Dr. Robin Gaster, President of Incumetrics, Inc., a data and program evaluation consultancy, and author of Behemoth, Amazon Rising: Power and Seduction in the Age of Amazon share his take on innovation at Amazon and beyond.
More about our guest:
Robin Gaster, PhD is a visiting scholar at George Washington University Institute for Public Policy and the President of Incumetrics, Inc., a data and program evaluation consultancy that serves clients seeking to understand the intersection of technology, innovation, economics, and politics. From 2004-2014, Dr. Gaster was the lead researcher and principal writer on a 13-volume series of reports published by the National Academies of Science and Engineering on the U.S. government’s premier innovation program for small businesses, as well as for a major report on the Manufacturing Extension Partnership.
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Episode Guide:
1:58 - What Is Innovation
2:25- Invention vs Innovation
4:13 - Working with the government and Small Business Innovation Awards
4:57 - Problem of getting into the market
5:55 - Inventive people and being linear
9:38 - Great Man Theory and the multibillion founders of modern culture
11:12 - Is there regression in Amazon?
12:51 - Amazon, Innovation, Consumer-centric
14:20 - AWS, innovation and internet giant
17:30 - AWS and Amazon
16:5 - Amazon and digital privacy
21:36 - Secrecy of corporations
21:55 - Regulating Amazon? Understanding websites
23:13 - Antitrust and court-proceedings
25:12 - Protecting consumers from predatory retailers
26:08 - Sunlight and Dogmatic traditions
26:54 - Book: Amazon Rising
28:57 - Judo and Amazon business decisions
29:52 - Amazon Prime's 2-day free shipping
30:40 - Customer-centric: Caring or obsession?
31:45 - Flywheel approach
33:02 - Going into advertising
35:06 - Groceries, Healthcare, Alexa, and Opportunities
36:34 - Amazon's Ring and working with police departments
37:21 - Collateral Damage and pervasiveness
39:58 - One goal focus
41:17 - 150 years of change from the 'race to the bottom'
42:12 - A proposed reset with corporate overloads
42:40 - Information access and new sets of standards
43:05 - Advice to innovators
OUTLAST Consulting offers professional development and strategic advisory services in the areas of innovation and diversity management.