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Activate Innovation Lounge

Open Solve Studio LLC
Innovation
Open Innovation
Artificial Intelligence
Grassroots Innovation
Organizational Culture
Leadership
Microsoft Garage
Employee Innovation
Business Process
Intrapreneurship
ID8 Program
Einstein55
Entrepreneurship
Crowdsourcing
Management
Internal Crowdsourcing
Expected Value
Innovation Challenges
Automation
Innosabi

Activate Innovation Lounge features real stories from leaders who activate innovators, innovation, and innovation culture within and beyond their organizations. Through conversations with innovation leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs, we explore how organizations unlock the potential of their people, open up to outside ideas, and build cultures where innovation does not just happen once but ke... more

PublishesWeeklyEpisodes18Founded8 months ago
Number of ListenersCategories
BusinessManagement

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Artwork for Activate Innovation Lounge

Latest Episodes

If you had an idea in your organization, would you know where to go?

That question is the simplest audit of whether you have an innovating engine or just innovation theater.

Ben Bensaou asks it every time he walks into a company. He interviews 15 t... more

There are a lot of “why questions” that need to be answered when it comes to purposeful activation of employee innovators. And one of those is why do organizations and their leaders miss on cultivating this capability. The answer is not that leaders ... more

The most powerful source of innovation in an organization is not the strategy, the technology, or the dedicated innovation team. It is the hidden innovator inside every employee. The agent in the contact center watching the same friction repeat. The ... more

In this bonus episode of the Activate Innovation Lounge, Iliriana Kaçaniku continues her conversation with Jan Fischer of Innosabi, an innovation management platform that has helped enterprises run challenges, source ideas from employees and customer... more

If you’re a leader who got excited and enthused to invite everyone in the organization to share ideas about innovation, please hold on, and don't do it.

It may feel like the right thing to do, it may give you the excitement that you haven't felt fo... more

In the first part of this conversation, Alexis Samuel laid out what he calls the Baker's Dozen. Twelve building blocks for activating grassroots innovation in a large enterprise.

From the CEO's call to innovate to psychological safety.

From brandin... more

There is a tension in how organizations think about activating employee innovators.

Who knows best what needs to be solved?

The leader who sees the business from the top? Or the employee who lives the friction every day?

Alexis Samuel spent over 3... more

Why do most innovation programs generate excitement but deliver nothing? You collect hundreds of ideas. Award the best ones. Then watch them die in handoff limbo.

Alexis Samuel has spent decades building grassroots innovation programs at scale in g... more

Key Facts

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Find out how many people listen to this podcast per episode and each month.

Recent Guests

Ben Bensaou
Professor of Technology Management, INSEAD
INSEAD
Episode: Episode 16: Innovating Engine can only be built from within with Ben Bensaou
Roel de Vries
Founder and lead consultant at Riverstone Blue, advocate of people-driven innovation
Riverstone Blue
Episode: Episode 15: Why do organizations keep missing these innovators already inside with Roel De Vries
Vlora Muslimi
Senior Manager of the ID8 Program and Colleague Innovation at TD Bank
TD Bank
Episode: Episode 14: Challenges bring to light what innovation is important, with Vlora Muslimi, TD Bank
Marta Jakab
Innovation leader and software engineer by training who designs intrapreneurship programs and marketplaces of problems
Various corporate clients (as guest expert)
Episode: Episode 12: Marta Jakab on Why problems matter more than ideas in corporate innovation
Alexis Samuel
Leader who activated grassroots innovators in the workplace; former Senior Vice President, Global Delivery Excellence at Cognizant; led Blue Bolt Innovation Program
Cognizant
Episode: Episode 10: Why should leaders activate grassroots innovators with Alexis Samuel
Simon Hill
Founder and CEO of Wazoku
Wazoku
Episode: Episode 9: How can leaders measure the business value of innovation with Simon Hill
Dan Toma
Author and consultant focused on innovation systems
The Outcome
Episode: Episode 8: How to build an innovation system that never stops with Dan Toma, Outcome
Ed Essey
Senior Director of Business Value at Microsoft Garage
Microsoft
Episode: Episode 7: Why every organization, including yours, needs an innovation garage?
Elaine Chin
Challenge designer with Innocentive background
Innocentive (open-innovation platform)
Episode: Episode 6: What does it take to design and run a successful innovation challenge with Elaine Chin

Host

Iliriana Kacaniku
Host of Activate Innovation Lounge

Chart Rankings

How this podcast ranks in the Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube charts.

Apple Podcasts
#164
Italy/Business/Management

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Talking Points

Recent interactions between the hosts and their guests.

Episode 7: Why every organization, including yours, needs an innovation garage?
Q: What does it take to give an idea a chance to grow into a product or internal improvement?
Start with a clear why, design pathways that let anyone test ideas quickly and cheaply, provide executive support to move promising ideas forward, and tailor the pathway to the kind of innovation—whether incremental or breakthrough.
Episode 8: How to build an innovation system that never stops with Dan Toma, Outcome
Q: What is the biggest mistake organizations make with idea intake?
Opening an idea inbox without a real process behind it demotivates employees; there must be a credible evaluation, development pipeline, and visible follow-through to maintain trust and engagement.
Episode 8: How to build an innovation system that never stops with Dan Toma, Outcome
Q: When is the best time to involve the CFO in innovation initiatives?
Involve the CFO from day one with a pre-approved budget framework that supports stage-based funding; avoid asking for budgets upfront and instead have predefined funds allocated by governance, updating the business case as experimentation proceeds.
Episode 8: How to build an innovation system that never stops with Dan Toma, Outcome
Q: What is a practical scaffolding that allows employee ideas to evolve into products?
A practical scaffolding includes a shared definition of innovation, a clear innovation strategy tied to corporate goals, staged funding, a venture board with real decision-making authority, and a transparent submission and development process aligned with strategic theses.
Episode 8: How to build an innovation system that never stops with Dan Toma, Outcome
Q: How did you get to this mission of yours?
Dan describes his path from startups to a large corporation, the initial culture shock, and how writing and publishing helped him find a coping mechanism that eventually evolved into a consulting career focused on reducing the cost of innovation and enabling sustainable growth.

Audience Metrics

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Frequently Asked Questions About Activate Innovation Lounge

What is Activate Innovation Lounge about and what kind of topics does it cover?

This show sketches practical, inside-the-organization playbooks for activating innovators and sustaining an innovation culture. Across episodes, guests—from chief innovators to platform founders and design-challenge experts—share proven approaches for surfacing frontline ideas, democratizing participation, and linking creativity to measurable business value. The conversations emphasize governance, leadership support, psychological safety, and scalable structures (from internal accelerators to intrapreneurship programs) that help large enterprises move from ideation to impact. A standout angle is the consistent focus on open innovation, problem-led approaches, and AI as an augmenting tool rather than a replacement for human judgment. Listene... more

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How many episodes of Activate Innovation Lounge are there?

Activate Innovation Lounge launched 8 months ago and published 18 episodes to date. You can find more information about this podcast including rankings, audience demographics and engagement in our podcast database.

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What guests have appeared on Activate Innovation Lounge?

Recent guests on Activate Innovation Lounge include:

1. Ben Bensaou
2. Roel de Vries
3. Vlora Muslimi
4. Marta Jakab
5. Alexis Samuel
6. Simon Hill
7. Dan Toma
8. Ed Essey

To view more recent guests and their details, simply upgrade your Rephonic account. You'll also get access to a typical guest profile to help you decide if the show is worth pitching.

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