September 5, 2023

Episode 57: Unleashing Ideas That Expand Core Business with Luke Williams

Are you trying to go beyond conventional business practices to spark creativity and lead with resilience? Our guest, Luke Williams, a Professor of Innovation and the Founder & CEO of IdeaSkills, believes it’s possible, FOR ALL OF US, and he’ll join us to dive into how to spark creativity within your teams. Tune in this week to learn how easy it is to DISRUPT as we explore the metaphor of cooking with recipes, using the ingredients around you to create something extraordinary. Luke will also challenge the conventional wisdom of using business best practices, emphasizing the importance of fresh approaches for future success. And in a thought-provoking twist, he’ll make a case for why ideas, often considered free and less valuable, may be more important than execution. This intriguing perspective promises to reframe your approach to innovation and growth.

Episode 57: Unleashing Ideas that Expand Core Business with Luke Williams

Guest Bio

LUKE WILLIAMS is a leading business thinker, speaker and author having lectured in 21 countries & addressed the World Innovation Forum & the United Nations General Assembly. He is Professor of Innovation at NYU Stern School of Business and the founder of Idea Skills™.

Williams is the inventor of 30+ U.S. patents & has designed more than 100 products in industries ranging from transportation to finance, and healthcare to consumer electronics.

His views are regularly featured in media ranging from Bloomberg BusinessWeek & Fast Company to The Wall Street Journal & The Economist. He is the author of the international bestseller, Disrupt: Think the Unthinkable to Spark Transformation in Your Business.

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Recap & Takeaways

Key Takeaways

Introduction to the show, a fellow Aussie and Bluey
Luke’s background in industrial design and how it contributed to his career, travels, and his role in disruptive innovation
Sharing of knowledge and resources vs. a scarcity mindset
A recipe for moving away from the scarcity mindset
People are cooking from a traditional recipe book, without new and better recipes, new growth theory
Running the core business, not giving employees time to think about ideas that don’t support the core business
The myths of disruption, how to be the disruptive change
Rethinking disruptive innovation and creating teams that can evolve the core business
Attack the vulnerabilities, understanding strengths and weaknesses of the product and industry
Breaking apart existing recipes, denying existing cliches, removing the critical success factors to think about value
Taking teams out of the core rigidities, and using artificial frameworks and tools
Bluey, Bandit the dad, and a framework of fun that lends to disruptive thinking
The cult of personality is holding teams and individuals back
Hiring and thinking about what ingredients are needed, diversity, and working with the employees you have now
Execution is the commodity, ideas are the most valuable assets; Luke’s platform Idea Skills
Ideas are the new oil, and how difficult it is to escape old ideas by not criticizing
A call to action, finding Luke in the world