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

Mika Tienhaara's See Beyond Show

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.

Generate a badge

Get a badge for your website that links back to this episode

Select type & size

Copy