeners also hear how batteries, home energy storage, electric vehicles, and residential demand response are quietly reshaping the grid and changing the relationship between customers and utilities. Robb offers clear insight into how this shift toward interactive energy is accelerating far faster than most people realise. The conversation moves from early memories of intimidating power labs to a thoughtful look at what comes next for communities facing rising demand, new electrification trends, and pressure to deliver cleaner, more affordable energy. Robb shares his hopes for the next wave of innovation, the role of AI in sectors like healthcare, and why innovators in any industry should pay closer attention to customer needs before building ambitious pilots. It is a grounded, eye-opening dialogue that reveals the creativity and responsibility within the utility sector.

What happens when innovation is shaping your life in ways you never see? That is the question at the heart of this conversation with Portia Lane Child, Director of Innovation and Strategy Services at BAE Systems. While most of us recognise the consumer brands that dominate our daily world, far fewer realise how deeply companies like BAE Systems influence the systems that keep us connected, protected, and moving. Portia's work lives in that fascinating space, where advanced engineering meets national mission, and where the innovations you never hear about are often the ones shaping your future. During our discussion, Portia shares how she helps steer innovation inside one of the world's most complex aerospace and defence organisations. She talks about the human side of innovating within a massive enterprise, the challenge of moving ideas across technical and organisational silos, and the lessons she learned growing up as a lobster fisherman's daughter that still guide how she builds teams and champions new ideas. Her story about creating an internal accelerator that changed how the business nurtures ideas is a powerful reminder that innovation only takes root when people feel supported to experiment, communicate, and stretch beyond familiar boundaries. We also explore the shifting incentives shaping today's innovators, from the pressure of short-term financial cycles to the growing importance of longer horizons in the age of AI. Portia opens up about what it really takes to move from idea to impact inside a mission-driven organisation, why customer conversations matter more than ever, and how modern innovators can develop the resilience and curiosity needed to operate in fast-moving technical environments. My guest also shares inspiring reflections on the inventions that shaped her, the role models who sparked her imagination, and the breakthroughs she believes the world needs most.

Susie Braam, former head of innovation at UK national security agencies, shares her groundbreaking insights on risk and secrecy. From her journey in counter-terrorism to innovation, she illustrates how to dismantle institutional silos and make decisions under uncertainty. Susie emphasizes the need for a culture of curiosity and alignment across teams. She also discusses how corporate leaders can embrace probabilistic thinking and harness innovation frameworks, all while reflecting on the often-contrasted portrayal of intelligence work in media.

This week on Innovation Storytellers, I sit down with Robyn Bolton, Founder and Chief Navigator at MileZero, to uncover how one of the most successful household products almost never made it past the boardroom. Before launching her consultancy helping leaders of large companies use innovation to drive consistent growth, Robyn was part of the Procter and Gamble team that created and launched Swiffer, a product that changed how millions clean their homes and reshaped the way corporate innovation is judged. Robyn takes us inside the high-stakes moments at P&G when the data said Swiffer would fail while real-world tests told a completely different story. She describes how passionate storytelling, courage, and evidence from the field ultimately won the day. In that pivotal boardroom, one leader even put his career on the line to ensure the product's launch, proving that innovation is as much about conviction as it is about numbers. We also explore the cultural lessons from Swiffer's global rollout, including why the product thrived in the United States but struggled in Italy, where cleaning was seen as an act of devotion rather than efficiency. Robyn explains how understanding emotional and social context can make or break a global innovation. Her insights extend beyond consumer products to any leader trying to turn bold ideas into scalable reality. In the final part of our conversation, Robyn reflects on her years working with Clay Christensen and why she continues to champion the "Jobs to Be Done" framework. She shares how innovators can use storytelling to connect with hearts and minds, and how companies can equip internal champions to advocate for change. This episode is a masterclass in balancing data with belief, logic with emotion, and vision with timing to bring truly transformative ideas to life.

In this episode of Innovation Storytellers, I sit down with Annalisa Gigante, Vice Chair and Governing Board Member of the Henry Royce Institute, to explore how innovation truly works inside organizations. Annalisa has spent her career turning complex ideas into commercial realities. From helping bring new materials to everyday products like toothbrushes and ski poles to shaping billion-dollar innovation strategies for companies in life sciences, chemicals, and digital technologies, her story is both convenient and inspiring. We begin by tracing her unexpected path into innovation, back when it was still referred to as "business development." She recalls being handed a new material and told to find a market for it. That challenge taught her one of the most powerful lessons in innovation: how to transition from a technology-driven approach to a market-driven one. Annalisa explains how curiosity led her to discover possibilities that her company's engineers had overlooked, opening up new consumer markets and changing how her teams thought about value. It was the beginning of a career spent helping organizations connect invention to impact. Throughout our conversation, Annalisa shares what it takes to create a lasting, innovative culture. She discusses building bridges between R&D and finance, how to measure and manage risk, and why learning to speak the language of every department is crucial. She describes innovation as a living ecosystem that depends on balance. Too much money and comfort can stifle creativity, but too little structure leads to chaos. Finding the "Goldilocks zone" for innovation, she says, is the real work of leadership. We also discuss deep tech and advanced materials, where patient capital and long-term vision are crucial. Annalisa offers a clear-eyed look at how breakthroughs move from the lab to the market and why the same principles apply whether you are scaling a startup or steering a global enterprise. She believes that innovation is as much about mindset as it is about technology, and that the most resilient organizations learn to treat failure as data, not defeat. Before we ended, Annalisa shares her passion for supporting women founders in the healthcare and life sciences sectors. With only a small fraction of funding going to female-led startups, she argues that closing this gap is not only fair but vital to solving the world's most challenging problems. It is a conversation about vision, courage, and the systems that allow great ideas to take root and thrive.

In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I sit down with Jesper Kamp, Regional Director for Europe at Atom Computing, to explore how quantum computing is redefining what's possible in innovation. Jesper and I first met at TechBBQ in Copenhagen, surrounded by thousands of entrepreneurs, scientists, and visionaries. Our conversation picks up where that meeting left off, inside the historic Niels Bohr Institute, where we dive into how this extraordinary technology will change the way we analyze data, design products, and solve the world's biggest challenges. Jesper shares his remarkable journey from diplomacy to deep tech, describing how his twenty-five years at the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs led him to roles in Silicon Valley, China, Turkey, and beyond. Now at Atom Computing, he's helping Europe harness the world's most powerful quantum systems to accelerate discovery and innovation across industries, from pharmaceuticals to materials science. This isn't a technical lecture. It's a conversation about what every innovator, product leader, and entrepreneur needs to know about the quantum era that's arriving faster than most people realize. Jesper explains how quantum and classical computing will soon work hand in hand, why companies must prepare their teams now, and how the next wave of breakthroughs will come from those ready to experiment early. If you've ever wondered how quantum computing will shape your world, this episode will leave you rethinking the future of innovation itself.

What happens when music, art, and technology collide in the hands of a true innovator? In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I sit down with Damian Kulash Jr., frontman and co-founder of OK Go, the Grammy-winning band known for turning creativity into spectacle. From dancing on treadmills to performing in zero gravity, OK Go has redefined what a music video can be, transforming pop songs into visual experiments that blend engineering, art, and unfiltered joy. Damian opens up about the punk roots that shaped his DIY approach to innovation and the thrill of breaking rules in pursuit of authenticity. He reflects on how the band's viral experiments were never about chasing clicks but about creating something so unexpected and so human that it makes people stop and feel wonder again. From silk-screening posters in art school to building massive Rube Goldberg machines in warehouses, his creative journey reveals how experimentation and emotion power real innovation. Together, Damian and I explore how art and technology can amplify empathy, why authenticity resonates more than virality, and how collaboration remains humanity's best innovation. We discuss the parallels between creative risk-taking and corporate invention, the need for radical cooperation in an AI-driven world, and why OK Go's work continues to spark curiosity and connection around the globe. This conversation is full of laughter, honesty, and creative insight, reminding us that innovation does not always come from the lab or the boardroom. Sometimes, it comes from a garage, a camera, and a belief that wonder itself can change the world.

In this week's special Nordic Visionaries episode on the Innovation Storytellers Show, I enjoyed a conversation that started at TechBBQ in Copenhagen and quickly stretched from refugee camps in Kenya to data centers in Norway and boardrooms in Silicon Valley. I sat down with Soulaima Gourani, a Moroccan-Danish entrepreneur now based in Palo Alto, for this special episode supported by the EU Nordic Council of Ministers and the governments of Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland. Soulaima shares how she went from growing up in remote Danish towns and troubled neighborhoods to becoming a VC-backed founder, keynote speaker, and author. She describes a life built on agency and resilience, from leaving home young and navigating early setbacks to discovering flow in a full calendar. Her line that pressure is a privilege sets the tone for a candid look at ambition, stamina, and the choices that shape a founder's path. We unpack her two current ventures, Happioh and Ailo. At Happioh, she is building an AI agent gym and a meeting spam filter that lives in the pre-meeting space, where agendas get fixed, invites improve, and agents are monitored and taken off air the moment they drift. That same scaffolding is supporting a healthcare use case in low-resource settings, where AI can nudge junior clinicians to ask the right questions and auto-complete forms so scarce doctors can see more patients with greater focus. Storytelling runs through the entire discussion. Soulaima breaks down how she learned the language of venture, sharpened her narrative, and raised capital from scores of investors over Zoom. She talks openly about the realities of governance, the discipline of staying forever in beta, and the difference between being busy and being productive. We also explore what the Nordics contribute to global innovation culture, from emotional intelligence and community orientation to the need to think bigger from day one. In the hot seat, she picks the internet as the greatest innovation, dreams about joining a space program, and makes a heartfelt case for curing cancer, noting why AI gives her real confidence that progress will arrive faster than many expect.

In this episode of Nordic Visionaries, I had the chance to sit down with Magnus Egeberg, CEO of Mastercard Payment Services, live at TechBBQ. Magnus shared his journey from consulting and Nets to leading Mastercard's Nordic business, and how he found himself at the center of one of the company's most significant acquisitions. He walked me through what it meant to migrate national payment infrastructures across five countries, handling trillions of dollars while making sure everything worked flawlessly from day one. We talked about the role of account-to-account payments as the backbone of both consumer and business transactions, and why the next wave of innovation lies in embedded finance. Magnus described how payments are being integrated directly into the workflows of professionals in industries such as law and healthcare, making once cumbersome processes faster, safer, and far more intuitive. Cybersecurity was another prominent theme in our conversation. Magnus explained why security is never an add-on at Mastercard but part of the DNA, from zero-trust design to developer training and global threat intelligence. He also shared a very personal story about his battle with cancer, and how it deepened his admiration for medical innovation. As we wrapped up, Magnus pointed to sustainability as the innovation challenge of our time and why Mastercard is pushing toward net zero by 2040. It was an inspiring reminder of how financial infrastructure, resilience, and human stories all intersect in the Nordics.

In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I sit down with John Rossman, the former Amazon executive who helped launch the Amazon Marketplace and is a co-author of Big Bet Leadership: Your Transformation Playbook for Winning in the Hyper-Digital Era. Our title says it all: How to Continue, Kill, or Pivot Your Pilots with Clarity and Confidence. John and I get practical about the moments that make or break innovation programs, from shaping the problem statement to running the high-stakes meetings where leaders must choose a path. If you have ever wondered why competent pilots stall, or how to defend a tough call in the room, this one is for you. John takes me inside the "working backwards" mindset and the rewired playbook he built with T-Mobile's new business incubation team in Bellevue. We also dig into how decisions actually get made. John lays out the discipline behind those pivotal Continue, Kill, Pivot, or Confusion meetings, including clear criteria, facilitation, and communications so decisions stick rather than drift into ghost projects. We discuss strategic communication and the role of the Chief Repeating Officer, drawing lessons from successes at Amazon and hard-won insights, such as the Gates Foundation's inBloom post-mortem, where great technology and funding still failed without a proactive narrative that addressed resistance. You will hear how I approach innovation culture as an anthropologist, treating every company like its own country, with its own history, norms, and incentives that shape what is possible. We explore tools that invite people into the future rather than dictate it, such as "imagine if" framing and pre-mortems, which surface risks without killing momentum. John also shares a few provocative ideas he believes the world needs now, from real-time freedom to shift cloud workloads to snap-switching your mobile carrier, all designed to put choice and competition back in the hands of users. If you are juggling pilots and pressure, this conversation gives you a plain-English playbook for moving from noise to momentum. You will leave with concrete steps to sharpen your problem statements, wire your experiments to the P&L, structure decisive meetings, and communicate like a leader who can carry a big bet across the line. Listen in, take notes, and get ready to make your next decision with clarity and confidence.