Applying Behavioral Science to Shape Culture
Outthinker Strategy Network Roundtable
June 15, 2023
Outthinker Network CSO Dinner
The Gage Chicago
24 S Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60603
| Time | Activity |
| 6:00pm-7:00pm | Check in, drinks, hors d’oeuvres, and networking |
| 7:00pm-9:00pm | Dinner |
June 16, 2023
Outthinker Network Roundtable Hosted by West Monroe Partners
311 W Monroe St, Chicago, IL 60606
| Time | Activity |
| 8:30am-9:00am | Check-in and Breakfast |
| 9:00am-10:30am | Behavioral science to shape culture discussion I |
| 10:30am-11:00am | Break |
| 11:00am-12:00pm | Behavioral science to shape culture discussion II |
| 12:00pm-1:00pm | Lunch and Networking Reception |
*Final agenda TBD, exact times subject to change
June 16 CSO Roundtable Featured Thought-leader
David Schonthal
Professor of Strategy, Innovation & Entrepreneurship
David Schonthal
David Schonthal is an award-winning Professor of Strategy, Innovation & Entrepreneurship at the Kellogg School of Management where he teaches courses on new venture creation, design thinking, healthcare innovation and creativity.
Along with his colleague Loran Nordgren, David is one of the originators of Friction Theory – a ground-breaking methodology that explains why even the most promising innovations and change initiatives often struggle to gain traction with their intended audiences – and what to do about it. This work is popularized in David’s Wall Street Journal and National Bestselling book, The Human Element: Overcoming the Resistance That Awaits New Ideas (Wiley).
Outside of Kellogg David has been a practitioner of entrepreneurship, design, and innovation for over 20 years. He has spent a decade working at world-renowned design firm, IDEO, and currently serves as an Operating Partner at 7Wire Ventures, a healthcare technology-focused venture capital firm and a Venture Partner at Pritzker Group Venture Capital, a consumer and enterprise-focused fund. David is a Global Advisor at Design for Ventures (D4V), a Tokyo-based early-stage venture capital fund that invests in design-led Japanese startups.
He is a contributing writer to Forbes, Inc., Fortune and Harvard Business Review magazines, authoring articles on corporate entrepreneurship, innovation, change and business design and is a Distinguished Achievement Award Finalist for Thinkers50, an international organization that identifys, ranks, and shares the leading management ideas of our age.
Overcoming the Resistance That Awaits New Ideas with David Schonthal
How can we influence others to buy into our ideas? It’s a challenge that impact-focused executives in every organization confront regularly. For strategists, the ability to overcome the influence challenge is arguably one of the most important skills we must hone to perform our duties well. Creating value depends on the ability to influence leadership to consider and embrace new approaches, mindsets, and technologies (e.g., digital transformation, AI, strategic thinking.)
David Schonthal, Professor of Strategy, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, will lead a roundtable discussion and share ideas from his book The Human Element (coauthored with Kellogg Professor Loran Nordgren) about how to overcome resistance to your organization embracing new ideas and taking action.
The Human Element looks at how to get your best ideas incorporated into the agenda of the leaders and employees in your organization.
In this in-person roundtable, David will discuss how you can identify and eliminate the frictions that hold back innovation efforts. You’ll learn:
- The Four Frictions that keep people from embracing an innovative new idea, transformation, product, or service—and how to overcome them
- Why increasing appeal is only part of the equation to unlock widespread adoption of an idea, initiative, strategic mindset, or project
- How to recognize and navigate different motivations and drivers of key stakeholders and customers
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.
Andrey Galiuk
Complex business problem-solving through rigorous analytics, insight generation and balanced judgment. Proven leadership and persuasion skills and a wide range of engagement styles that work on the shop floor and in the boardroom. Robust execution management toolkit. Experienced in: M&A and portfolio strategy, growth/business strategy, investor relations, operational improvement, PMO and execution management. Ran M&A and equity transactions of varying sizes ($10-3,000M) and structures (private deals, auctions, minority stake private placements, spin-offs etc) in different capacities (buyer, seller, advisor). 10+ years of international experience in top-tier strategy consulting, investment banking and corporate development/strategy/finance. Experienced in B2B industries: industrial goods, medical devices, energy. Chicago Booth MBA 2010. International experience: US, Eastern Europe (Ukraine, Russia), project work in Japan/China.
Barry McGeough
Delivering high impact brand growth through the power of Innovation
Brand Growth | Product Creation | Digital Transformation | Revenue Growth | Strategy | Innovation Management | Intrapreneur | Circular Economy Leadership | Materials Science Innovation | Product Development | Matrix Supply Chain | Sustainable Business Practices | Green Engineer | Digitalization | Augmented Reality | Channel Management | Ecommerce | Product Management | Agile Methodologies | Analytics | Entrepreneurship | Program Management
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.
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.
Dave Rickard
Dave Rickard is Executive Vice President, Strategy and Revenue Management for US Foods. He is responsible for corporate strategy, including exploring new businesses opportunities. He also provides financial planning leadership and leads the insights and analytics team. Dave and his team optimize profitability across all segments by providing end-to-end oversight of margin and pricing decisions, partnering with Merchandising and Sales. Dave previously served as Executive Vice President, Revenue Management and Strategy.
Before joining US Foods in 2015, Dave served as Vice President for Uline. Prior to that, he served as Partner and Managing Director for The Boston Consulting Group leading their B2B pricing practice. Over his 17-year tenure at BCG, Dave led many strategy, operations management and sales strategy engagements with Fortune 500 clients.
Dave received a Master of Business Administration from the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago, a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Middlebury College and a General Course Degree in Economics from the London School of Economics.
David Schonthal
David Schonthal is an award-winning Professor of Strategy, Innovation & Entrepreneurship at the Kellogg School of Management where he teaches courses on new venture creation, design thinking, healthcare innovation and creativity.
Along with his colleague Loran Nordgren, David is one of the originators of Friction Theory – a ground-breaking methodology that explains why even the most promising innovations and change initiatives often struggle to gain traction with their intended audiences – and what to do about it. This work is popularized in David’s Wall Street Journal and National Bestselling book, The Human Element: Overcoming the Resistance That Awaits New Ideas (Wiley).
Outside of Kellogg David has been a practitioner of entrepreneurship, design, and innovation for over 20 years. He has spent a decade working at world-renowned design firm, IDEO, and currently serves as an Operating Partner at 7Wire Ventures, a healthcare technology-focused venture capital firm and a Venture Partner at Pritzker Group Venture Capital, a consumer and enterprise-focused fund. David is a Global Advisor at Design for Ventures (D4V), a Tokyo-based early-stage venture capital fund that invests in design-led Japanese startups.
He is a contributing writer to Forbes, Inc., Fortune and Harvard Business Review magazines, authoring articles on corporate entrepreneurship, innovation, change and business design and is a Distinguished Achievement Award Finalist for Thinkers50, an international organization that identifys, ranks, and shares the leading management ideas of our age.
David Duncan
David is a senior partner at Innosight, Huron’s strategy and innovation business. He is a trusted adviser to top leaders at many of the world’s most successful companies, helping them to navigate disruptive change, create sustainable growth and transform their organizations to thrive for the long term.
David leads Innosight’s financial services business, as well as its business area focused on organizational capabilities for innovation and growth.
In his decade with Innosight, David has worked with a diverse set of clients to help senior executives develop and execute long-term growth strategies, often with an emphasis on transformation in the face of industry disruption. He has deep expertise in helping companies strengthen their capabilities for innovation and growth, create a culture of innovation, improve customer-centricity and develop future innovation leaders. He has also played a central role in developing Innosight’s “jobs to be done” methodology and toolkit, applying it to a wide range of strategy and innovation client problems.
Prior to joining Innosight, David was a consultant for McKinsey & Company.
David graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Duke University and earned a doctorate in physics from Harvard University.
David Zapata
David is a corporate strategist with 20+ years of experience working in the financial service industry. He works for in Bancolombia, the largest bank in Colombia, and one of the biggest financial institutions in Latin America. He is currently the corporate head of the strategy department for the group, responsible for leading the process where the company has declared its corporate purpose, the objectives and goals it wants to pursue, the customer segments and business where it should focus its efforts, the value propositions that it will deliver to customers, and the capabilities it needs to develop to differentiate in the market. Today Grupo Bancolombia is the 5th largest financial provider in Latin America, the biggest bank in Colombia, one of the most sustainable in the world, serves more than 19 million customers, and has 30.000 employees.
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.
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.
Jeff Mayer
Global executive and board member focused on the development and delivery of business unit strategy. Using data, technology, talent and innovation as our springboard, we’re rapidly expanding to a $1B business serving more than 50 countries across the globe. By building a culture on inclusion & diversity, leveraging expertise, technology and data insights in order to transform our traditional service firm into world-class digital platform – we enable our teams to exceed our clients’ imagination of what is even possible. Along with our global executive team, I am extraordinarily passionate about realizing this vision.
Having worked across a variety of sectors, my brand and reputation is established on consistently delivering on big goals, solving complex problems, and engineering turn-arounds where others have failed before. These achievements are realized through a laser focus on outcomes and driven execution – all powered by amazing, collaborative teams.
Additional experience:
• Experienced, senior Manager for Deloitte’s Human Capital practice (5.5 yrs) – managing strategic programs to deliver talent, digital transformation, and learning solutions across a variety of industries (Financial Services, Consumer Products, Life Sciences, Telecom, Public Sector)
• Talent & Human Capital consultant for a Fortune 50 financial services leader (6 yrs)
• Built and led the Training Department for a Fortune 1000 internet services & telecom startup (7 yrs)
Executive Leadership; Board Member; CSO; COO; MBA; Strategy; Operations; ESG; Sustainability; Process; FinTech; PropTech; M&A; Revenue Growth; Margin Expansion; Digital Transformation; Product Management; Management Consulting; Culture; Talent; Outsourcing; Global; Services; CRE; Valuation; Appraisal; Real Estate; Technology; AI/ML; SaaS; Value Capture; TMO; PMO; PMP; Agile; OCM; Organizational Change Management Professional certified; Workday; Salesforce; CRM; ERP; SAP S/4 HANA; SDLC; ITILv3
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.
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.
Konstanty Owczarek
Experienced professional with background across multiple industries with focus on strategy and business development.
Dr. Lara Ramdin
"Innovation is deviance which means that the rebellious personality is a natural resource for practical creativity. As an innovator, you need to reject the old to establish a new, better, status quo. And one of the most powerful sources of newness is the rebel or maverick, mind." Max McKeown.
Versatile and passionate leader with 20 years global experience in product development and innovation in the beauty, fragrance & beverage industry
• Demonstrated ability in leading global, diverse, cross-functional teams and leading organizational change
• Develops, builds and motivates high-performing teams
• Results-oriented, with a proven track record in strategy development and execution to deliver profitable brand growth
• Expert in transition management
• A natural communicator, networker and collaborator, connecting people and ideas, delivering results
Lindsay Hanson
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.
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.
Nadia Gil
Nadia Gil joined Brady in August 2022 as Chief of Strategic Planning and Corporate Development. Prior to joining Brady, Ms. Gil worked at Google where she was Head of Business Strategy at Cloud. Ms. Gil has more than 20 years of experience in innovation, strategy and M&A. Earlier in her career she worked at Siemens, Deloitte Consulting, PwC Strategy, and Cognizant in similar senior leadership roles. She is also an early seed investor with a focus on automation, robotics, and machine learning. Ms Gil received an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
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).
Rich Haas
Rich Haas is the Global Leader for Business Model Innovation at Kyndryl. In this capacity, he leads a team focused on developing and launching innovative business models that drive value for customers, partners, and Kyndryl through new value propositions and operating modes – working across the Kyndryl organization and ecosystem.
Prior to this role, Rich served as Vice President of Strategy and Transformation for Global Technology Services (GTS) at IBM. He supported the creation and evolution of GTS’ strategic direction and business model – shaped by market and competitive dynamics, impacts of new technologies, and business capabilities. His activities covered both Infrastructure Services and Technology Support Services.
Rich joined IBM in 2003 in Global Business Services. He started as a consultant to Financial Services clients, helping them with their business and product strategies, as part of the Strategy & Change practice. He eventually moved to a role as a Strategy advisor for the North America Financial Services Sector, where he helped formulate both near- and long-term strategic actions to address emerging areas of competition, support execution of operational initiatives, and align unit strategy to overall IBM strategy.
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.
