Outthinker Networks Chief Strategy Officer & Intrapreneurs Summit
September 28, 2023 | Atlanta, GA
AI Workshop
Culture Update Roundtable
Agenda | September 28, 2023
| Time | Activity |
| 9:00am-9:30am | Check-in and breakfast |
| 9:30am-11:30am | AI Workshop and discussion |
| 11:30am-1:00pm | Afternoon check-in and networking lunch |
| 1:00pm-1:10pm | Welcome and Introduction to Ozgecan Kocak and Renee Dye | Framing their research and ideas in the context of a corporate strategy and innovation executive. |
| 1:10pm-1:30pm | CSO participant introductions and top questions about quantifying culture and using it as a competitive advantage |
| 1:30pm-3:00pm | Thought leader presentation and CSO group discussion and dialogue |
| 3:00pm-3:30pm | Coffee Break, group networking, and 1:1 connection concierge introductions and meetings |
| 3:30pm-5:00pm | Thought leader follow up remarks and discussion continuation/evolution |
| 5:00pm-5:20pm | Key takeaways and close |
| 5:20pm-6:00pm | Networking Reception |
*Final agenda TBD, exact times subject to change
AI Workshop: Leveraging Generative AI for Strategic Advantage
Most individuals and organizations have begun to explore the benefits of generative AI on a case-by-case basis: marketers are using ChatGPT to develop thought leadership and developers are harnessing AI to write code. But organization-wide, strategy and innovation leaders are grasping at generative AI on a greater scale.
This workshop will explore, questions such as:
- How can we prompt generative AI models to generate novel strategic options and perspectives beyond our normal cognitive biases?
- How can we broadly train employees on appropriate prompt engineering?
- What are the latest real-world examples of organizations using AI for competitive intelligence, scenario planning, visioning exercises and other strategy workflows?
- What governance is required for responsibly leveraging AI and how do we avoid issues such as bias, plagiarism, and factual inaccuracies?
We will convene with practitioners and advisors to discuss how companies are approaching and disrupting by leveraging the power of Generative AI.
Culture Update Roundtable: Refreshing our Thinking on Aligning Culture to Strategy
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” When Peter Drucker purportedly uttered these words, he drew attention to the fact that no strategy – no matter how grounded or precise or accurate – can succeed if it conflicts with a company’s culture. Whether we aim to facilitate communication between units, encourage innovation, or create an inclusive climate, we all appreciate the fundamental importance of culture to the success of our plans. We also accept that any significant strategy redesign should be followed by an effort to align our cultural values with the strategic priorities on which our organization’s future depends.
But what if this assumed approach to cultural alignment is actually, in many cases, false? Recent research puts several broadly accepted assumptions on the topic into question:
- Does cultural change have to take a long time, or can it be affected more rapidly?
- Should cultural change efforts focus on shared values or focus on socializing members into a set of norms?
- Should we pursue cultural alignment or are there instances when cultural diversity should be preferred?
- Should we align culture to strategy, or should we rethink its relationship with strategy?
In this session, Professors Özgecan Koçak and Renee Dye of Emory University’s Goizueta Business School will share some of the latest research and practical examples so we can better understand the intricate dynamics between organizational culture and strategy. We will explore why norms may be more powerful tools for cultural change than values, why and when cultural diversity may be preferred, and how to incorporate culture into the formulation of strategy. Ultimately, we hope that by updating our understanding of cultural change, we can all become more effective at affecting strategy transformation.
Özgecan Koçak
Associate Professor of Organization & Management
Özgecan Koçak
Özgecan Koçak (pronounced as ohz-gay-john ko-chuck) is associate professor of Organization & Management at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. She holds a Ph.D. in organizational behavior from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2017, Koçak held positions at Columbia Business School and Sabancı University (in Istanbul, Turkey). Her research in the fields of organization theory and strategy explore how shared understandings (such as communication codes, categorization systems, and identity schema) emerge and shape behavior in organizations and markets. Her work has been published in American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, Journal of Organization Design, Management Science, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, Strategy and Organization, and Strategy Science.
Renee Dye
Associate Professor in the Practice of Organization & Management
Renee Dye
Dr. Renee Dye is an award-winning Associate Professor of Practice in Organization & Management at Emory University Goizueta Business School. Prior to teaching she was Vice President and Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer for Navigant Consulting, a $1B publicly traded consulting firm based in Chicago. Before her role as CSO, she spent 16 years at McKinsey and Co as a part of their global strategy practice consulting with organizations across industries, including healthcare, energy, and financial services. Her extensive research has been published in Harvard Business Review, Fortune, and McKinsey Quarterly.
Outthinker Strategy Network Attendees and Guests
Adam Zalisk
Adam Zalisk leads Amplify’s corporate strategy team. Before taking on his current role, Adam led non-profit partnerships, operations, implementation, and product teams at Amplify, including serving as chief operating officer for Amplify’s K–5 literacy portfolio. Before joining Amplify, Adam served as senior advisor and led innovation at the Harlem Children’s Zone, and was a founding member of Booz & Company’s North American education practice.
Alok Agrawal
Alok K. Agrawal is an executive with over fifteen years of finance experience in industrial and technology companies. He is proficient in developing and executing organic and inorganic strategies, grounded by experience running a P&L and performing operations turnarounds. He has substantial international exposure, including long-term assignments in Europe and Asia.
Alok is currently the Chief Strategy Officer at Celestica, a $6 billion services company focused on the industrial and technology markets. He is a member of a seven-person Executive Leadership Team (ELT) and reports directly to the CEO.
He recently held leadership positions with global responsibility for strategy and corporate development at Federal-Mogul and Meritor, both multi-billion dollar automotive suppliers. Previously, Alok worked in Johnson Controls' automotive businesses (now Adient) leading strategy development and executing transformation projects, including the turnaround of the interiors business. His assignments included 18 months in China with the Yanfeng Automotive Interiors joint venture and ownership of a $100 million product line P&L.
Earlier, he worked at Kearney as a consultant, primarily on growth strategy and product management engagements. Alok began his career as a powertrain engineer at Ford Motor Company. He received his M.S. and B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan and his M.B.A. in strategy and finance from the Ross School of Business.
Chris Brunone
I help leaders inspire others to willingly take action to effect change, and, to help leaders to excite people to exceptional performance. In the end, it is all about getting results --- with character, competence and the ability to connect with others.
Specialties: Leadership Communication, Leadership Development, Creating a Culture of Engagement and Executive Team Performance.
Chris Huff
As Chief Growth Officer, Chris Huff and his team advise the Board and CEO on global corporate growth strategies, product strategy, customer experience, vertical GTM, ecosystem, strategic alliances and growth marketing. His passion is building collaborative high performing leadership teams that drive operational excellence and create enterprise value in recurring revenue business models.
Prior to joining Kofax (private equity), Chris led Deloitte Consulting’s U.S. Public Sector Intelligent Automation / RPA practice, was founder-CEO of a high growth B2C start-up, and served as an Officer in the US Marine Corps. He is often called on by publications and conferences as a thought leader and speaker.
*CSO Emeritus
Claudio Garcia
Claudio is President of Outthinker Strategy Networks, a global network of strategy executives from large organizations the are committed to staying ahead of the pace of change.
Before joining Outthinker, Claudio was Executive Vice Presidency for Strategy and Corporate Development at Lee Hecht Harrison, where he was responsible for the expansion and innovation of the company with operations in more than 60 countries. Prior to this role, he was LHH’s President of Latin America where he helped solve critical business challenges and personally supported dozens of complex transformation projects for large client organizations. During his tenure leading strategy LHH, Claudio was a member of the Outthinker Strategy Network.
Claudio has experience across a variety of industries, including food and beverage, entertainment, and media and communications. In addition to his role at Outthinker, Claudio is a board member and teaches Global Management and International Human Resources Management at New York University’s School of Professional Studies.
Devang Parikh
Devang Parikh is the Head of Strategy and Operations responsible for establishing and leading a strategy and operations group across global Precision Medicine and Clinical Research. Overseeing day-to-day department operations, strategic planning, alliance management, project management, business development and finance, Devang is also a core member of the Precision Medicine and Global Clinical Leadership Teams and numerous alliance steering committees.
A dynamic and entrepreneurial senior executive with over 17 years of achievement in the life science industry. Devang excels at strategic planning, operations management, business development, process improvement, organizational design, and leading people.
Prior to joining Pfizer he was a consultant for PA Consulting Group.
He has a BSc in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University, a MSE in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA in Healthcare from the Yale School of Management.
Kevin Ilcisin
As Senior Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development, Kevin is responsible for ensuring cross-functional alignment of NI's strategy planning and execution activities including the use of partnerships and acquisitions.
Prior to joining NI in 2015, Kevin served as the Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Tektronix, where he was responsible for the core technology development, R&D strategy, and portfolio processes governing R&D investments. He has held leadership roles at Novellus (LAM Research) and a number of start-ups including Zight and Technical Visions.
Kevin holds a Ph.D. and M.A degrees in plasma physics from Princeton University and B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering with Distinction from the University of Alberta.
Ying McPherson
Ying McPherson is chief commercial officer and responsible for the commercial strategy and the development at Unifi. In addition, Ying also leads demand and resource planning, enterprise data analytics and customer solutions and marketing departments. She was most recently chief strategy officer responsible for corporate development and overall strategy of the company.
Ying began her career at PriceWaterhouse Coopers and spent the next seven years in investment banking joining SunTrust Robinson Humphrey (now Truist), and Citizens M&A Advisory. Prior to joining Unifi, Ying held several leadership positions at WestRock, including, corporate development, finance, supply chain optimization and commercial analytics.
Ying earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance from Goizueta Business School at Emory University.
Nadeen Matthews Blair
Started in commercial banking at JP Morgan, wanted to go back to business school, 2005 Wharton MBA – position for a multinational career. Then joined McKinsey in Atlanta. She had left Jamaica at age 11 – wanted to come back, did an MBA internship at current company. Wanted to move from #2 bank to #1 bank – accomplished. Moved from only a presence in Jamaica to #1 in Jamaica, to becoming a top 5 bank in the English-speaking Caribbean with her as head of Strategy. CEO wanted her to come on full time as an exec – offered leading strategy & marketing portfolios. Were looking externally to hire Chief Digital Officer – they offered her the role bc she has the vision, new exciting value and impact out of very little. Launched agile – now they are 30 agile teams.
*CSO Emeritus
Greg Johnson
Greg is an experienced healthcare leader with experience across the continuum. In his most recent role with Cancer Treatment Centers of America, he was responsible for the development and execution of growth strategies for facilities in six different markets as well as three de novo companies – a value-based care company, a data aggregation company and a platform company. Additionally, Greg helped turnaround the revenue cycle, normalize expenses and had operational responsibility for all clinical assets in Dallas/Fort Worth. At his current company, Tandem Ventures, Greg is working with private equity firms in the acceleration of the growth of their portfolio companies.
Former CSO
Dr. Renee Dye
Dr. Renee Dye is an award-winning Associate Professor of Practice in Organization & Management at Emory University Goizueta Business School. Prior to teaching she was Vice President and Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer for Navigant Consulting, a $1B publicly traded consulting firm based in Chicago. Before her role as CSO, she spent 16 years at McKinsey and Co as a part of their global strategy practice consulting with organizations across industries, including healthcare, energy, and financial services. Her extensive research has been published in Harvard Business Review, Fortune, and McKinsey Quarterly.
Özgecan Koçak
Özgecan Koçak (pronounced as ohz-gay-john ko-chuck) is associate professor of Organization & Management at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. She holds a Ph.D. in organizational behavior from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2017, Koçak held positions at Columbia Business School and Sabancı University (in Istanbul, Turkey). Her research in the fields of organization theory and strategy explores how shared understandings (such as communication codes, categorization systems, and identity schema) emerge and shape behavior in organizations and markets. Her work has been published in American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, Journal of Organization Design, Management Science, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, Strategy and Organization, and Strategy Science.
Lindsay Hanson
Prasad Padman
Prasad Padman has twenty plus years of experience in energy, industrial, aerospace, defense, and medical end markets. He is experienced in leading strategic planning, business development, and business transformation for large global corporations.
He has been exposed to diverse work cultures, having lived and worked in several countries, including India, China, Singapore, and the USA.
He currently acts as the chief advisor to the CEO in making critical business choices, including Organization Design, Business Portfolio, M&A, and Resource Allocation decisions. He also works closely with the executive management and the board of directors in communicating and driving key strategic change initiatives:
- Digital Transformation
- Growth beyond the core (Innovation, Lean Startup and New Ventures)
- Profit from the core (simplify matured complex businesses to drive market share growth and improved profitability).
Michelle Micone
Michelle Micone is an experienced sales and marketing executive with a general management background across multiple industries – professional sports, licensing and entertainment, toys and packaged goods. Recently, she served as a consultant for the Globe, helping to expand its Rhode Island bureau. Prior to that, she was the Head of Consumer Products at the National Football League, where she led the expansion of the the NFL’s brands into new and expanded categories. Prior to the NFL, Michelle held a variety of leadership positions over a 17-year career at Hasbro in Rhode Island. She led North American licensing, bringing merchandise and experiences to market for Hasbro's portfolio of brands. As a global brand strategy leader, she steered new product development and marketing for various brands at Hasbro, growing retail presence, entertainment distribution and revenue globally.
*CSO Emeritus
Ken Eng
Ken Eng is the Senior Vice President, Group Strategy and M&A for Macmillan and Holtbrinck. Since 2007 he has led strategic planning, mergers & acquisitions, investments, alliances and incubation initially in its North American division and in recent years as a member of the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group (Macmillan’s holding company). Prior to Macmillan and Holtbrinck, Ken held various leadership roles in business development, product development, marketing, and operations at prominent media companies including McGraw-Hill/BusinessWeek, Nielsen Business Media, and Universal Media. Throughout his career, Ken has been instrumental in helping organizations to navigate market turbulence and to innovate digitally. In his free time, Ken mentors digital entrepreneurs in education, publishing, and media.
Jason GInsberg
Jason Ginsberg joins OSN, having recently come on board at Zoetis as the Head of Global Strategy. His career up to this point has been in strategy / management consulting, starting at Capgemini and then spending the last ~6.5 years at BCG, all focused on healthcare (biopharma and MedTech) and spanning Manufacturing & supply to Commercial. Jason brings a passion challenging the status quo and thinking outside the box. In his spare time, Jason is an avid reader, a big New York sports fan, and a middling golfer. Jason is based in New York, has a BSE in Materials Science from UPenn and an MBA from Chicago Booth.
Claudio Garcia
Claudio is President of Outthinker Strategy Networks, a global network of strategy executives from large organizations the are committed to staying ahead of the pace of change.
Before joining Outthinker, Claudio was Executive Vice Presidency for Strategy and Corporate Development at Lee Hecht Harrison, where he was responsible for the expansion and innovation of the company with operations in more than 60 countries. Prior to this role, he was LHH’s President of Latin America where he helped solve critical business challenges and personally supported dozens of complex transformation projects for large client organizations. During his tenure leading strategy LHH, Claudio was a member of the Outthinker Strategy Network.
Claudio has experience across a variety of industries, including food and beverage, entertainment, and media and communications. In addition to his role at Outthinker, Claudio is a board member and teaches Global Management and International Human Resources Management at New York University’s School of Professional Studies.
Eric Goldstein
Prior to joining JPMorgan, Mr. Goldstein was a consultant with McKinsey & Co. in the firm’s Financial Institutions Practice. While at McKinsey, Mr. Goldstein advised insurance companies and banks on both strategic and operational issues. Mr. Goldstein received his JD degree from Yale Law School and his undergraduate degree from Harvard University.
Rich Haas
*CSO Emeritus
Mark SIms
Results-driven executive and board member with diverse experience driving transformations globally as a Chief Executive, head of strategy, Chief Information Officer, and as a management consultant. A strategic thinker skilled in leading organizational change, defining and driving strategy, successfully buying and integrating acquisitions, and leveraging technology to optimize business objectives. Experienced in multiple industries including Retail and Consumer Products, Packaging, Manufacturing, and Distribution.
Elisabeth Moore
Elisabeth is responsible for developing strategies others become passionate about and for working for executive leadership to guide the organization through times of hyper growth and profitability - balancing challenging the status quo while staying true to the company's core values and entrepreneurial roots.
Elisabeth is a member of our Growth Mid-Market cohort. She brings more than 10 years of experience understanding business needs through the lens of market insights and internal #businessintelligence and translating that into tangible results. Her background in M&A and finance coupled with engaging the organization to think critically about the future blends into a unique, CX/EX data-driven and emotionally intelligent approach to strategy development.
She also leads the organization's Emerging Business group that helps support #innovation and launching up-and-coming businesses within the firm.
Todd Shriber
Todd Shriber is a member of the U.S. Insurance & Retirement (USIR) senior leadership team where he is responsible for strategy development, market intelligence, and strategic initiatives for USIR and its businesses, including Retirement Strategies, Individual Life, Group Insurance and Retail Advice & Solutions.
Prior to joining Prudential in 2012, Todd was with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney (MSSB), where he served as Managing Director & Business Head for Annuities and Insurance. During 11 years at MSSB and its predecessor firm, Smith Barney, Todd held several other positions including Managing Director & Global Business Head, Global Stock Plan Services. Todd also served as head of Corporate Development for Global Securities Services at Citigroup, and as a Senior Engagement Manager in the Strategic Change Group at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Todd holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in government from Harvard University and an MBA, with concentrations in finance and marketing, from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. He is a CFA charterholder.
Linda Roubinek
Linda Roubinek leads the development and execution of the enterprise’s corporate strategy to fulfill Grange’s mission and vision and drive profitable growth. She also leads the company’s key transformational focus areas including systems modernization program, business process management and operational excellence functions, in addition to digital/customer and agent experience, project management and innovation. Previously, Linda served as our Chief Customer Interactions Officer and prior to Grange, served in various technology leadership roles at Nationwide Insurance.
Ed Knapp
Professional Board and Advisory Affiliations: CAR (Center for Automotive Research); AST SpaceMobile; Ciena 5G; Harman TAC; Rutgers Engineering ECE - Industry Advisory Board.
Outthinker Intrapreneur Network Attendees
Darcy Dement
Darcy Dement is Senior Director of Technologies Platform Management at NI. She has held several positions in general management, business leadership, and product management and has experience in starting up, scaling up, and turning around organizations. She applies her passion for resolving our global challenges through science and technology as an advisor to B2B startups. She is multilingual with experience working and living in the US and Europe.
Laura Devoni
My name is Laura Devoni. I am Director, Business Analytics and Government Affairs for Algoma Steel Inc. I have worked with Algoma since 2004 and am currently responsible for Algoma’s
government affairs activities, marketing and market development activites and trade matters. Since joining Algoma I have represented the company’s trade and public policy interests as a member of the Trade and Public Policy Committee and Climate Committee of the Canadian Steel Producers Association, and through participation in other select committees and organizations with focus on international trade, manufacturing and the global steel industry.
Naghmeh Heil
Naghmeh Heil works as a Group Strategy Mergers & Acquisitions Analyst at Macmillan, which is a Publishing company with an estimated 655 employees; They are part of the Mergers & Acquisitions team within the Finance Department
Travis White
Travis White is the Sr. Director of Corporate Strategy and Corporate Development at NI. Prior to corporate strategy, he’s held key leadership positions in NI’s semiconductor business unit and product management organization as well as management positions in engineering, applications, and technical marketing. He holds a Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering from Rice University.
