Thanks to technology, especially generative artificial intelligence (AI), getting into the hands of consumers, the business landscape and our societies have been evolving faster than ever.  Lorenzo Hodges of Plain White Table is back again to continue the conversation we started in 2019 on innovation in organisations. Now five years later, Lorenzo shares his thoughts on, among other things: the impact of the pandemic on innovation; the importance of asking the right questions; the mindset business leaders ought to possess to encourage innovation among their teams; the connection between digital transformation and innovation; and the impact of AI on innovation.

 

This episode is also available on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music!!

Almost without fail, organisations would wish to present themselves as encouraging innovation within their teams. However, there is a vast difference between saying you’re innovative and being innovative.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced organisations to become innovative – for their survival in unprecedented circumstances. Now on the other side of that cataclysmic event, many organisations have reverted to their pre-pandemic ways of doing business, inherently abandoning some of the innovation-driven measures they had adopted.

However, there is still an imperative for organisations to digitally transform, which requires organisations to be innovative to be successfully executed. Unfortunately, digital transformation is often considered solely from a technology perspective, and not as an opportunity to comprehensively interrogate all aspects of the organisation – asking the right questions – which is virtually identical to what is required to be innovative.

In this conversation on the ICT Pulse Podcast, we are revisiting innovation, thus continuing a yearlong discussion we started in 2019, to explore how it has evolved over the past five years along with how organisations can foster the mindset of curiosity.

 

Introducing our guest

Lorenzo Hodges

Lorenzo Hodges is a tech industry veteran and an award-winning innovation strategist with over 20 years of experience in delivering solutions across diverse industries. He is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer and Chief Innovation Officer of Plain White Table, an innovation strategy and capacity development firm, based in Trinidad and Tobago. Since 2017, he has been lecturing at the Arthur Lok Jack Global School of Business and more recently, The University of West Indies.

Lorenzo is a highly regarded business leader operating at the intersection of business, design and technology. His areas of expertise include corporate and digital innovation, experience design, business model design, new product and new service development and marketing.

 

 

Insights into our conversation

If there is one takeaway from this conversation with Lorenzo, which was echoed in our previous interview in 2019, it is that innovation does not occur in a vacuum. The premise of our 2019 discussion was to move beyond the mystique surrounding innovation and whether it could be systematised in organisations. In that earlier interview and this one, Lorenzo shares tools and strategies leaders can employ to foster innovation within their organisations.

Having also led organisations, Lorenzo is very thoughtful in his approach to innovation and business optimisation, as he appreciates different – and even opposing – forces that often need to be balanced. However, at the core of innovation is problem-solving. In other words, developing better solutions for perceived problems within organisations, and creating an environment that allows that to be done is indeed a good thing.

Below are some of the questions that drove our conversation with Lorenzo.

  1. What impact do you think the pandemic had on innovation generally, and innovation in the region more specifically?
  2. What innovation-related trends have you been observing following the height of the pandemic – as the world returns to some semblance of normalcy?
  3. What are some common barriers to innovation that organisations face, and how can they overcome them?
  4. What is the relationship between digital transformation and innovation and the role technology plays?
  5. What are some of the ways innovation has evolved post-pandemic?

 

We would love to hear your thoughts!

Do leave us a comment either here beneath this article, or on our Facebook or LinkedIn pages, or via Twitter, @ICTPulse.

Also, if you or a member of your network is interested in joining us for an episode, do get in touch.

Let’s make it happen!

 

Select links

Below are links to some of the organisations and resources that either were mentioned during the episode or otherwise, might be useful:

 

 

Images credit:  L Hodges;  Gerd Altmann (Pixabay);  Clark Tibbs (Unsplash); Piyapong Saydaung (Pixabay)

Music credit: The Last Word (Oui Ma Chérie), by Andy Narrell

Podcast editing Support: Mayra Bonilla Lopez