Naked Ambition Podcast
Naked Ambition
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The Naked Ambition podcast is a show that explores the topics of innovation, design, and leadership, hosted by Fiona Triaca, the founder and CEO of Naked Ambition. Each episode features insightful conversations with thought leaders, entrepreneurs, and executives from a variety of industries, who share their experiences and expertise on how to drive innovation, build high-performing teams, and create a culture of creativity and collaboration. With a focus on practical insights and actionable advice, the Naked Ambition podcast is a must-listen for anyone who wants to stay ahead of the curve and drive change in their organisation or industry.
Available episodes
Newest first
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Mar 8, 2023
How MCEC innovated new modes of working and service offerings in the post-pandemic event industry
In our latest ‘How They Did It’ podcast episode we speak with the Senior Manager of Innovation at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC), Katie Tinetti. Taking a huge hit to the events industry during the Covid Pandemic, MCEC were forced to develop creative solutions to presenting events. In a new era of innovation and collaboration in the events industry, we discuss MCEC’s recent innovation journey and Katie’s personal experience with Design Thinking, including:
• Rethinking how to do business in a hybrid environment and using this as an opportunity to adopt Agile working
• How MCEC are overcoming resource shortages, staff fluctuations and competing priorities in a post-covid world
• Working collaboratively with internal and external partners and the importance of building strong relationships with stakeholders
• The future of innovation at MCEC and how they’re building an innovative, future-focused centre in Geelong
• How Katie’s out of the box thinking landed her current role, and her
advice for people starting their own innovation journey
Katie is an experienced events specialist who has worked in the industry for over a decade. Currently the Senior Manager of Innovation at MCEC, she has also recently been appointed as Senior Manager (Commercial Lead) of the new Geelong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Focused on creativity and collaboration, Katie is passionate about business transformation and creating an impactful customer experience.
Follow Katie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-tinetti-74b2131b/
Follow us: www.linkedin.com/company/naked-ambition
www.naked-ambition.com.au
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Feb 22, 2023
How MDHS is transforming the patient experience to deliver better health outcomes to their community
In our latest ‘How They Did It’ episode we speak with Maryborough District Health Service (MDHS)’s CEO, Nickola Allan, and Director of Infrastructure, Technology & Experience and Deputy CEO, David Edwards. An exciting new era for healthcare in the Maryborough community, Nickola and David have recently led MDHS through a period of significant organisational change, while overseeing a $100 million redevelopment project, due for completion in 2025.
We discuss:
• The approach the MDHS team took to understand patient and carer’s experiences, and the simple fixes that are making a big difference to ‘change the healthcare story’ at Maryborough Hospital and in the community
• Using the mantra of “appropriate care, appropriate place” to innovate new solutions for primary care patients
• The importance of customer service in the health industry and consistency in providing care and kindness to community members
• The strategic steps David & Nickola took to enhance staff experience and wellbeing in the wake of Covid-19
• Advice for leaders tackling organisational change, and the necessity of investing in your people and taking risks in innovation
As CEO of MDHS, Nickola Allan is excited to be playing a leading role in changing the healthcare story for communities in regional Victoria. With more than 20 years’ experience in public health in both metropolitan and rural health services, she has developed expertise in patient safety, risk management and improving outcomes and systems to keep abreast of changing demographics, environments, and technology.
A strategic leader in regional health, David Edwards is committed to finding new and innovative ways to use patient, client, and staff experience stories to drive change in clinical and non-clinical systems. His current role provides him with the opportunity to deliver large scale transformation through consumer and employee collaboration, using experience-driven systems, co-design, and data to provide unique insights and drive improvement in health services and infrastructure.
Follow Nickola: linkedin.com/in/nickola-allan-3001aaa5
Follow David: linkedin.com/in/david-edwards-72bb50110
Follow us: www.linkedin.com/company/naked-ambition
www.naked-ambition.com.au
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Feb 8, 2023
How to de-risk ideas and save money with pretotyping
In our latest podcast episode, we speak with Leslie Barry, the Founder and Director of Exponentially, where he uses the Google-developed method for de-risking innovation and shortening product development cycles called “Pretotyping”.
In this super practical episode, we talk about
• The origins of pretotyping and why it is different from prototyping
• Key pretotyping techniques and how you can use them to test hypotheses before product builds
• The ethics of customer experimentation and best practices for product testing
• Stories from the field – when to use the technique, and when not to!
• The complexities of including cash for commitment and price point testing during the pretotyping phase
• The future of pretotyping and how you can ‘pretotype the pretotype’ to start using this methodology in your own customer research
Working in the innovation space for over a decade, Leslie has headed Innovation at ThoughtWorks and Sportsbet, built four startups, sold two, and guest lectures on experimentation and pretotyping at Stanford University. He has trained over 800 pretotypers and 150 start-up and scale-up founders across the world, run over 1000 pretotypes, and saved organisations over $25 million by not building the wrong 'it'.
Follow Leslie on Twitter & Linkedin: @LeslieCBarry https://www.linkedin.com/in/lesliebarry/
Follow Exponentially on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/think-exponentially
Check out the Exponentially website: https://www.exponentially.com/about
Check out Rapidly Software: https://www.testrapidly.com/
Join the Slack channel: https://www.exponentially.com/join-the-community
Pretotyping Online Training: https://www.exponentially.com/online-training
Follow us: www.linkedin.com/company/naked-ambition
www.naked-ambition.com.au
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Sep 20, 2022
How to Create the Space for Innovation in a Law Firm
In this ‘How They Did It’ podcast episode we speak with the Head of Innovation Services at Allens, Liza Greenwood. At Allens, Liza leads strategic transformational programs for lawyers, focusing on innovation skills development and behavioural shifts – leading with the mindset of “getting better at getting better”. In an exciting time for law and innovation, we discuss the emergence of design thinking in the legal industry and new legal tech on the rise including:
• Overcoming time constraints, ‘lawyer mindset’ and perfectionist mentalities to curate a culture of collaborative innovation
• The importance of capability building – including an inspiring story of how one Junior lawyer taught a whole new group how to adopt design thinking
• The innovation time bank – an organisational incentive to breed creativity and change the culture on time constraints
• Some of the legal tech solutions being developed at Allens and how concepts could apply to other industries
Liza Greenwood has over 20 years' experience in the legal industry and specialises in innovation, strategy, change management and project management. Managing a team of innovation experts, she employs best practice methods (design thinking, lean startup and agile) to coach partners and lawyers to surface problems, discover solutions and deliver value to the firm and their clients.
Get in touch with Liza: liza.greenwood@allens.com.au
https://www.allens.com.au/people/this-is-allens/profile-liza-greenwood/
Follow us: www.linkedin.com/company/naked-ambition
www.naked-ambition.com.au
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Aug 9, 2022
How to build a challenger product in just a few months
In this latest episode we speak with Jo Mikleus. As the Executive General Manager of Latitude’s Insurance business, Jo was appointed to lead the strategic design and future of the insurance business. Naked Ambition partnered with the team at Latitude to build the prototype of this entirely new offer over 7 months in 2021. We discuss how this project emerged and tell the story – the ups and downs – of what it takes to innovate like a start-up in an established business – including:
• The role of execs – hands on or hands off in exploratory innovation – and Jo’s advice for leaders here
• The impact of embedding customer data not just in the initial design, but ongoing iteration of the product
• The power of innovation visioning, thinking forward and back-casting to energise + focus teams during the enviable dips and ambiguity that come with new product development
• Using intelligent failure to learn and grow
• And why regulation in your industry could be the customer-focused constraint you need
Jo Mikleus has over 30 years’ experience as growth-focus leader, including in CEO Roles – spanning business, technology, and finacial services and in public, private and PE-backed companies. Before this role at Latitude Jo lead a range of large business at ANZ, co-founding the machine co-founding a machine learning company CorticAi and being the CEO of fast-growing data firm RUBIX.
Follow Jo: @JoMikleus
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jomikleus/
Follow us: @_nakedambition
www.naked-ambition.com.au
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Nov 17, 2021
Futurist Sohail Inayatullah on our 500-year future, Covid as a pivot, The politics of the future
A political scientist and futurist, Professor Sohail Inayatullah is the co-host of Metafuture and its Online Futures School, an educational think tank that explores alternative and preferred futures and the worldviews and myths that underlie them. He is a Professor at Tamkang University, Taipei, and an Associate at Melbourne Business School, as well as the inaugural UNESCO Chair in Futures Studies. Passionate about future methodologies and theorising how the future is constructed, Professor Inayatullah works as a writer, lecturer, and consultant to help individuals and organisations transform the future.
In this latest podcast episode, Professor Inayatullah joins us to discuss all things future-thinking, including:
• What it means to be a futurist and how you can use future thinking to create your desired reality
• How COVID has forced businesses and individuals to change, and what realities could exist in the future due to the pandemic
• Some of the methodologists Professor Inayatullah uses and how organisations and governments can take action now to control the future
• The power of thinking ahead not just 50 years from now, but 500
Professor Inayatullah is the Editor-In-Chief of the Journal of Futures Studies and on the editorial boards of Future, Prout Journal, East West Affairs, World Future Review and Foresight. He has published more than 350 journal articles, book chapters, encyclopedia entries and magazine editorials, co-edited 25 books/CDs and has received the Laurel award for all-time best futurist by the Shaping Tomorrow Foresight Network. Continuing his work on shaping the future, Professor Inayatullah is the futurist-in-residence for 2021 with the government of Abu Dhabi, Culture and Tourism.
Learn more about Casual Layered Analysis with Professor Inayatullah’s Ted Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImWDmFPfifI
Follow Professor Inayatullah on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/sohail-inayatullah-6b7b765/
Check out the Metafuture website: https://www.metafuture.org/
Metafuture Futures School: https://www.metafutureschool.org/
Follow us: @_nakedambition
www.naked-ambition.com.au
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Oct 9, 2021
Scott OBrien breaks down AR, VR, holographic telepresence and what we might see in the near future
Scott OBrien is the Founder and CEO of Humense, a revolutionary Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR) and Virtual Reality (VR) platform. Through his experience studying psychology and playing professional sports, Scott conceived Humense as a tool suite, marketplace, and social platform for bystanders to ‘get in on the action’ via augmented experiences. He is a global leader in AR/VR, with over 100 completed projects and 20+ significant world first projects in the industry.
Scott joins us on our latest podcast episode to discuss some of the current trends in AR/VR, including:
• How Scott used his passion for sports to innovate new ways of operating in the AR/VR space
• His perspective on remote work and how employees can flip the script on what it means to work remotely
• The future possibility of a ‘metaverse’ in which anyone can switch from physical experiences to augmented or virtual reality in day-to-day life
• Advancements in AR/VR for virtual stadium experiences and events
• The evolution of VR over the past decade and the new hardware in development that can be used across different realities
Scott is passionate about how AR and VR can be used globally to enhance experience in eSports, traditional sports, road, rail, and airports. He has worked on over 10,000 firsthand AR/VR demos and spent over 10,000 hours coaching sports in schools, prisons and juvenile justice centres. He and his team have delivered hardware and software in numerous industries including global sports events, Hollywood, eSports, theme park overhauls, branded experiences, telco and enterprise.
Follow Scott on LinkedIn, Twitter & Instagram: @scottobrien61
Follow Humense on Twitter & Instagram: @humense
Follow us: @_nakedambition
www.naked-ambition.com.au
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Oct 7, 2021
Victor Perton on the science + power of optimism in innovation and leadership
Victor Perton is the Founder and Chief Optimism Officer at the Centre for Optimism, an offshoot of the Australian Leadership Project. Comprised of over 3500 leaders in 65 countries, the Centre for Optimism aims to help leaders combat negativity by asking the question “what makes you Optimistic?”. A respected author, speaker, moderator, barrister and researcher, Victor uses his extensive experience to inspire leaders around the world to lead with joy, optimism and self-mastery.
Victor joins us on our latest podcast episode to discuss his take on optimism, including:
• Why it’s important to find your own personal source of optimism, rather than seeking an external model to follow
• How optimism fits in to the seven key mindsets of design thinking and why optimism is key for innovation
• The difference between unrealistic optimism and intelligent optimism
• Simple techniques you can use as a leader to boost your team’s optimism as well as your own
• The benefits of positive governance and the importance of bringing positivity into the boardroom
Known for his leadership strategy, public policy and corporate governance, Victor spent 18 years in the Victorian Parliament before becoming Commissioner to the Americas on Foreign Direct Investment and Export Promotion and serving as Senior Advisor to the Australian G20 Presidency. He now spends his time facilitating roundtables, conferences, and panels to inspire leaders to be more optimistic, while furthering his research into the complexities of leadership in Australia.
Read more about Victor at the Centre for Optimism website: https://www.centreforoptimism.com/Victor-Perton
Follow us: @_nakedambition
www.naked-ambition.com.au
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Sep 17, 2021
Catherine Hills on design trends, developing people and building confidence in creative teams
Catherine Hills is a highly experienced leader of people and practice in design and transformation strategy. With a master’s degree in business research and over 22 years in the tech and design industry, she has extensive experience in capability strategy, design operations, and enablement in a variety of industry contexts both within Australia and internationally.
A passionate pioneer of innovation and design strategy, Catherine joins us on the Naked Ambition podcast to discuss:
• How our understanding and application of design has changed over the past 20 years and current changes to ways of thinking in the design industry
• Why empathy is so important to create better communication and value exchanges for everyone in your system, leading to better outcomes both collectively and individually
• How careers in the design space are changing beyond the traditional and the pathway for designers looking to step into the industry or elevate their career
• Catherine’s reflections on her own leadership journey and her experience with leading a team strategically, while also tapping into individual motivations and needs
• The local aspects of design and how First Nations culture and thinking can be integrated with Australia’s contemporary thought processes
In recent years Catherine has been a finalist in the Women Techmakers Scholars Program and Victorian Premier’s Design Awards, has received a Peer Award in Teaching Communication Design Expertise – Digital UX at RMIT, and is a 2020 EMBA Scholarship Recipient at the University of Melbourne. Read more about her work with others in the design community via the links below.
Catherine’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherine-hills-96a1b515
Follow us: @_nakedambition
www.naked-ambition.com.au
A recent article Catherine wrote for Future Shapers UK https://thefutureshapers.com/why-continuous-reflection-provides-cultural-rewards-for-organisations/
Career Architecture by Mags Hanley https://www.magshanley.com/career-architecture-book
Transition Leadership Lab with Susanna Carman and Associates https://www.susannacarman.com/learning-lab
Human Systems Dynamics at LAST Conference with Ahmed Avais https://www.hsdinstitute.org/
First Knowledges Building on Country by Alison Page and Paul Memmot https://thamesandhudson.com.au/the-first-knowledges-series/
Make Meaningful Work by Dan Szuc and Jo Wong https://www.makemeaningfulwork.com/
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Sep 15, 2021
Transforming Salvos stores and innovation in the circular economy
A highly skilled leader and strategist, Matt Davis is the CEO of Salvos Stores, servicing 350 stores across Australia with over 2000 team members and 10,000 volunteers. Previously holding roles in large NGOs and corporate retailers including ALDI and World Vision Australia, Matt combines his experience in the corporate and not-for-profit sectors to lead sustainable change and impact consumer experience.
Passionate about social and environmental change, Matt joins us on the podcast today to discuss Australia’s circular economy, and where to go from here. We discuss:
• How the sustainability movement has impacted the retail space and the innovative ways Salvos have improved their stores to diversify appeal and have more impact
• Matt’s experience of the circular economy and how Australian businesses can better utilise resource recovery to both reuse and remake items
• Salvos Store’s new collaboration, Moving the Needle, bringing together stakeholders across the textile space to discuss how to get consumers to be more conscious of the new items they purchase and donating more thoughtfully
• How companies are using blockchain technology to follow their impact through their product’s life cycle
• The strategic reset required for organisations to face the new COVID normal
Matt currently serves as Chair of Charitable Recycling Australia, advancing the governance, innovation and impact of charities and their retail shops around Australia. He has also previously served on the board of EACH, an organisation providing health and disability services. Passionate about purpose, Matt continues to seek new ways to have a positive impact on the social and environmental challenges being faced by our communities.
Salvos Stores Website: https://www.salvosstores.com.au/
Follow us: @_nakedambition
www.naked-ambition.com.au
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Aug 12, 2021
Innovating against odds. How Kate Dillon bought together 20 makers mid-pandemic to save her business
Kate Dillon is the Founder and Creative Director of She Lion, a luxury handbag brand.
Purposefully designed to organise and diversify women on the go, the She Lion range embodies the attributes that Kate believes are key to success – fierce elegance, premium practicality, and bold ambition.
Kate is a true innovator at heart, joining us on the podcast to discuss her personal journey in the design industry and her mission to empower others. We explore:
- How she worked with 22 Australian businesses to create a new, 100% Australian made product during the height of Covid
- The future of Australian manufacturing and sustainable fashion, and the power of collaboration in the Support Local campaign
- Her experience in the design industry, and how she went from corporate lawyer to handbag innovator with her motto “just do it!”
Kate has over 11 years’ experience as a corporate lawyer and currently practices as a National Transformation Lawyer at Gilbert + Tobin. Balancing her corpo…
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Jul 22, 2021
Turning a lived experience in a vehicle to improve people’s lives (and workplace cultures)
Conrad Tracey is the CEO of Addiction Coaching Australia, an organisation that utilises their unique Delta Path Method to help individuals break the cycle of addiction. Working with individuals, corporations, government bodies and organisations, Conrad and his team aim to create meaningful societal change in Australia, providing a platform for education and mentorship as well as offering bespoke services to individuals dealing with substance misuse.
In our latest podcast, Conrad shares his lived experience of addiction recovery, and how he is helping others do the same, including:
Conrad’s incredible journey battling his own addiction and how he came to develop The Delta Path, an 8 week program designed to break the cycle of addiction
The importance of taking a holistic approach to addiction coaching and how Addiction Coaching Australia provides a modern, confidential experience for their clients
The negative workplace habits and cultures that senior leaders and executives perpet…
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Jul 14, 2021
The Future of Conversational AI with Versa CEO, Kath Blackham
"Kath Blackham is a global leader in AI technologies and the Founder and CEO of VERSA, a digital transformation agency powered by conversational AI. The first agency to operate a 4 day work week in Australia, VERSA has been named by Fast Company as one of the best workplaces for innovators globally. Specialising in the integration of conversational voice and AI technologies, Kath and her team are paving the way for digital transformation in Australia and abroad.
Kath is a trailblazer for all things digital and new ways of working. She joins us today to discuss her vast experience with conversational AI and how it’s transforming communication and consumer experience globally. We discuss:
• The future of conversational AI and the difference between automation and augmentation
• Walking her talk - launching the Versa website using real time conversational AI to direct user enquiries and navigation (even when some of the team had their doubts!)
• How the team…
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Jul 7, 2021
Design, Diversity and being positive about the future of our organisations with Prue Gilbert
"Prue Gilbert was named by the Australian Financial Review as one of the top 100 women of influence for diversity and inclusion, Marie Claire calling her the “anti-discrimination guru” and Vogue naming her a “gamechanger”. As the CEO and Founder of Grace Papers, Prue has spent the last 10 years providing a platform for working parents to navigate their careers while challenging gender stereotypes and overcoming discrimination in the workplace.
In this episode, we cover a lot of ground on the topics of leadership, design-led innovation and Prue's vision for our workplaces of the future including:
- Why Prue and the Grace Papers team are using Human-Centred Design to expand the reach and impact of their market-leading and science-backed employee experience platform
- The importance of agency for working parents and how leaders can work alongside their people to curate practical policies and positive culture for all staff to thrive
- What prevention of gender inequality looks…
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Jun 30, 2021
The suprising pockets of growth in Crypto currencies and where to next with Coinjar CEO, Asher Tan
Asher Tan is the Co-Founder and CEO of CoinJar, one of Australia's leading and longest-running cryptocurrency exchanges + wallet. With over 400,000 users they provide a space for investors to buy, sell, store and spend digital currency - in one place.
In this episode we discuss the evolution, hype and volatility around cryptocurrencies and how what it might take for digital currencies to go more mainstream in the near future. In this chat we cover:
· The origin story of Coinjar and how Asher and team managed to get ahead of the game in the digital currency industry
· The future of cryptocurrency and what being a mainstream currency might look like
· How he and his team use innovation and creativity to provide unique products and services in a newly established and ever-changing industry
To date, CoinJar has traded in excess of 1.5 billion Dollars and continues to grow both domestically and internationally. Winning the silver award in the 2015 [app] design awards, the company pr…
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Jun 28, 2021
How to never stop innovating with Cachia Founder and CEO, Leah Betts
Leah is an absolute innovation powerhouse – creating 6 companies in her 20-year career and in this episode she shares the brutal – and at times hilarious truth - of what it takes to bring ideas to life and grow a brand from scratch or bring one back from the brink. She also shares about the people who influenced her – including her successful Mum who is a major influence + partner in many of Leah’s endeavors. If you’re doing enterprise innovation or starting or growing your own thing – this one is stacked with lessons:
*The trials and errors that come with innovation and how to bounce back when an idea ‘flops’
*Where Leah gets her inspiration for new products and how she channels that in her design process
*The power of being your own demographic and collaborating with your team to meet consumer needs
*Leah’s journey of innovating through COVID, and how her team converted challenges into opportunities to see exponential growth in their business
Leah’s mission i…
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Jun 23, 2021
How to innovate from within with KX Pilates Founder Aaron Smith
In this episode, we chat with Aaron Smith, the Chief Cultural Officer of KX Pilates.
Aaron Smith, is an award-winning fitness innovator and entrepreneur. Aaron founded KX Pilates (which is Japanese for ‘continuous improvement’) in February 2010 and has since built it into Australia's largest pilates franchise with an impressive 74 studios across the country and one studio in Indonesia.
In our chat with Aaron, we talk all things:
* Why Aaron and the team attribute their growth and success to innovating in the core of their business (and not getting distracted by the shiny things)
*How Aaron moved from CEO to Innovation lead in order to focus on build and patent their own unique equipment that will allow KX expand globally
*The critical importance of organisational culture (especially post-pandemic) and why every growing company needs a chief culture officer
More about Aaron: As the founder of KX Pilates, Aaron has earnt multiple awards and recognition including being recognised…
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Jun 21, 2021
How the Circular Ecomony can drive enterprise Innovation with Coreo CEO, Ashleigh Morris
In this episode, we chat with strategic and leadership powerhouse Ashleigh Morris, the CEO of Coreo - Circular Economy Strategy Firm/agency
Ashleigh’s recognition as a future leader includes accolades such as Top 100 Corporate Social Responsibility Influential Leader as well as recently being presented with the Young Businessperson Award by the Mayor of Brisbane.
In our chat with shares her insights on: (with the bullets they need to be quite specific - need a 'so what' message)
· What the circular economy is and the benefits to enterprise in adopting these practices
- The power of an individual to drive the Circular Economy in an organisation
- How CE can drive innovation opportunities
- Female leadership and the impact Ashleigh and her team are making with Coreo
More about Ashleigh - Ashleigh has been a Prime Minister’s scholar, an invitee to the 73rd United Nations general assembly and various trade missions, and Australia’s panelist at the World Circular Econ…
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Mar 23, 2021
Transforming a company with an 80 year legacy
Michael is an accomplished entrepreneurial leader with an executive career spanning three decades and eight countries within start-ups, corporates, government, academia and not-for-profit sectors His unique experiences range from establishing a world first automated antibody facility in Australia, an app start-up, a German DNA engineering company and multiple management positions in tech start-ups, finance and banking.
Michael’s experiences include non-executive director and Chairman roles in banking, innovation, health and medical research. His areas of work include start-ups, growth, leadership and cultural realignments and transformations, stakeholder relations and strategy. Michael is the Executive General Manager at State Trustees where his vision is to humanise an 80+ year-old institution by recognising the changing demographic of Australia; both customers and employees.
Michael’s superpower is to create stretchable boundaries to enable people to grow, a skill he honed star…
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Feb 7, 2021
How to build a product people love (and a company people love working for!)
Dom Pym
Dom is an entrepreneur and technologist who launched Up (up.com.au), a next-generation Australian digital bank delivering super powered banking. Up allows you to easily organise your money and simplify your life, giving you the freedom to do the things you love.
Dom has been involved in software, web and mobile development for over 20 years from start-ups to global enterprises in Australia, the UK, the USA and throughout Asia.
Amidst a growing neobank scene, Up was the first to launch in Australia in October 2018 and they have already amassed 280K+ very happy customers.
Co-founder Dom Pym is happy to provide comment on a range of topics related to banking and finance.
Anson Parker
Anson is a digital expert and Head of Product at Up (up.com.au), a next-generation Australian digital bank delivering super powered banking. Up is a clever way to organise your money and simplify your life, giving you the freedom to do the things you love. Amidst a growing neobank scene, Up were t…
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Dec 16, 2020
Damien Mu, CEO on Transforming AIA and what it really means to be a purpose-led org
Damien Mu is one of the most genuine (and genuinely charismatic) leaders you will come across. Over the years I’ve witnessed him give many-a-rousing speech at AIA and the awe and admiration he inspires from their people is something else.
Damien has been in the CEO seat at AIA Australia and NZ for the last 6 years and in that time has led one of the sectors most ambitious acquisitions and integrations, as well as introducing the market-leading Vitality offer.
In this candid conversation Damien speaks about what it really means to be purpose-led (beyond rhetoric), how the events of 2020 gave him a new personal clarity and saw him connect more deeply to the needs of AIA’s people. He also shares how this translates to making a difference for the AIA customer (like no other insurer) plus, what all this means for their transformation journey.
Damien Mu has more than 20 years’ experience in the Australian financial services industry, with management experience spanning operations, c…
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Nov 25, 2020
Fred Etiemble on How companies can explore new opportunities (while maximising the current business)
Fred is an executive advisor on strategy and innovation. Fred works with senior leaders on how to develop an innovation culture, explore new growth engines and transform their business.
He has been working with or in large organisations for more than 20 years and knows their challenges from the inside. Fred is the co-author with Alex Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur and Alan Smith of The Invincible Company, a guide to make innovation more manageable and help executives build resilience in their organisation.
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Oct 13, 2020
Mads Grummet on Building Companies, Teams and Cultures
Madeleine Grummet is an award-winning education technology entrepreneur, startup mentor, 2020 Amazon Web Services Scout, Angel Investor, Board Director (MAICD), and Founder of leading career education and employability skills platform Future Amp. She is also the Founder and CEO of girledworld, which has connected 100’s of global industry mentors with 30,000+ female high school students to upskill them for the future of work. Mads is qualified in Design Thinking and Innovation with Stanford University and holds a Master of Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Executive Scholarship. She is the winner of the University of Melbourne 2020 Leadership Award for her work across the startup ecosystem. Mads is also a regular media contributor, cohost of the Human Cogs podcast and an ex-journalist who remains incurably curious. A writer at heart, she is pretty much always on the sniff for a good story. But her greatest learning moments are always led by her four daughters.
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Sep 8, 2020
Lisa Gray - VFMC CEO on doing strategy in changing times and how to build a culture of innovation
Lisa Gray is the CEO of VFMC – the Victorian fund management corporation. Her career spans over 25 years predominantly in financial services having held various executive roles at NAB, MLC and Axa.
Lisa is a winner of the Telstra Business Women’s Award for medium-sized enterprises and prestigious Rupert Murdoch Fellowship for Leadership and Management.
This conversation covered so much of Lisa’s vast knowledge in leading for strong cultures and innovation including:
• Her ‘on the couch’ technique of sharing teams backstories to create more connection while the team is distributed
• Challenges and some success in creating an innovation culture (especially in financial services) an shares some ways leaders encourage creativity in their teams
• Why she is re-thinking how they approach strategy at VFMC now – replacing the detailed roadmap with an agile strategic agenda (20 mins)
• Beliefs about large scale transparency in organisations – offering everyone access…
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Aug 24, 2020
Amy Childs from Momentum Energy - How To Lead Through A Crisis
If you are a leader (or aspiring to be) you do not want to miss this episode. Amy Child’s – award-winning Managing Director at Momentum Energy shares deeply and highly practical advice, and candid perspectives on how she had dealt with and led through the challenges of recent months. If you want no-nonsense advice on how to lead with courage and humanity - this is the episode of you.
Amy shares:
- Reflections on the empathic leadership style we need to see more of right now and what it means to relinquish control in times of major upheaval
- How an unconventional childhood growing up in Chile, plus family tragedy, shaped her beliefs around equality that influence many of her decisions today
- Her dedication and vision for workplace wellness and how she has managed to put this first at Momentum – plus details of the three initiatives the team have implemented to keep their people physically and mentally well.
Amy Child’s is the Managing Director of Momentum Energy. In just 4…
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Aug 4, 2020
Jasmine Smith from Swisse Wellness on developing people, new leadership & not doubting yourself
Jasmine Smith is the Director of People and Culture at Swisse. Jasmine Smith, Director, People and Culture, at Swisse Wellness, is a passionate people development professional who has extensive experience in leading and developing engaged and high performing teams.
Over her years of working with many innovative and successful brands (Lush Handmade Cosmetics, Mecca Cosmetica, T2 Tea), Jasmine has learnt that people are always an organisation’s most powerful differentiator.
In this episode Jasmine shares:
- How recent events call for new models of leadership and what they look like
- Lessons learned over the last few months and how Swisse is changing how they work
- Her beliefs about the ‘whole person’ approach to thriving at work, and how her past experiences have guide today
We hope you enjoy!
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Jul 28, 2020
Space + Work: How this relationship is changing with Claudette Leeming from Australia Post
Claudette Leeming is the Head of Workspaces at Australia Post. She has spent her career in the property industry, with specialisation in Workplace Strategy, where she brings together technology and people & culture to positively influence workplace experience and effectiveness.
Claudette is constantly challenging how we operate to evolve the workplace to best enable the business - which has never been more relevant than right now.
In this episode we dive into:
- The big decisions leaders are making about their future workplaces and Claudette's thoughts on why you may not rush this
- Why you may not go to the office to 'work' in the future
- How to find the right working rhythms for you
We hope you enjoy this as much as we did !
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Jun 15, 2020
How to bring creativity into every area of your life with Mykel Dixon
In the latest episode of the Naked Ambition podcast, we speak with award winning speaker, author and musician Mykel Dixon.
In our chat, Mykel shared his views and expert insights on:
Why he believes creativity is the #1 driver for personal fulfilment and professional success.
- The messy relationship between creativity, business and us.
- What it means to be an everyday creative (right now in the world) how he has navigated this
- And his practical advice for you how you can too.
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May 27, 2020
How to have conversations that matter with Daniel Stillman
In this episode of the podcast we speak with Daniel Stillman the author of Good Talk and host of The Conversation Factory.
Daniel shared his views and expert insights on:
- Why you need to get good at having conversations with yourself before others
- The patterns present in every conversation
- A simple model for leaders to have better conversations
- and how good conversations became his calling
We hope you enjoy !
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May 15, 2020
Pushing boundaries, making time for work that matters with IBM's Lee Duncan
Tune for the next episode of the Naked Ambition Podcast with Lee Duncan. Lee Duncan is an Enterprise Design Sprint Leader at IBM.
How he has challenged normal models of the way we work throughout his career, how he made design sprints mainstream at IBM and how they are using them to solve for AI and Blockchain challenges. He also shares his best productivity hacks to stay on track and do the work that matters most.
Over his 20 year career he's helped support an experimental Model Office that reimagined default ways of working, such as scaling virtual design sprints. Lee has also designed solutions in Security, Acquisitions, Analytics and Blockchain—providing an enduring impact to company success.
This October he was recognized with an International Stevie Award in Vienna, Austria for his work with Miracle (non-profit), Chainyard, and IT People Corporation that created new Blockchain Technology for Disaster Relief.
Lee's most recent work has helped launch an Enterprise Design Sp…
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May 6, 2020
Building culture, collaboration and designing new futures at Google
In this episode we speak with Kai Haley Head of Design Relations at Google, which supports design excellence for designers and developers building on Google's platforms. Kai was also one of the founders and leads of the Google Sprint Master Academy, where she has trained over 800 Sprint Masters to drive innovation across Google’s diverse product areas.
We cover:
- How Google use design sprints to explore 'Moonshot' ideas
- Cultivating an experimentation mindset and what she looks for in new hires
- Collaborating with designers and developers across Google platforms
- How Kai and her team have trained over 800 people in the design sprint methodology
- Plus the trends we should be watching
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Apr 22, 2020
The Block Model: Revolutionising university education with Trish McCluskey
Join us as we speak to Trish McCluskey, the Pro Vice Chancellor of Victoria University and award winning educator and leader. Trish was instrumental in the design and development of the VU Block Model, a radical reconceptualization of the traditional university curriculum.
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Apr 22, 2020
How to run virtual design sprints with Robert Skrobe
Join Fiona from Naked Ambition in uncovering tools, techniques and all that there is to know about Virtual Design Sprints from the Design Sprint master himself, Robert Skrobe.
Robert is the owner of Dallas Design Sprints, and the authority on the virtual design sprint process and the organizer of the Global Virtual Design Sprint and the Referral Network for facilitators, designers, developers and researchers.
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May 1, 2018
The Intersection of Design Thinking and Lean Start Up for Innovation with Humphrey Laubscher
Humphrey Laubscher is a Product Innovation Coach at Apply Lean and has previously worked in innovation roles within Aus Post and Nab Labs. In this episode Humphrey shares his perspective on working in some of the Australia's most high profile innovation teams + what works and what doesn't when it comes to enterprise innovation. He also gets specific about what tools and techniques you can employ to build capability in your own team.
As the Founder of Apply Lean Humphrey helps corporates and startups apply Lean Startup, Design Thinking and Agile methodologies to build innovative products. Most recently Humphrey was helping to drive Australia Posts new digital innovation strategy by leading a cross functional team in identifying, validating and experimenting new digital businesses that target their enterprise and government customers within his role as Lead Emerging Products Manager.
Prior to joining AusPost, Humphrey was the FinTech Innovation Manager at National Australia Banks’ I…
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May 1, 2018
Keeping it Customer-Centered at Medibank with Olga Cuesta
Olga is currently the Head of Customer Experience and Design at Medibank, a position she has held since April 2017. Prior to this role she was Human Centred Design practice manager at Nab Labs.
In this episode Olga gives a deep and unique insight into how she has built her team and cemented their key role in the business (after the design team was disbanded a few years ago), how Medibank use multiple sources of 'live' data to drive better customer experience and deliver value for members, and her advice for driving grass-roots innovation.
Olga passionate about the people side of innovation and on top of her in-house experience she brings an impressive list of qualifications includes an MBA from the London Business School, a Degree from London School of Economics and Political Science, she’s an NLP Practioner, an Agile scrum master, and has studied Design Thinking for Innovation at University of Virginia.
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May 1, 2018
How Cisco Leads Cross Industry Innovation with Kate O'Keeffe
Kate O'Keeffe the Senior Director and one of the founders of Cisco Hyperinnovation Living Labs – also known as CHILL. CHILL condenses up to two years of normal innovation into just two days by bringing together a handful of Cisco’s customers—along with entrepreneurs, hackers, and end users—in a 48-hour lab focused on a particular industry challenge. They collaborate, build prototypes, test them with users, then iterate up to 12 times before making a pitch for on-the-spot investment.
CHILL is the culmination of Kate’s vision that today’s hyperinnovation era requires both specific muscles and the capability to involve customers and startups in new and exciting ways. Since CHILL’s inception, a full 75% of projects have progressed to further stages, including to CHILL-X, a process that creates startups from scratch.
In this episode Kate talks us through how CHILL works, some of the success they have had and some of the lessons they've learned along the way. She also exp…
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May 1, 2018
Building A Culture of Innovation at CBA with Heath Brown
Heath Brown is an Executive Director in CommBank’s Innovation Labs, responsible for developing strategies and programs to make innovation accessible for bank staff, business clients and the broader community.
These programs are aimed at building out world class innovation capabilities and innovation culture within CommBank, and then to share these assets (eg IP, programming, content, learnings, business plans, centre of excellence expertise) with the broader business community.
In this episode we talk about Heath's experience with the innovation lab model - success and lessons, how to build innovation capability at scale and the role of mindset in the process.
Heath’s background spans across roles in Go To Market & Strategy, Sales Leadership, Sales Strategy and institutional advisory and consulting before focussing on the groups innovation strategy in 2016 to now. Outside of corporate, Heath is an elite sporting coach, and his passion is driving greater participation and equali…
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