The Disruptive Voice

This week on The Disruptive Voice we bring you a conversation between Cliff Maxwell and Ned Calder on the electrification of the auto industry -- or, more broadly, the mobility industry -- using the theories of Disruption and Jobs To Be Done. As a partner at Innosight, where he has worked for over a decade, Ned has consciously applied these theories in his work in the high tech, automotive, aerospace, and defense sectors. His wealth of experience in the tech world also stems from his time with NASA and Atlas Scientific, where he worked prior to joining Innosight. Cliff Maxwell is a newly minted MBA candidate at Harvard Business School who most recently served as Clayton Christensen’s Chief of Staff and as a Product Manager at the Clayton Christensen Institute, where he worked on projects related to educational technology. We’re delighted to bring you this timely conversation on the push to electrify vehicles, the disruptive forces shaping the mobility industry, the prospects for autonomous vehicles, and the role of companies like Rivian.

2020 is nearly upon us and here at The Forum we’re delighted to welcome the new year with Jessica O. Matthews, Founder & CEO of Uncharted Power. Jessica, a member of the HBS Class of 2014 and a BSSE alumna, is working to transform the global energy system into a renewable, smart, and distributed network of clean energy technology. A prolific inventor and entrepreneur, she was named one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 and is listed on 11 patents and patents pending for technologies relating to energy generation, transmission, and storage. In this episode, Jessica discusses the challenges associated with our aging power grid infrastructure; the impact of her dual US/Nigerian citizenship on design strategies; viable options for energy generation, storage, and transmission; and the smart technologies that she and her team are working to develop at Uncharted Power.

She is hosted by Katie Zandbergen, Community Manager at The Forum for Growth & Innovation. Katie holds a DPhil in Comparative Social Policy from the University of Oxford and is a regular host of The Disruptive Voice.

This week on The Disruptive Voice, Derek van Bever is joined in the studio by venture capitalists Nate Redmond and Britt Danneman, of Alpha Edison, to discuss trust as a business model, as an asset, and as the foundation for new market innovation. Earlier this year, Nitin Nohria, Dean of Harvard Business School, wrote in the Financial Times that HBS and other business schools need to play a vital role in "molding leaders who deserve the world's trust." At The Forum for Growth & Innovation, we're responding to Dean Nohria's gauntlet by studying business models built on risk-shifting and by starting discussions about the role of trust and ethical leadership in business. We hope you'll enjoy this timely and thought-provoking conversation!

This week on The Disruptive Voice, Shaye Roseman, a former Research Associate at The Forum for Growth & Innovation and a current MBA candidate at Harvard Business School, is joined in the studio by Bob Moesta and Ryan Singer. Bob is a regular on the podcast and is a principal co-architect of the theory of "Jobs To Be Done". Ryan has worked at Basecamp for over 15 years and has been involved with projects spanning UI design, strategy, and product development. He is currently Head of Strategy at the company. Together, Bob, Ryan and Shaye discuss the ways Jobs Theory can be employed as a tool for consumer research, on the one hand, and product development, on the other. In particular, they focus on the trials and travails of software development.

Here at Harvard Business School, we are mourning the recent passing of Professor Clayton Christensen. As many listeners will know, Clay died in late January following complications from leukemia. Our hearts go out to all who knew and were touched by him, and we feel that now, more than ever, we must press on, sharing his life’s work. Therefore, we are heartened to bring you this conversation with one of Clay’s brightest students: Horace Dediu. Horace is an analyst who studied disruption with Clay at The Christensen Institute. He's now leading a new revolution in how we transport ourselves: the micromobility revolution. He's the Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at BOND Mobility, he co-founded a community-building and content-generating organization called Micromobility Industries, and he's an Analyst at Asymco. In his work, he draws on the theories of Disruption and Jobs To Be Done to target new and low-end markets. In fact, Horace contends that fully half of all driven miles in the United States will be substituted with micromobility-enabled options in the future! He is hosted in this fascinating and timely conversation by Katie Zandbergen, the Community Manager at The Forum for Growth & Innovation.