Ep 12. Alex Osterwalder - Unleashing thoughtful Innovation at Scale

Boundaryless Conversations Podcast

In this episode, Simone Cicero is joined by a special co-host and former guest on the podcast - Bill Fischer - Professor of Innovation Management at IMD Business School in Lausanne.

Together they pick the brain of nobody less than Alex Osterwalder, whose work continues to influence the way established companies do business innovation and how new ventures get started. The inventor of the Business Model Canvas, Value Proposition Canvas, and Business Portfolio Map together with Yves Pigneur, Alex just released a new book called The Invincible Company, whose ideas are mentioned throughout the conversation.

Alex talks about why, in the furiously changing world of today, innovation portfolio management is a must, as well as transforming innovation into a pervasive process inside the organization: we also debate a lot on the several ways to do it.

We also talk about the responsibility of companies to become great workplaces - being able to keep and reallocate talent across business units - and serve society beyond shareholder interests. Enjoy this jam full episode!

Read our story on Medium to access our key insights and the interview transcript.

Here are some important links from the conversation:

> About Alex Osterwalder and his work:

> Alexander Osterwalder (Author), Yves Pigneur, Alan Smith, Frederic Etiemble, The Invincible Company: https://www.amazon.com/Invincible-Company-Alexander-Osterwalder/dp/1119523966

> Strategyzer: https://www.strategyzer.com/

Other mentions and references:

> Ritha McGrath, “Transient Advantage”, HBR, 06/2013: https://hbr.org/2013/06/transient-advantage

> Scott Anthony, “Breaking down the barriers to innovation”, HBR, 11/2019: https://hbr.org/2019/11/breaking-down-the-barriers-to-innovation

> Ritha McGrath, Seeing around Corners, interview with Aperture: https://medium.com/aperture-hub/seeing-around-corners-19-ec64b2260337

> All Things Marketplaces with Dan Hockenmaier, Casey Winters, and Lenny Rachitsky,

> Village Global's Venture Stories: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/all-things-marketplaces-dan-hockenmaier-casey-winters/id1316769266?i=1000467536947

Companies mentioned: Amazon, Ping An, W.L. Gore, Logitech, Kodak, Haier

Find out more about the show and the research at Boundaryless at: www.platformdesigntoolkit.com/podcast

Thanks for the ad-hoc music to Liosound / Walter Mobilio find his portfolio here: www.platformdesigntoolkit.com/music

Recorded on May 11th 2020