S1E5 "Sometimes it's OK to fail". From Subsea to Space, but mostly about People. Guest John Saiz.

03/24/21 • 32 min

Host Mika Tienhaara. Guest John Saiz, Innovation 360 Group and Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge.

Wow, it was fantastic to talk to John again. A lot of fun, but a lot of good points learning about technology development and much beyond. Leadership, competence and culture pays a huge role in how successful you are.

John during his time at NASA got to use the Technology Readiness Level from the 90’s and this has had a widespread use also in heavy-asset industries like Oil & Gas. But is this sufficient, what are the limitations? Don’t just blindly use one tool, there are also other systems that can support your development.

Failure is an option. When it is not costly and has a low impact, like when you have a low TRL. Learn as much as you can. But when you deploy for real, you better be sure to have a ready product as then failure is NOT an option. When your product becomes complex, with a lot of systems, you should also consider additional tools and systems.

Digitalization is here and we have to embrace it. As an organization be ready or get ready to utilize the data and convert to have it digitally available.

Condition you culture and cultivate your organization. John emphasizes how important the people aspect is, and there are shortcomings in so many organizations. People need to be inspired and motivated. There needs to be creativity in your team. Find the passion, which at the same time is difficult to achieve.

What about digitalization - humans are more prone to errors with repetitive tasks, let machines do this. Humans can focus on the really cool stuff. But you need to ensure that you automate in the right way.

Previous Episode

S1E4 Democratize Entrepreneurship, applying the appropriate product. Podcast guest Ernesto Sirolli.

With your host Mika Tienhaara. Guest Ernesto Sirolli, Sirolli Institute.

Ernesto is a such a fantastic person to listen to, amazing stories about entrepreneurship - he takes us from Italy to South Africa, Australia and USA. This story also includes Fritz Schumacher, Henry Ford, Steve Jobs and Peter Drucker.

Bringing the psychological aspects to business can bring so much value to making the best of entrepreneurship. We talk about the holy trinity of Product, Marketing and Finance.

The three actors of business:

(P) The Producer.

What is your skill, what is your Product. The magnificent craft person, the inventor. This person is the salt of the earth. They build something that adds value to our lives.

(M) The Marketing person.

The Seller. They are passionate about the people they encounter - they are fascinated by the people they meet, they make friends. Their best phrase “how can I help you”. They try to find a solution for the person, the customer, even with products they do not sell themselves.

(F) The Financial Person.

These are doing the “parent supervision”. (P) wants to make the best product. (M) wants to give what people need. (F) Does the Supervision and has to come in between otherwise the whole concept collapses.

This way you get the right product, to the right price. This team has to build the business plan TOGETHER.

The true entrepreneurs are disappearing. The startup model has become a television show, a competition. This is not the right way according to Ernesto. Don’t pick the best one, rather work with the 399 rejected - why? (listen to the podcast and you will learn).

Are we experiences “tunnel vision” in entrepreneurship- believing that everyone should become a unicorn with hi-tech? The incubator and accelerator model does not democratize entrepreneurship skills. Learn everyone to swim, don’t just try to make one olympic winner. The genius is a disruptor and does not come out of a mould - go back to the garage mode, not TV show pitch competitions.

We could have continued for another hour...means there will probably be a sequel with Ernesto.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikatienhaara.substack.com

Next Episode

S1E6 "Together Everyone Achieves More". The future is electric and we need a bit of madness. EVangelist Roger Atkins as guest.

Had a fun and inspiring talk with Roger Atkins of Electric Vehicles Outlook.

Is the future electric? Where will that put our 1 billion vehicles with internal combustion engines?

We need to see beyond to move away fossil fuels. For many the pinnacle of innovation in the automotive sector happens in Formula One. Embrace the extraordinary capabilities in Formula One to helps us in electrical vehicle journey as well as non-combustion engine propulsion systems. And by the way, how addictive the Netflix “Survive to Drive” series is - we both binged-watched the third season...

Batteries are happening: Volkswagens Power Day - 6 giga-factories announced. There is a need for even more. The drive to battery electric vehicles and need for battery storage is changing our society. The abundance to energy for production and for any of our activities is crucial.

We need a bit of madness to make disruptive innovation. As an example how rockets are brought back to the surface of the planet without crashing, this was probably not recognized a few years back being achievable.

There is so much going on, innovation, connectivity and the possibilities to work and engage. This can be intense, but also be energizing.

Roger’s comment that “SAAB was a fabulous company” I appreciate much, at least I am not alone thinking that.

We started to talk about the fascinating Nordic region; Norway as the EV kingdom, Sweden well-known for a lot of things - but what about Finland? Finland has more islands than Greece, happiest nation on the planet. World-leading sustainable corporates. Finns are rooted to nature and seeking practical solutions. The growth of Nokia gave also the spin-off effect and creation of a myriad of tech companies. The whole soul of Finland is carrying an innovative mind - you can now also become a Finn for 90 days - bring your family and get your startup company going. I convinced Roger - if the Finnish Tourist Board is looking for an ambassador we have one strong candidate!

A lot happening in the Nordics - don’t forget the June 2022 EVS35 gathering in OSLO.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikatienhaara.substack.com