Agile Innovation Leaders

(S4) E041 David Bland on Testing Ideas & Assumptions (and How Leaders Can Help)

Bio   David is known for his ability to deliver inspiring and thought-provoking presentations that challenge audiences to think differently about innovation and product development. His keynotes and workshops are engaging and interactive, with a focus on real-world examples and case studies. David’s message is relevant for entrepreneurs, executives, and organizations of all sizes and industries, and he illustrates concepts live on stage to leave attendees with concrete tools and techn...

Ula Ojiaku: A Story on Leadership and High Performing Teams

Bio Uloaku (Ula) Ojiaku is the Founder/ CEO of Mezahab Group Ltd (a UK-based consultancy focused on helping leaders in large organisations improve how they work to deliver value to their customers).       With over 20 years of professional experience, Ula has board-level experience and has worked in multiple countries, in a variety of technical, business and leadership roles across industries including Retail, Oil & Gas, Telecommunications, Financial Services, Government, Higher Educatio...

(S4) E040 Rob Dix on Entrepreneurship, Investing and Increasing Your Earning Power

 Bio    Rob is the co-founder of propertyhub.net and the bestselling author of The Price Of Money (Penguin). He co-presents the UK’s most popular property podcast, and has a weekly column in The Sunday Times.   Interview Highlights 02:30 Jack of all trades 06:00 Recruiting interested people 07:45 Life as a digital nomad 10:50 Getting into property 12:00 Podcasting – the magic ingredients 17:40 Property investment 20:20 Long term vision 23:10 The Price of Mon...

(S4) E039 Luke Hohmann on Creating Sustainably Profitable Software-Enabled Solutions

Bio Luke Hohmann is Chief Innovation Officer of Applied Frameworks. Applied Frameworks helps companies create more profitable software-enabled solutions. A serial entrepreneur, Luke founded, bootstrapped, and sold the SaaS B2B collaboration software company Conteneo to Scaled Agile, Inc. Conteneo’s Weave platform is now part of SAFe Studio. A SAFe® Fellow, prolific author, and trailblazing innovator, Luke’s contributions to the global agile community include contributing to SAFe, five ...

Ula Ojiaku on the Secret Sauce That Fuels Transformation

Bio Uloaku (Ula) Ojiaku is the Founder/ CEO of Mezahab Group Ltd (a UK-based consultancy focused on helping leaders in large organisations improve how they work to deliver value to their customers).       With over 20 years of professional experience, Ula has board-level experience and has worked in multiple countries, in a variety of technical, business and leadership roles across industries including Retail, Oil & Gas, Telecommunications, Financial Services, Government, Higher Educ...

From The Archives: Jeff Sutherland on Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time with Scrum

Bio Dr. Jeff Sutherland is the inventor and co-creator of Scrum, the most widely used Agile framework across the globe.  Originally used for software development, Jeff has also pioneered the application of the framework to multiple industries and disciplines. Today, Scrum is applied to solve complex projects in start-ups and Fortune 100 companies. Scrum companies consistently respond to market demand, to get results and drive performance at speeds they never thought possible. Jeff is committ...

(S4) E038 Brant Cooper on Lean Entrepreneurship

Bio Brant Cooper is The New York Times bestselling author of The Lean Entrepreneur and his new popular book Disruption Proof. He is the CEO and founder of Moves the Needle. He is a trusted adviser to startups and large enterprises around the world. With more than 25 years of expertise in changing industrial age mindset into digital age opportunity, he blends agile, human-centered design, and lean methodologies to ignite entrepreneurial action from the front lines to the C-suite.  As a...

(S4) E037 Fabiola Eyholzer on Leveraging Agile and Agility in HR

Bio  Fabiola is a pioneer and thought leader in Agile HR and Co-Founder of Just Leading Solutions, a global transformation consultancy for HR and Business Agility. As a seasoned Management Consultant and Executive Advisor, she works with key players around the globe and across the private, corporate, and social sectors. She helps them become more adaptive and innovative by maximizing the potential of their people function. Fabiola is a Switzerland native living in New York. She is an avi...

(S4) E036 Victor Nwadu on Sustainable Transformation

Bio   Victor is a Lean/AGILE Strategy and Transformation Consultant, helping organisations in emergent environments navigate the path to a successful future via "Agile Ways Of Working". This usually involves developing and implementing Lean/Agile Strategies for these organisations, coaching & mentoring Senior Leaders, Managers and Teams in attaining the Agile Mindset that allows them to achieve high performance. Experiencing this evolutionary journey with clients from traditional ways o...

(S4) E035 Bryan Tew on Meeting Teams Where They're At (Part 2)

Bio   Bryan is a seasoned Enterprise Transformation Strategist, Coach and Trainer specialising in the practical implementation of Business Agility practices within all types of organisations. He brings a balance of business, technical and leadership expertise to his clients with a focus on how to achieve immediate gains in productivity, efficiency, visibility and flow. Bryan is a key contributor in the development of the AgilityHealth platform, AgileVideos.com and the Enterprise Busine...

(S4) E034 Bryan Tew on Meeting Teams Where They're At (Part 1)

Bio   Bryan is a seasoned Enterprise Transformation Strategist, Coach and Trainer specialising in the practical implementation of Business Agility practices within all types of organisations. He brings a balance of business, technical and leadership expertise to his clients with a focus on how to achieve immediate gains in productivity, efficiency, visibility and flow. Bryan is a key contributor in the development of the AgilityHealth platform, AgileVideos.com and the Enterprise Busines...

(S4) E033 Marsha Acker on Human-Centred Facilitation (Part 2)

Bio Marsha is the founder and CEO of TeamCatapult, a respected and sought-after leadership   development firm that equips leaders, at all levels, to facilitate and lead sustainable behavioural change.  She partners with leaders and leadership teams to clarify their desired change, develop communicative competence and think together - accessing their collective intelligence to bring about change. TeamCatapult is a partner to mid-size start-ups and global fortune 500 companies across secto...

(S4) E032 Marsha Acker on Human-Centred Facilitation

Bio Marsha is the founder and CEO of TeamCatapult, a respected and sought-after leadership   development firm that equips leaders, at all levels, to facilitate and lead sustainable behavioural change.  She partners with leaders and leadership teams to clarify their desired change, develop communicative competence and think together - accessing their collective intelligence to bring about change. TeamCatapult is a partner to mid-size start-ups and global fortune 500 companies across secto...

(S4) E032 Marsha Acker on Human-Centred Facilitation (Part 1)

Bio Marsha is the founder and CEO of TeamCatapult, a respected and sought-after leadership   development firm that equips leaders, at all levels, to facilitate and lead sustainable behavioural change.  She partners with leaders and leadership teams to clarify their desired change, develop communicative competence and think together - accessing their collective intelligence to bring about change. TeamCatapult is a partner to mid-size start-ups and global fortune 500 companies across secto...

Season 4 launches this January 2024!

We are thrilled to announce that Season 4 of the Agile Innovation Leaders podcast with Ula Ojiaku is almost here!  With a line up of expert guests including Marsha Acker, Bryan Tew, Victor Nwadu, Fabiola Eyholzer, David Bland, Brant Cooper, Luke Hohmann, Myles Ogilvie and many others, each episode is packed with insightful discussions and actionable takeaways on topics touching on leadership, business agility, innovation and much more. Trailer Transcript Marsha Acker: “Whenever I’m ...

(S3) Thank You! Next Season Loading...

Ula’s Social Media/Websites: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/uloakuojiaku/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/uloakuojiaku Website: www.agileinnovationleaders.com   Episode Transcript Ula Ojiaku: Hello and welcome to the Agile Innovation Leaders podcast. I’m Ula Ojiaku. On this podcast I speak with world-class leaders and doers about themselves and a variety of topics spanning Agile, Lean Innovation, Business, Leadership and much more – with actionable takeaways for you the...

(S3) E031 Mahesh Jade on Coaching Strategies for Effective Change Leadership

Bio Mahesh Jade is an esteemed agile evangelist and thought leader dedicated to the noble cause of fostering winning teams and products. His expertise lies in coaching teams, companies, and departments to implement Scrum and Agile methodologies, instigating profound improvements and transformative changes in their work processes and value delivery. Beyond coaching, Mahesh frequently conducts enlightening workshops and sessions on various topics including Scrum, agile leadership, facilitat...

(S3) E030 Michael Hamman & Lyssa Adkins on Vertical Facilitation

Guest Bio : Michael Hamman Michael Hamman is dedicated to the possibility that the workplace be a site for personal, professional and social transformation. Trained in the 1980s in coaching and large group facilitation, Michael went on to train in systems thinking and methods, group dynamics and facilitation, professional and executive coaching, and in human and organization development. He is a decades-long student of the nature of human transformation, in himself, in others, and in org...

(S3) E029 Jeff Gothelf on What Makes a Great Product Manager: Humility, Curiosity and Agility

Bio Jeff helps organizations build better products and executives build the cultures that build better products. He is the co-author of the award-winning book Lean UX (now in it’s 3rd edition) and the Harvard Business Review Press book Sense & Respond. Starting off as a software designer, Jeff now works as a coach, consultant and keynote speaker helping companies bridge the gaps between business agility, digital transformation, product management and human-centred design. His mo...

(S3) EO28 Richard Stephens on the Challenges of Creating Agile Contracts

Bio  A technology lawyer of some 40 years’ experience, Richard has seen the IT industry from all sides - as an in-house lawyer with two substantial UK based systems houses, a lawyer in City of London practice and now as the head of his own practice offering legal services to IT companies large and small as well as acting as mediator and arbitrator in IT disputes.  Over the course of his career, Richard has been involved in some of the largest IT litigation and transactions and now gets i...

From The Archives: Dr. Rita McGrath on Seeing Around Corners and Spotting Inflection Points Before They Happen

Guest Bio: Rita McGrath is a best-selling author,  sought-after advisor and speaker, and  longtime professor at Columbia Business School. Rita is one of the world’s top experts on strategy and innovation and is consistently ranked among the top 10 management thinkers in the world, including the #1 award for strategy by Thinkers50.  McGrath’s recent book on strategic inflection points is Seeing Around Corners: How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen (Houghton Miffli...

(S3) E027 David Hawks on Path to Agility and the Need for Outcome-Driven Transformations

Bio As CEO of Agile Velocity, David Hawks guides leaders through their agile transformation with a focus on achieving business results. David is a Certified Enterprise Coach and Certified Scrum Trainer who is passionate about helping organisations achieve true agility, not just implementing Agile practices. He helps create transformation strategies and manages organisational change through leadership coaching and was the creator of Path to Agility®.  Interview Highlights  03:58 St...

(S3) E026 Bjarte Bogsnes on Beyond Budgeting and the Case for Management Innovation

Bio Bjarte Bogsnes has a long international career, both in Finance and HR. He is a pioneer in the Beyond Budgeting movement and has been heading up the implementation of Beyond Budgeting at Equinor (formerly Statoil), Scandinavia’s largest company. He led a similar initiative in Borealis in the mid-nineties, one of the companies that inspired the Beyond Budgeting model. He has helped numerous other companies globally getting started on a Beyond Budgeting journey.  Bjarte is Chairman ...

(S3) E025 Primo Masella on Developing Leaders

Bio When Primo was young he wanted to be a Film Director.  Today he directs his own business – helping individuals and teams be more effective through the power of coaching and Insights Discovery.  With 30 years’ experience in corporates such as IBM, GE, T-Mobile & BP, Primo has made the transition from IT Project & Programme Management to Learning and Development.  He has always used his core values of Empathy, Trust & Honesty to build deep relationships with others and support them ...

(S3) E024 Dave West on Kindness and Addressing the "Water-Scrum-Fall" Problem

Bio Dave West is the Product Owner and CEO at Scrum.org. In this capacity, he engages with partners, and the community to drive Scrum.org’s strategy and the overall market position of Scrum. Prior to joining Ken Schwaber and the team at Scrum.org he was Chief Product Officer at Tasktop where he was responsible for product management, engineering and architecture. As a member of the company’s executive management team was also instrumental in growing Tasktop from a services business into ...

S3 E023 Evan Leybourn on Business Agility and Management Competencies

Bio  Evan is the Founder and CEO of the Business Agility Institute; an international membership body to both champion and support the next-generation of organisations. Companies that are agile, innovative and dynamic – perfectly designed to thrive in today’s unpredictable markets. His experience while holding senior leadership and board positions in both private industry and government has driven his work in business agility and he regularly speaks on these topics at local and internationa...

(S3) E022 Lyssa Adkins on Coaching Leaders

Bio Lyssa Adkins is a coach, facilitator, teacher and inspirer. Her current focus is improving the performance of top leadership teams through insightful facilitation and organization systems coaching. Making difficult decisions faster and with clear alignment, unknotting challenging multi-department impediments, creating the conditions for smooth organizational delivery, helping leaders take up the “Agile transformation” that is theirs to make…this is where she thrives and helps thrive....

S3 E021 Chris Boeckerman on Lean Innovation & Productive Failure

Bio  Chris Boeckerman is currently Vice President of Research & Development for Fabric & Home Care. Prior to this she was R&D Vice President for P&G Ventures, the company’s internal startup studio that partners with entrepreneurs and startups to create new brands and businesses in spaces where the company doesn’t play today.   Known as a “change agent” during her 30-year career with Procter & Gamble, Chris co-founded P&G’s Lean Innovation movement, known as GrowthWorks, and has specialis...

Season 3 starts this January 2023!

(S2)E020: Ula Ojiaku on Clarifying Roles & Responsibilities with the SLoMoSH Canvas

Full episode video available here: https://youtu.be/gWWkD9hQVtA  Ula's Bio: Uloaku (Ula) Ojiaku is a Business Agility Strategist, coach, mentor and trainer with a focus on helping leaders and their teams in large organisations embrace a Lean-Agile mindset and adopt its associated ways of working to improve how they operate, effectively respond to changes in the marketplace and ultimately deliver value to their customers. With nearly 20 years of professional experience, she has worked i...

(S2)E019: Bruno Pešec on The Big Don'ts of Corporate Innovation

Interview video available here: https://youtu.be/F3X1BC_HQws  Bio Bruno Pešec helps business leaders innovate profitably. He is the rare innovator who can claim that he's worked on a regulation-defying freight train and an award-winning board game. In addition to his corporate experience with brands like DNV, DNB, and Kongsberg Group, Bruno runs a community of entrepreneurs of several thousand members. Longer version of bio available at https://www.pesec.no/about/ Websites/ Social Medi...

(S2)E018: Aino Corry on Retrospectives Antipatterns

Full video interview available here: https://youtu.be/oJbZF1yiWvg  Guest Bio: Aino Vonge Corry (born 1971 in Aarhus, Denmark) is an independent consultant, who sometimes works as an agile coach. After gaining her Ph.D. in Computer Science in 2001 she spent the next 10 years failing to choose between being a researcher/teacher in academia, and being a teacher/facilitator in industry. She eventually squared the circle by starting her own company, Metadeveloper, which develops developers ...

(S2)E017: Mark Schwartz on The Delicate Art of Bureaucracy and Defining Business Value

Guest Bio: Mark Schwartz joined AWS as an Enterprise Strategist and Evangelist in July 2017. In this role, Mark works with enterprise technology executives to share experiences and strategies for how the cloud can help them increase speed and agility while devoting more of their resources to their customers. Mark has extensive experience as an IT leader in the government, private sector, and the nonprofit world, and with organizations ranging from startup to large. Prior to joining AWS, he...

(S2)E016 Dave Snowden on Cynefin and Building Capability for Managing Complexity

Announcement: New Podcast Publishing Cadence Before I introduce my guest for this episode (if you’ve not already seen the preview post), I must apologise for the apparent silence. Life happened and this has affected the AILP podcast publishing cadence (assuming you noticed! :D). Can I share something with you? Sometimes it feels a bit overwhelming trying to maintain balance and remain relevant whilst juggling so many things (work, children, family, and other responsibilities) - some of y...

(S2)E015: Rita McGrath on Seeing Around Corners and Spotting Inflection Points Before They Happen

Guest Bio: Rita McGrath is a best-selling author,  sought-after advisor and speaker, and  longtime professor at Columbia Business School. Rita is one of the world’s top experts on strategy and innovation and is consistently ranked among the top 10 management thinkers in the world, including the #1 award for strategy by Thinkers50.  McGrath’s recent book on strategic inflection points is Seeing Around Corners: How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen (Houghton Mifflin Harc...

(S2)E14: Ian Spence on Better Practices Through Essence and Agile Leadership

Bio Ian Spence is the Chief Scientist at Ivar Jacobson International. He spends his time coaching the teams working on some of the world’s largest and most technically challenging endeavours - such as the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project, building the world's largest radio telescope to explore the Universe - and working with industry thought leaders such as Dean Leffingwell, Dr Jeff Sutherland and Dr Ivar Jacobson to improve the art of software development. He led the creation of the O...

(S2)E014: Ian Spence on Better Practices Through Essence and Agile Leadership

Bio Ian Spence is the Chief Scientist at Ivar Jacobson International. He spends his time coaching the teams working on some of the world’s largest and most technically challenging endeavours - such as the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project, building the world's largest radio telescope to explore the Universe - and working with industry thought leaders such as Dean Leffingwell, Dr Jeff Sutherland and Dr Ivar Jacobson to improve the art of software development. He led the creation of the OMG...

(S2)E013: Jeff Sutherland on Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time with Scrum

Bio Dr. Jeff Sutherland is the inventor and co-creator of Scrum, the most widely used Agile framework across the globe.  Originally used for software development, Jeff has also pioneered the application of the framework to multiple industries and disciplines. Today, Scrum is applied to solve complex projects in start-ups and Fortune 100 companies. Scrum companies consistently respond to market demand, to get results and drive performance at speeds they never thought possible. Jeff is committe...

(S2)E012: Renate Cremer on Effective Coaching Techniques and Leading with Emotional Intelligence

Announcement: Do register for the Agile Coach conference (30 March 2022) at www.gladwellacademy.com/events. Theme: ‘Changing Times Require Agile Minds’. Hosted by Gladwell Academy with a dynamic line up of speakers (amongst whom I’m honoured to be counted), it promises to be an exciting event for networking, learning and sharing experiences. For more information and the opportunity to grab an Early Bird price, go to www.gladwellacademy.com/events. Bio: Renate Cremer is a trainer at Gladw...

(S2)E011: Ivar Jacobson on Essence (OMG Standard) and Doing Things Smarter

Interview video available on the Agile Innovation Leaders Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/FYFKaJoagTc Guest Bio: Dr. Ivar Jacobson is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Ivar Jacobson International. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from KTH Royal Institute of Technology, was awarded the Gustaf Dalén medal from Chalmers in 2003, and made an honorary doctor at San Martin de Porres University, Peru, in 2009. Ivar has a flourishing career in both academia and business. He has authore...

S1E010: Tolu Fagbola on Applying Agile Effectively for Organisational Change

For the episode show notes and full interview transcript, go to www.agileinnovationleaders.com  Bio: Tolu is the Founder of Career Transitioners where he’s also a Lead Trainer (Business Analysis/Architecture and Agile). With a keen interest in using Agile approaches to help organizations go through change, he also consults for clients and has worked on Digital Transformation programmes with Organizations within multiple sectors including Banking, Telecoms, Housing, Energy & Utilities a...

S1E009 Raymond Chike on the Lean-Agile Mindset

Episode Summary: In this episode, Raymond and I explore: If it's possible for organisations to be 100% agile, Why a human-centred approach to product design is key How one can get started with their agile journey... and much more.   Guest Bio: Raymond Chike has over 15 years diversified experience in the Financial, Retail, Utilities, Energy, Consulting and Charity sectors. Proven record as a problem solver and aggressive commitment to continuous learning. Bringing together Huma...

S1E008 Marc Gruber on Navigating Market Opportunities Effectively

Visit www.agileinnovationleaders.com for the full episode shownotes (including interview transcript and bonus resources - free chapter of Where to Play and Navigator worksheets). Guest Bio: Dr. Marc Gruber is full professor at the College of Management of Technology at EPFL where he holds the Chair of Entrepreneurship and Technology Commercialization (ENTC) and was Vice President for Innovation at EPFL in the 2017-2021 presidency period. Marc also acted as Associate (2013-2016) and as De...

S1E007: William Korsinah on Delivering Value to Customers Using SAFe

Bio: William Korsinah is a leader, Agile Coach, trainer, and consultant with sound commercial skills and business acumen. With experience gained from the Ministry of Defence (MOD), public and private sectors and exposure across strategy, portfolio, product and project lifecycle, from initiation to close, he has the ability to effectively promote organisational objectives to a range of audiences and inspire stakeholders. William is the Founder and Director of Lean Icon Technology and Trai...

S1E006 Jane Egerton-Idehen on Being Fearless

“Make the days count…” Bio: Jane Egerton-Idehen is the Head of Sales for Facebook Middle East and Africa (MEA). Prior to that she was the Country Manager, Nigeria, and Regional Sales Manager, West Africa at Avanti Communications Group Plc (a satellite company). She is a Master’s degree holder from Warwick Business School, UK and an Executive Education from Harvard Business School and Yale School of Management. In 2019 she received the 50 Leading Ladies in Corporate Nigeria Leadership a...

S1E005 Sharon Tal on How to Identify the Best Market Opportunities for Your Ideas or Innovations in a Structured Way

Episode Summary: In this episode Dr Sharon Tal and I discuss how the book she co-authored with Prof Marc Gruber, ‘Where to Play’ complements the Lean Start Up movement and Design Thinking. She also explains how the Market Opportunity Navigator could benefit large organisations as well as start-ups.   Bio: Dr. Tal helps entrepreneurs and managers identify, evaluate and prioritize market opportunities for their business. Together with Prof Marc Gruber she wrote the book ‘Where to Play’...

S1E004 Heather Hiscox on Innovating for Social Change and Impact

Bio: Heather is a social entrepreneur who is passionate about creating communities focused on assets, abilities, and abundance. Heather leads the design and strategy behind Pause for Change, co-hosts the online “talk show” Possibility Project, and speaks at national and local conferences about social impact disruption and innovation. Heather has launched several ventures that benefit the social impact sector, connecting organizations to the training, skills, and resources they need to deep...

S1E003 Alex Osterwalder on the 3 Characteristics of Invincible Companies and How He Stays Grounded as a Leader

In this episode, my guest Alex Osterwalder shares 3 common traits you'd expect to find in an invincible company, the back story of how his book Business Model Generation came about from his PhD thesis, how he stays grounded as a leader and much more. You'll need a pen and notepad ready for taking some notes!   Bio: Dr. Alexander (Alex) Osterwalder is one of the world’s most influential innovation experts, a leading author, entrepreneur and in-demand speaker whose work has changed the...

S1E001 Steve Blank on the Need for Innovation, 'Showing Up' and Learning from Failure

Bio Entrepreneur-turned-educator, Steve Blank is the Father of Modern Entrepreneurship. Credited with launching the Lean Startup movement, he’s changed how startups are built; how entrepreneurship is taught; how science is commercialized, and how companies and the government innovate. Steve is the author of The Four Steps to the Epiphany, The Startup Owner’s Manual -- and his May 2013 Harvard Business Review cover story defined the Lean Startup movement. He teaches at Stanford, Colum...

S1E002 Darren Wilmshurst on Digital Disruption and Applying the Agile Manifesto and SAFe Principles to Transform Organisations

Bio: Darren has a background in commercial management, being an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers following sixteen years in Retail Banking. This culminated as a Senior Personal Banking Manager within the Guildford Group of Branches, which was comprised of 9 branches and 140 staff. A career change into IT in the late 1990s has led to a number of roles within IT including three Head of Department positions covering the complete spectrum of IT. Also, as an accomplished Proje...