Opportunity Thinking with Pam Henderson: Innovation, Organizational Growth, and the Commercialization of Emerging Technologies

We are focusing on innovation, organizational growth, and the commercialization of emerging technologies with a very special guest, Pam Henderson, a renowned author, entrepreneur, CEO, and expert in business and innovation strategy.

As the founder of NewEdge, a growth strategy firm, Pam leads the charge in identifying and anchoring growth opportunities. Her extensive experience spans both academia and industry, with her work featured in prestigious outlets like the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, and NPR.

This is a wonderful episode for anyone with an entrepreneurial mindset. We learn how Pam’s academic work eventually led to her establishing NewEdge. She also developed the opportunity thinking approach, which involves getting clear on how ideas will serve the market. We learn about defining what an opportunity is and more about turning an idea into a strategic business opportunity.

In This Episode:

[01:29] Pam's journey from academia to founding NewEdge. She began as a professor for Carnegie Mellon. She was invited to help commercialize early stage technologies which eventually led to Pam founding NewEdge. 

[03:03] Pam developed the opportunity thinking approach. A lot of ideas don't land in the market. Getting clear on how our ideas will serve the market leads to better ideas.

[04:32] Defining opportunity first increases the odds for success. We get excited about ideas, but defining the broader opportunity gives us ideas about what will actually work.

[05:22] You have to define what an opportunity is.

[07:06] Get clear on the need, way to create value, and conditions. 

[08:38] Opportunity Thinking™ taps into six sources: market forces, business models, technology, organizations, environments, and design. Before the iPod, there were digital ways of gathering up music. 

[09:33] Apple created a business model that allowed us to get singular songs as opposed to entire albums. The larger opportunity was to build out the success of these different sources.

[10:53] Sometimes we need to take a step back and go slow to go fast. Look at the opportunity and then build the technologies accordingly.

[11:27] Pam shares an example of an innovation partnership that led to cooling shirts made from coconut polymer fibers. 

[15:25] Harley-Davidson's first electric vehicle. Staying true to the opportunity leads to bigger ideas in the market.

[17:16] We learn about the voice of the ecosystem. 

[20:07] Common strategies companies face when trying to implement opportunity thinking and how to overcome them.

[22:43] People confuse risk aversion with uncertainty aversion. We can work on uncertainty aversion by getting people more familiar with opportunities.

[24:15] Pam talks about the importance of culture. Working on culture is one of the things that has made her the most proud in her organization.

[25:06]  A consultant really helped them identify their values. Make your values interesting and true to who you are. They love people who are driven and continually improving. Other values include team first and grounded provocateurs. Teachable trust builders or being a teacher and a learner at all times.

[28:46] Co-innovation is one of the emerging trends companies should take notice of. Companies are going to need to collaborate more to make big changes.

Resources: 

Pam Henderson NewEdge

NewEdge

Pam Henderson LinkedIn

Killing Ideas - You can kill an idea, you can't kill an opportunity