All contributed article articles

Article Case Study: How We Launched a GenAI Training Program for 2,500 Employees (So Far)
May 28, 2025 | By Paulette Campbell, Aliza Goldberg, Jillian Kingwood, Christiana Littrell, Anne Roberts-Smith, and Briana Vecchio-Pagan, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
The co-authors of this case study realized that many of their colleagues weren't yet comfortable implementing GenAI into their daily work. Here's how they designed a training program to get them up to speed — quickly.
Article Throw Out the Innovation Funnel, and Replace It With a Calendar
May 22, 2025 | By Tina Lambert
In this excerpt, marketing and innovation executive Tina Lambert calls the idea of an innovation funnel "very unrealistic," and proposes an alternative — the three-year calendar.
Article Book Excerpt: Secrets of Stakeholder Whispering
May 12, 2025 | By Bill Shander, author
"Stakeholder Whispering requires identifying your stakeholders," writes Bill Shander. "But it is also about making sure your stakeholders identify and recognize (and prioritize) their stakeholders." Read our exclusive excerpt...
Article From Seed to Scale: Advice on Building Successful Startup Partnerships
April 30, 2025 | By Paulina Karpis, B Capital
The former Head of Business Technology at ServiceTitan, Pranav Shahi, shares his framework for evaluating new technologies, structuring startup pilots, and scaling innovation with measurable business impact. He also explores how enterprises can engage with emerging tech while maintaining commercial discipline.
Article Workiva CIO: GenAI Creates a ‘New Kind of Change Management Challenge’
April 23, 2025 | By Paulina Karpis, B Capital
As CIO of Workiva, Kim Huffman leads enterprise technology strategy with a focus on innovation, scalability, and responsible AI. In this conversation, Huffman outlines her three-pillar framework for evaluating startup partnerships, her four-part approach to AI governance, and the evolving role of the CIO as a business strategist.
Article Book Excerpt: How to Predict What Your Competitors Will Do
March 18, 2025 | By Ilya Trakhtenberg, L.E.K. Consulting, Stuart E. Jackson, L.E.K Consulting
Understanding your competition means predicting how they will react, write Stuart E. Jackson and Ilya Trakhtenberg in Predictable Winners: A Handbook for Developing, Forecasting, and Launching New Products and Services. Success requires defining your competitive set, recognizing direct and indirect competitors, and anticipating market shifts. By using competitive intelligence and...
Article ADP Ventures Chief on Successful Corporate-Startup Partnerships
February 28, 2025 | By Paulina Karpis, B Capital
As the leader of ADP Ventures, Usman “Oz” Khan oversees strategic investment and innovation initiatives at one of the largest HR technology companies. Khan discusses the importance of startup partnerships, the role of AI in HR tech, and how ADP Ventures supports innovation across a large and complex enterprise. This...
Article Analyzing the Three-Year Rise and Fall of Corporate Innovation Efforts
February 24, 2025 | By Robyn Bolton, Founder & Chief Navigator, MileZero
The ABCs of Innovation gives you a map to make innovation last beyond the three-year mark, writes Robyn Bolton in her new book, Unlocking Innovation: A Leader's Guide for Turning Bold Ideas into Tangible Results. The three elements, Behavior, Architecture, and Culture, must be built and nurtured in tandem to...
Article Albertsons Exec on Startup Partnerships and Where GenAI is Having an Impact
February 11, 2025 | By Paulina Karpis, B Capital
As Albertsons’ GVP of Technology and Engineering, Maria Latushkin is reshaping how one of America’s largest retailers merges in-store and online shopping. We talk with Latushkin about cultivating startup partnerships that thrive at enterprise scale, the pragmatic realities of deploying GenAI across vast workforces, and her vision for smarter, frictionless...
Article Book Excerpt: An Example of an Amazon-Style PRFAQ Doc
February 10, 2025 | By Marcelo Calbucci
Used often inside Amazon, "a PRFAQ (Press Release + Frequently Asked Question) is a framework for articulating in writing an innovation, capturing the key facts, assumptions, and hypotheses for strategic decision making," writes Marcelo Calbucci. Here's an example...
Article Start with the ABCs to Get Better Performance From Your Team
February 7, 2025 | By Paula Davis, Stress & Resilience Institute
There are three essential nutrients at the heart of thriving, intrinsic motivation, engagement, and high performance at work, writes Paula Davis in her new book. They are autonomy, belonging, and challenge. Read our exclusive excerpt.
Article How to Use a Reverse Income Statement to Assess Experiments
February 3, 2025 | By Wim Vandenhouweele
How to use a simplified version of a Reverse Income Statement to define and value the experiment's key assumption(s). Includes a downloadable spreadsheet example.
Article The End of Consulting as We Know it: Client Power and the AI Revolution
January 10, 2025 | By Humberto Salicetti, KreArc Partners
Client needs are outpacing traditional consulting models. And the rise of AI is not just changing the tools consutants use — it’s redefining the power dynamics between consultants and their clients. Humberto Salicetti explains...
Article How Uber is Leveraging GenAI for ‘Zero Touch’ and ‘One Touch’ Customer Support
January 9, 2025 | By Paulina Karpis, B Capital
As Uber’s Director of Global Content for Community Operations, Hadley Ferguson has spent 12 years shaping the company’s support experience. We talk with Ferguson about leveraging GenAI to transform customer support, fostering team adoption of new technologies, and building successful partnerships with startups to meet the needs of a global...
Article GenAI’s Trough of Disillusionment — and How to Avoid It
December 11, 2024 | By Hugh Park Jedwill
Generative AI is about to enter its Trough of Disillusionment. Lots of exciting words from tech luminaries have been published in the past couple years, but we’re all waiting for the proof. Hugh Park Jedwill explains how to get there.
Article What Electric Forklifts Can Teach Us About EV Adoption
November 1, 2024 | By Michael Gaylen, Concentric
In the last three decades, operations leaders and facility managers worldwide have made significant progress in making the switch from traditionally-powered forklifts to electric. This period of change has provided useful lessons we can apply to understanding the evolution of the electric vehicle space, writes Michael Gaylen of Concentric.
Article My Advice: Connecting Innovation to Profitable Growth
October 18, 2024 | By Alexis Rolloff, Government Employees Health Association (GEHA)
To drive profitable growth, innovation must align with business outcomes, says Alexis Rolloff, Chief Innovation & Strategy Officer at GEHA. Many programs fall into "innovation theater," but success lies in using the right KPIs, avoiding common pitfalls, and fostering a supportive ecosystem.
Article My Advice: Overcoming the Challenges to Innovation in Regulated Industries
June 26, 2024 | By Sara Kraft, AstraZeneca
In any highly-regulated industry, well-intentioned rules can often hinder innovators from advancing great ideas. How do you overcome that? Here's advice from an innovator at AstraZeneca.
Article What Walmart Loses with the Closure of its Store No. 8 Incubator
February 15, 2024 | By Matt Mueller, Contributing Columnist
Walmart's CFO argues that innovation is now “fully embedded” in the organization. Do you buy that argument? Food and retail innovation veteran Matt Mueller doesn't...
Article Singin’ in the Rain: Brands Must Work Harder to Spread Joy
May 10, 2023 | By Paul Earle, Contributing Columnist and Principal of A Day in the Sun
Paul Earle, co-founder of GOODLES, Big Nose Kate Whiskey, and Small Wonder, gives insights about the importance of novelty, shock, and keeping up with consumers in an ever-changing environment.