Boundaryless Conversations Podcast

Roger Martin, one of the world’s most influential business thinkers and former Dean of the Rotman School of Management, joined us on this episode to talk about all things strategy. He breaks down how organizations can keep up with the dynamism and complexity of it all: the evolution of strategy across the decades, digital transformation, decentralization’s impact, and the latest frontier, the rapid adoption of AI and LLMs. He challenges traditional approaches to strategy and impact measurement metrics like OKRs, stating, “Strategy is what you do, not what you say." In this candid conversation, he also dispels the angst surrounding AI taking over strategy roles in organizations, highlighting why AI and LLMs are valuable for rapidly synthesizing information but lack the capacity for generating unique, strategic insights that require human judgment and creativity. Join us for this conversation filled with insights. Known for his practical approach, Roger Martin—who’s authored many bestselling books, including “Playing to Win”—has guided thousands worldwide to make clear, actionable choices that drive competitive advantage. In the conversation, we also touch upon themes of risk-taking and the importance of empowering leaders to think strategically at every level of the organization. He argues that teams should be able to challenge ideas and push boundaries, all of which are vital for sparking real innovation. Key Highlights 👉 Leaders should act as strategic coaches, guiding teams to align with bigger goals and fostering a culture of proactive decision-making. 👉 Finding the right balance between centralization and decentralization empowers teams with autonomy while maintaining a unified direction. 👉 Constructive tension within teams drives innovation by encouraging open challenges to ideas, leading to breakthrough solutions. 👉 Embracing intelligent risk-taking is crucial; it allows organizations to grow and adapt rather than playing it safe and missing out on opportunities. 👉 Avoiding one-size-fits-all frameworks is crucial; each organization’s strategy should be uniquely tailored to its specific context. 👉 AI and LLMs serve as powerful tools for rapid analysis and synthesis but cannot replace, human strategic judgment. Topics /chapters (00:00) Doing Strategy in a World of Ruthless Change - intro (00:55) Roger Martin (02:48) Strategy Evolution over 20 Years (07:21) Centralization vs Decentralization: Where to Apply in the Organization? (16:03) Fragmented Decision Making and Creating Boundaries in Strategy (24:20) Building Entrepreneurship in Organizations (35:09) Collaboration vs. Competition in a High Resource Environment (39:37) Creating Shared Value (46:37) AI, LLMs, and the future of Strategy (57:52) Breadcrumbs and Suggestions Remember that you can always find transcripts and key highlights of the episode on our website: https://www.boundaryless.io/podcast/martin-roger/ Find out more about the show and the research at Boundaryless at https://boundaryless.io/resources/podcast Get in touch with Boundaryless: Twitter: https://twitter.com/boundaryless_ Website: https://boundaryless.io/contacts LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/boundaryless-pdt-3eo Music Music from Liosound / Walter Mobilio. Find his portfolio here: https://blss.io/Podcast-Music

Have you ever wondered how visualizing complex futures can help you take actions and decisions today? Fabien Girardin and Nicolas Nova, pioneers of the practice of Design Fiction, take us on a journey into it to explain what it is for and what comes beyond it. This episode reveals what it means to create tangible expressions of potential futures while considering its complex relationship with technology, global trends, and societal implications. They share real-world examples of scenario building and discuss how to operationalize future thinking in organizations through the use of co-creation, AI, and other tools. Fabien and Nicolas have spent decades guiding small and large organizations to envision and prepare for future scenarios. They are now working to expand the design fiction practice beyond its initial decades of practice. Their work has helped organizations move beyond abstract predictions by engaging with diegetic and relatable prototypes, creating thousands of tools for strategic reflection. Taking the example of the “IKEA Catalog for the Future,” they highlight how everyday objects can become evocative representations that make future concepts more accessible. This episode will serve as a comprehensive guide to visualizing imagination, including insights into AI's potential role as a creative accelerator in building such prototypes. Tune in to discover actionable methods to help you navigate the complexities of the future before it happens. Discount Code for Listeners! Fabien and Nicolas have been kind enough to offer all our listeners a 20% Discount for the Manual of Design Fiction Book (Paperback Edition): Discount Code: BOUND-7BDS4 Link to the shop with discount: https://books.girardinnova.com/discount/BOUND-7BDS4?redirect=%2Fproducts%2Fthe-manual-of-design-fiction Disclaimer: this is not an affiliate link, Boundaryless doesn’t monetize your book purchase. Key Highlights 👉 Design Fiction shifts future thinking from abstract complexities to tangible prototypes, making it easier for organizations to grasp the potential impact of future scenarios. 👉 Using mundane, everyday objects is important to bring complex technological and societal changes to life while making it more relatable. 👉 Building a "Design Fiction muscle" involves integrating future thinking as a regular practice within organizations rather than relying on occasional workshops. 👉 AI is transforming future prototyping by accelerating the process and providing a larger perspective for creative explorations. 👉 To stay ahead of disruption through continuous improvement, it’s important for organizations also to involve diverse perspectives. 👉 Design Fiction can go beyond product and service prototypes to also reimagine organizations themselves. Topics /chapters (00:00) Quote (00:53) Guest Introduction (02:17) Introduction to Design Fiction (06:12) Changes of Design Fiction over the decades (10:56) Methods in deploying Design Fiction (15:36) Being “Diagetic” (18:27) Use Cases, Competitive Advantage, and Motivations for Design Fiction (21:03) Operationalizing Design Fiction Capabilities (27:05) What’s the hard part in adopting Design Fiction (30:56) AI in Design Fiction (37:09) The Implications of Design Fiction (41:52) Future of Design Fiction (45:00) Breadcrumbs and Suggestions Remember that you can always find transcripts and key highlights of the episode on our website: https://www.boundaryless.io/podcast/Girardin-Nova Episode recorded on Oct 01, 2024 Get in touch with Boundaryless: Find out more about the show and the research at Boundaryless at https://boundaryless.io/resources/podcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/boundaryless_ Website: https://boundaryless.io/contacts LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/boundaryless-pdt-3eo Music Music from Liosound / Walter Mobilio. Find his portfolio here: https://blss.io/Podcast-Music

Philippe De Ridder, co-founder and CEO of Boards of Innovation joins us for a conversation on the Autonomous Age and the Age of Creative AI. In this episode, he discusses his popular opinions on how AI will enable unprecedented productivity gains across industries and impact all business arenas, starting from knowledge work. He also shares his perspectives on the fusion of AI and human creativity and how organizations can leverage it to redefine workflows, product development, customer research and overall business strategies. We explore how yesterday’s creator will become tomorrow’s curator and why it is essential always to keep humans at the core -- especially with AI innovation. As a popular innovation consultant, Philippe is a veteran who has worked with both Fortune 500 companies and agile startups, helping them craft bold strategies for the future. In the episode, he challenges us to think about how innovation, often heralded as a core human endeavor, is increasingly being automated. From using AI to generate product ideas to testing them with synthetic consumers, he highlights the shift towards real-time innovation and its impact on markets and organizations. Talking about how AI is reshaping decision-making in innovation and across various business functions, he highlights the importance of adopting a "future-back" approach, where companies envision their role in a radically changed world and work backward to integrate necessary capabilities today. As leaders face several societal implications and tough decisions due to the increasing integration of AI across the organization, this episode can serve as a backbone upon which they can strategize. Tune in, as this episode will stretch your idea of what AI can achieve already today in your organization. Simply mind blowing. Key Highlights 👉 Innovation, often considered a highly human-driven process, can now be automated mainly with AI, from generating product ideas to testing them with synthetic consumers in real-time. 👉 AI-driven tools enable rapid product development, drastically reducing timelines from months to minutes, allowing organizations to innovate continuously. 👉 In the future, leadership will need to navigate a world where not just teams but even products operate autonomously, requiring a shift in how control and strategy are managed. 👉 Organizational structures must evolve, as traditional, siloed departments will struggle to adapt to a world where processes and decisions happen almost instantly. 👉 The role of humans is shifting from creators to curators, as AI becomes more involved in decision-making. 👉 As AI revolutionizes business functions, companies must move beyond efficiency gains and focus on reimagining their workflows and operating models from the ground up. Topics /chapters (00:00) Title - intro (00:58) Philippe De Ridder Introduction (02:14) Can Innovation be automated? (11:23) AI in Qualitative Research (14:28) Autonomous AI integrating in Organizations (22:19) AI Systems guiding Organizational Strategy (33:25) Autonomous Functions and the Age of Abundance (38:23) Consumer Participation in Autonomous Products (41:55) Socio-Technical Impact (47:54) Perception of Value Remember that you can always find transcripts and key highlights of the episode on our website: https://www.boundaryless.io/podcast/ridder-philippe Episode recorded on Sep 12, 2024 Get in touch with Boundaryless: Find out more about the show and the research at Boundaryless at ⁠https://boundaryless.io/resources/podcast⁠ Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/boundaryless_⁠ Website: ⁠https://boundaryless.io/contacts⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/boundaryless-pdt-3eo⁠ Music Music from Liosound / Walter Mobilio. Find his portfolio here: ⁠https://blss.io/Podcast-Music

John Cutler, a veteran thought leader and practitioner in product management, joins us for the first episode of Season 6 of the Boundaryless Conversations podcast. John is popularly known for his work on product development, collaboration, and systems thinking, and has worked with some of the most advanced product-centric organizations like Toast, Amplitude, and Zendesk. Based on his wealth of experience, John runs a thought-provoking newsletter, “The Beautiful Mess”, where he shares deep insights and revolutionary ideas in product and organizational development. During this podcast, we touched on how a founder’s belief systems shape product strategies and organizational structures, the differences between single-product versus multi-product companies, and how it’s important to consider the various frames through which one designs an organization’s dynamics. John also covers the implications of rapid growth versus maturity in organizations and how technology, particularly AI, is reshaping product and organizational thinking. Throughout the conversation listeners will also get some special nuggets on what he looks for, when he first meets with leaders and entrepreneurs and this shapes the work in the related organizational context. This episode - one of the best ones yet - is full of insights on the challenges faced by organizations as they scale, and it’s a precious reminder to avoid being elitist in driving organizational change. Tune in for a rich discussion and don’t miss out on the shifting paradigms in organizational structure and product leadership. Key Highlights 👉 Successful product management requires navigating diverse leadership belief systems and adapting to organizational messiness. 👉 In organizational design, we often get stuck in certain perspectives, such as treating teams like architecture. To build a better organization, it’s crucial to challenge these and explore different frames—such as the political or community dynamics. 👉During rapid growth, efficiency often takes a backseat to speed. As companies plateau, introducing standardization and modularization becomes essential for achieving agility. 👉AI can remove cognitive limitations, enabling teams to recontextualize data and serve customers in a more personalized manner, thus breaking traditional barriers in product management. 👉Autonomy must come with accountability to ensure teams remain aligned with organizational goals. 👉In B2B SaaS companies, it's important to shift from viewing individual features as separate products and understand that the entire company is the product. Topics /chapters (00:00) Understanding why the Company is the Product - Intro (00:40) The Beautiful Mess (01:57) Onboarding Entrepreneurs (11:15) Managing Organizational Messiness (23:09) Alignment in a broad portfolio (30:25) Where do you start designing an organization? (39:56) Modulating a customer-centric approach (44:09) Tech Impact on Organizational Design (50:53) Breadcrumbs and Suggestions Remember that you can always find transcripts and key highlights of the episode on our website: https://www.boundaryless.io/podcast/cutler-john Episode recorded on Sep 6, 2024 Get in touch with Boundaryless: Find out more about the show and the research at Boundaryless at ⁠https://boundaryless.io/resources/podcast⁠ Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/boundaryless_⁠ Website: ⁠https://boundaryless.io/contacts⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/boundaryless-pdt-3eo⁠ Music Music from Liosound / Walter Mobilio. Find his portfolio here: ⁠https://blss.io/Podcast-Music