1 Collaborative Credits

From left to right: Tyler Scriven, D'Anne Hurd, Erin Essenmacher and Robin Bienfiat.

NACD Atlanta hosted an outstanding panel on tech trends and innovation, led by NACD Chief Programming Officer Erin Essenmacher and featuring Robin Bienfait, CEO and Founder, Emnovate; Chair, Global Aviation; D'Anne Hurd, Director, Monzite Corporation, Pax World Funds, Peckham Industries, and Eileen Fisher; and Tyler Scriven, Co-Warehousing Startup Entrepreneur; Former Managing Director, Techstars

Ms. Essenmacher first shared highlights from the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. She focused on P&G’s presence there, including the company’s innovations in skin care, razors, and more. Several key questions for directors emerged:

• Do we have a culture of innovation? P&G has an innovation team that reports up to the executive team and board, as well as innovation work in brand verticals.
• What business are we in? The Tide team expanded its thinking on its business and, as a result, launched dry cleaners in various cities.
• What does a customer-centric approach look like? Gillette used Indiegogo crowdfunding platform to reach a new set of consumers and get customer feedback.

Another important question that emerged at this year’s CES is how are privacy and trust considered in our innovations?

In response to some of the questions asked in the context of strategy sessions, Ms. Hurd shared the story of how a fourth-generation family-owned materials distributor made important breakthroughs by looking at trends. They:

• Leveraged land surrounding plants to create new revenue streams from windmills and solar panels;
• Used drones to take inventory of stockpiles;
• Employed sensors for additional monitoring of equipment; and
• Completed a joint venture with a European 3D printing company to explore the possibility of using the technology in concrete.

The panel then discussed several key questions, with the following takeaways:

• Innovation “labs” at CES are often more about marketing innovation than actual innovation. According to Ms. Bienfait, an emerging model is the use of tech challenges by larger companies to generate input from the entrepreneurial space. Mr. Scriven, who himself is an entrepreneur in the co-warehousing space, emphasized the importance of selecting the right person to interface with startups and accelerators. He explained that acquired startup companies will suffer if folded into the larger company culture. Larger companies should consider adopting the younger company’s culture versus the other way around.
• Directors should probe how the company treats failure. Ms. Bienfait shared that at Samsung, each new project is given to two competing teams. Competition is fierce to win, but it is the losing team that is celebrated for making the winning team stronger.
• The board can also keep a close eye on risk to determine if new projects are going off the rails, according to Ms. Hurd. One of her boards asked for a dashboard, which they used to discover a problematic system implementation. Mr. Scriven reminded the audience that both recognizing and acknowledging a problem in an organization are critical, because problems create an opportunity for iteration and innovation.
• Talent is a key ingredient for innovation. While at Silicon Valley–based Palantir Technologies, Mr. Scriven helped the company scale from 70 people to 2,000 people, with more than 10,000 interviews per year. He stressed that hiring smart, young talent, even if not considered to be traditionally “qualified” for a position, can give stars a chance to emerge, grow, and thrive. Ms. Bienfait stressed that it is also important that new or rising talent are a culture fit so that they can be successful. Additionally, look for a “fire starter”—someone with a passion for change and little fear of being fired—and look at the CISO and CIO in case a refresh is needed.

The NACD Atlanta Chapter thanks the esteemed panel members for sharing their expertise and insights and likewise thanks its sponsors for making the event possible.