Before COVID impacted the world’s economy, we all spent years hearing about the need for innovation. Once the pandemic hit, the need accelerated immensely.
“I feel like companies have one of two options: you can either take the lead on innovation and be proactive about it, or it can drag you behind it as it happens to you,” Diana Kander, New York Times best-selling author, entrepreneur, and innovation consultant told the tED magazine “DistributED with tED magazine” podcast. “And I think this last year was an excellent example of how it’s not going to be gradual. Every now and then something is going to happen that shocks the entire market. And I think that COVID is not the outlier. There will be other ‘shock the market’ kind of scenarios that come up within the next 10 years.”
Kander will be a keynote speaker for the NAED Virtual National Meeting, scheduled for May 24-27, with the speaker series scheduled for Wednesday, May 26. Kander, who was an NAED keynote speaker at NAED events on two occasions, will focus her topic on the role of leadership will play in your innovative strategies.
“You need to have a regular process of getting rid of the things that are not serving you,” Kander said during the podcast. “You are not continuously investing. Are you investing in things that are moving you forward, or are they holding you back? You want to capitalize on things that we did really well during COVID and how do we bring it forward.”
Kander is basing her keynote speech on more than 300 interviews and Kander will share how some leaders create environments for innovation to flourish, while others inadvertently slow it down. The presentation will explain why innovation impacts everything in our organizations, including your ability to sell products and services, make internal improvements, and respond to changing customer needs.
“It’s not about pushing customers, it’s about doing it with them. Keeping in touch with your customers is more important today than it has ever been. The companies that asked the biggest questions are the ones that have the biggest innovations right now and are benefitting from it,” Kander explained.
There is still plenty of time to sign up for the 2021 NAED Virtual National Meeting by clicking this link. The Attendee Hub is already open, so you can book appointments with supply chain partners or register to view the NAED On-Demand Sessions that are only available for meeting attendees.
And, you can hear the entire conversation with Diana Kander on the “DistributED with tED magazine” podcast, which is available on all podcast players. Kander touches on some of the topics she will be discussing during the virtual national meeting, but provides some innovation tips you can start using right now.