The Uncommonly
Pragmatic Blog
Amy Radin
How Local Shops Are Satisfying Our Hunger for Community
I live in the slowly reopening State of New Jersey, where I’ve been observing how local businesses are innovating their customer experience to encourage people to reengage. Local shops, restaurants, and services offer practical insights for anyone adapting to our new reality. Most in my town are family-owned — so livelihoods and well-being are at stake. I can relate — my family depended upon the success of my dad’s…
Step One to Your After COVID Future
None of us knows what the future holds. But at least prior to March, we had logical bases from which to de-risk decisions. In the space of a few months, the logic behind our assumptions no longer feels solid. We’ve ripped up our plans. What will happen, when things will happen, and how long things…
We are all innovators … so now what?
What a difference a few months make. Our world has been disrupted, and as a result we are all being pressed into service as innovators. We are being tested to the limits to react, recover, and reimagine how we will resume our lives, jobs, and business operations. I am helping clients and colleagues, founders and…
How Innovation Failure Creates Success
As you pursue your own next big thing in 2020, my wish is that you will be ready to fail in pursuit of your innovation vision. That’s right: be ready to fail. And then accept and learn from your failures. The last few weeks of 2019 were a time to reflect upon the past year’s…
Is the Chief Innovation Officer a Symptom or a Cure?
As 2019 comes to a close, and with 2020 just days away I’m excited and grateful to reflect upon a year of enriching relationships and experiences, anticipating what’s next on the journey. Reality is that the pace and intensity of change for most of the year encourage a lot of “doing.” These few weeks offer us respite – and time for…
You Don’t Get Milk From A Cow By Sending Email
On a muggy 100-degree day, dressed in his best suit, ChargeItSpot Founder and CEO Doug Baldasare visualized success as he pushed the dolly carrying his company’s product, the Chargeitspot portable charging station, past the life-size cartoon characters and photo-snapping tourists, and around the concrete security barriers channeling the crowds through New York City’s Times Square….
Four Lessons Startups Can Find In Big Companies
It is not hard to beat up on big companies when it comes to innovation — and I’ve got plenty of proof, after two decades as one of those people delivering change from the inside of tough, conservative, regulated businesses. Big companies are bureaucratic. They are slow and complex. They get bogged down in how-things-have-always-been-…
How Corporate Managers Smother New Tech Adoption
One of the most fun and inspiring endeavors I’ve undertaken in my post-corporate life has been to advise select early-stage companies, portfolio managers and accelerators. Startups need lots of marketing advice, especially early on when there may not be a CMO on board. As a result, my work often involves defining audience targeting strategy and…
Is Your Next Innovation Underfunded?
One afternoon on the eve of the Great Recession, I was a panelist at an innovation and design event in New York City. The timing was ironic, to say the least. I can still remember the climate of doom that day and throughout Fall 2007. There was lots of whispering in the hallways of Corporate…
Purpose Is Your Innovation Catapult
Innovators who embrace the role of purpose in their work stand a greater shot at success. Having a belief stemming from a real problem that you passionately want to solve says, “I see something that needs to change, and I am going to change it.” Aligning your core belief to a real problem sets the…
Amy is a leader who is demanding and relentless in the pursuit of the great.
In The Change Maker’s Playbook she shares her philosophy and methods to transform ‘out-there’ ideas into new real world business models that can change businesses’ growth trajectories and how brands engage with their customers.
Kahina Van Dyke
Global Head, Digital Channels & Client Data Analytics; Standard Chartered Bank Board Member, Progressive Insurance