Meet The Experts Podcast: Recent Episodes
Berlin School of Creative Leadership
The Berlin School of Creative Leadership at Steinbeis University Berlin is a leading institute for quality executive education and research on creative leadership. At the heart of the school's offering is its part-time Executive MBA in Creative Leadership, taught both online and in-person in a flexible and modular format with residencies in Berlin, New York, San Francisco, Shanghai and Tokyo. Since opening its doors in 2006, the school has built a global community of senior professionals from across the full spectrum of business and industry – wherever creativity and innovation set the standard.
For this episode of Bite-sized Berliners, we caught up with Clarissa Biolchini. Clarissa is an alum from Class 20 of our Executive MBA and is a true creative leader.
From a young age, Clarissa had a real passion for the arts. Influenced by her grandmother’s painting career and her grandfather’s passion for toy-making, she decided to pursue a creative field upon leaving Brazil at 21. Clarissa accredits her diverse creative career to the inspiration she has received in the many countries she has lived in – from various cultures she has experienced and all of the artistic people she has met.
Bite-sized Berliners is our short-and-sweet podcast series serving up fresh, under-10-minute food for thought that’s perfect to chew on while enjoying your favorite beverage. Tune in as Berliners* – both participants and alums – offer up their juicy observations on life and work.
*In Germany, a Berliner is also a jelly donut
Maria Reig Florensa of Class 19 is a recent graduate of our EMBA. She is a humanist, communicator and heart-based creative leadership executive coach. As a humanist, Marie studies at the crossroads of leadership, creativity and human values. As a communicator and executive coach, she designs, coaches and facilitates tailor-made, playful and artistry-based learning and development tools and experiences that support individuals, teams and organizations in unfolding their best selves in alignment with their values and ‘soul’ purpose.
For her EMBA thesis, she thoroughly researched heart-based leadership. This is just a sliver into her research findings. Take a listen, wholeheartedly.
Marguerite Coetzee is an artist, anthropologist and futurist based in Cape Town South Africa.
After getting her postgraduate diploma in Future Studies at the University of Stellenbosch Business School, she became an emerging fellow at the Association of Professional Futurists and started her own company Omniology in 2019, dedicated to “Breaking the barriers of research and strategy by merging anthropology, futures, marketing and design.” As she puts it [quote], “Anthropology provides me with multiple perspectives to understand where we come from, Futures Studies enables me to anticipate and shape where we are going.”
Marguerite has worked as a consultant to a wide range of South African businesses and international brands, among them Royal Canin, Vodacom/Vodafone and Santander Bank. We spoke to her back in March.
Paul Glader of Class 12 recently founded a new business, Vett News, designed to help news outlets become more transparent with their audience and readers become more media savvy – at a time when public trust in news media is at a historic low. They’ve developed a CX tool, which is now up and running on more than a dozen partner platforms.
Be sure to also check out the Forbes article Paul wrote explaining how to identify reliable news outlets: http://bit.ly/3p1AbPG
Arie Fabian is an alum of Class 21 of our Executive MBA in Creative Leadership. His journey in fashion began back in 1996 at Hugo Boss. A year later, he joined his father, Jeffery Fabian, in running his company Fabiani, developing it from a successful fashion retailer into a leading luxury menswear label, while in tandem opening multiple new shops across South Africa.
This year, Arie co-founded a bold, new symbiotic business model that redefines the traditional retail ecosystem from both the customer and brand side. This podcast tells the story of We are EGG – an “authentic”, retail platform focused on collaboration, co-creation and co-evolution.
Bite-sized Berliners is our short-and-sweet podcast series serving up fresh, under-10-minute food for thought that’s perfect to chew on while enjoying your favorite beverage. Tune in as Berliners* – both participants and alums – offer up their juicy observations on life and work.
*In Germany, a Berliner is also a jelly donut
Meike Ziegler is an artist, multimedia designer and creator of extraordinary experiences. As the mastermind and creative alchemist behind The Creatual Lab, founded in 2009, her aim is to invite people out of their patterns of expectations, create unique spaces and offer impactful moments that invite reflection.
Working out of her studios in Amsterdam and Berlin, Meike has devised over 120 creatual events and products for commercial enterprises, non-profit and cultural organizations and private clients. The purposes of these creatuals have ranged from honoring births and deaths, to celebrating openings and saluting closings and from stimulating engagement to easing transformation processes.Using everyday ingredients such as soap, chalk, vegetables, clay and even butterflies and participants’ heartbeats, Meike’s work invites people to find new meaning in the world around them.
Here’s a fascinating story about a German living in Switzerland leading a company in Tbilisi, Georgia. Folker Wrage is an alum from Class 10 of our Executive MBA. Today, he’s president of Leavingstone International, a branch of the digital creative agency he was originally hired to run as CEO during their challenging times of rapid growth.
When the pandemic hit, priorities – and challenges – changed. Listen in to learn about the pivots Folker made and the insights he gained while leading from a distance.
Folker’s story is part two of our Leading from a Distance series
Bite-sized Berliners is our “short and sweet” podcast series serving up fresh, under-10-minute food for thought that’s perfect to chew on while enjoying your favorite beverage. Tune in as Berliners* – both participants and alums – offer up their juicy observations on life and work.
*In Germany, a Berliner is also a jelly donut
Nikki Davis Crump, Berliner from Class 6 of the Berlin School’s Executive MBA in Creative Leadership is the VP Account Director at Burrell Communications, a full-service marketing communications company known for its transcultural, multidimensional work. Listen in as Nikki explains how Burrell Communication’s ‘Black is Human’ campaign evolved from calling attention to the violence affecting young black boys to how the black community is disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.
You can view the 'Black is Human' evolved campaign on YouTube.
Bite-sized Berliners is our “short and sweet” podcast series serving up fresh, under-10-minute food for thought that’s perfect to chew on while enjoying your favorite beverage. Tune in as Berliners* – both participants and alums – offer up their juicy observations on life and work.
*In Germany, a Berliner is also a jelly donut
Jihane Fadel, Berliner from Class 22 of the Berlin School’s Executive MBA in Creative Leadership, is an independent creative director and a constant fighter for human rights who practices resilience on a daily basis. Listen in on her story and that of her city, Beirut: an eye-opening anecdote about how unprepared we are to face the rapid changes in our own cities.
Bite-sized Berliners is our “short and sweet” podcast series serving up fresh, under-10-minute food for thought that’s perfect to chew on while enjoying your favorite beverage. Tune in as Berliners* – both participants and alums – offer up their juicy observations on life and work.
*In Germany, a Berliner is also a jelly donut
“In 2015, in the major design hub of New York City, 67% of the population was non-White, yet non-Whites made up only 29% of those employed in creative occupations.”
This is just one of the disturbing and eye-opening statistics that Shani Sandy, a Berliner of Class 14, cited in her 2016 thesis entitled, “Is Designing with the Same Colors, Yielding the Same Old Design? – Investigating The Perspectives Of Black Graphic Designers In A Search for New Canons”.
In recent months, discussions about structural racism have been spreading through organizations, communities and the media like wildfire. On the surface, the conversation appears to have quieted – but so many burning questions remain, so many statistics continue to stun, so much still needs to fundamentally change.
It was the perfect time to hear from Shani about what the experience of Black design practitioners, such as herself, has been in the past, is currently and might become, given the optimal working conditions for their creativity and a less Euro-centric design curriculum that expands the definition of where design’s history starts, who its icons are and even how it should look.
Karolien Koolhof, Berliner from Class 22 of the Berlin School’s Executive MBA in Creative Leadership, is the founder of Quiet Quality, a coaching and training company that empowers introverted professionals in their work and careers. She's also the author of a book on introvert leadership where she stresses the importance of neurodiversity in the workplace. Listen in on her expert insights on the lockdown’s positive and negative aspects for introverts, as well as how we can best shape our organizations in order that introverts feel more comfortable in the new normal and beyond.
Bite-sized Berliners is our “short and sweet” podcast series serving up fresh, under-10-minute food for thought that’s perfect to chew on while enjoying your favorite beverage. Tune in as Berliners* – both participants and alums – offer up their juicy observations on life and work.
*In Germany, a Berliner is also a jelly donut
Pepe Aguilar, Berliner from Class 21 of our Executive MBA in Creative Leadership, is a Mexican cultural artist and activist as well as the multi-award-winning Chief Creative Officer at Grey Wing New York. He launched his art and activism platform, Art Pepe, after having discovered more meaningful purpose for his visual work upon moving to New York four and half years ago. He recognized that capitalistic tools can be used for activism – in this case helping emerging majorities. With campaigns that empower culture and social action, his platform aims to bring Hispanic culture to a global stage to promote discussion around cultural innovation that strengthens the social fabric connecting us all. This is Pepe’s story on how the platform came to be and the force for good that can come out of a new era of tolerance and inclusion.
Bite-sized Berliners is our “short and sweet” podcast series serving up fresh, under-10-minute food for thought that’s perfect to chew on while enjoying your favorite beverage. Tune in as Berliners* – both participants and alums – offer up their juicy observations on life and work.
*In Germany, a Berliner is also a jelly donut
Chris Arning is a specialist in semiotics and cultural insight, with over 20 years of international experience as a planner, qualitative researcher and semiotician. Currently based in London, Chris founded his boutique semiotics consultancy, Creative Semiotics Ltd, in 2010, with the mission to make visible the meanings embedded within visual identity and communication in order to help business owners better manage the meaning of their brands. Over the years, he has designed and led semiotics projects for companies as diverse as Unilever, GSK, Paramount Pictures, Manchester City FC, Mini and the BBC.
Originator and Co-Founder of the global Semiofest conference, ‘A Celebration of Semiotic Thinking’, as well as a writer, poet, speaker and thinker, Chris has taught at the University of Warwick and the University of Creative Arts and published essays in the Huffington Post, Admap, The Drum, New European and WARC.
Chris views semiotics not only as a tool for brand strategy, but as an essential tool for helping us manage information, in his own words: “In a post-human world moving faster and faster, and filled with more data, meaning is the most precious commodity.”
The Vertical Social Club is a Berlin-based – and globally active – creative content and production studio all about ‘behind the sports’ storytelling. One of their most recent stories was that of Liverpool F.C.’s Sadio Mané, who’s life and career are featured in ‘Made in Senegal’ – the world’s first feature-length documentary about a black professional soccer player.
In this Meet the Experts interview, Vertical Social Club members Lorenz Fendes, Founder and Managing Director; Jermain Raffington, Co-Founder and Head of Production; and Peta Jenkin, Senior Producer, take us behind the scenes to teach us about the two-year in the making-of story and what this new narrative in sports storytelling looks like.
Ethel Sanchez, Berliner from Class 22 of our Executive MBA in Creative Leadership, is a Brand Strategist, currently heading Strategy and Analytics for the Philippines' biggest independent agency, NuWorks Interactive Labs. She’s also a lecturer for the MBA program of the University of the Philippines and co-founder of Wheelhouse Collective PH, a consultancy group that specializes in micro-small to micro-medium scale enterprise strategy. Listen in to her mini-playbook on how she believes local micro-enterprises, born out of the pandemic, can survive the shift back to the new normal.
Bite-sized Berliners is our “short and sweet” podcast series serving up fresh, under-10-minute food for thought that’s perfect to chew on while enjoying your favorite beverage. Tune in as Berliners* – both participants and alums – offer up their juicy observations on life and work.
*In Germany, a Berliner is also a jelly donut
Andre Pulcino and Rodrigo Gonzalez, Berliners from Class 13 met earlier in their creative careers but rekindled their friendship and entrepreneurial spirits in our Executive MBA in Creative Leadership program. Andre is the founder and Rodrigo an investor of Tubites, which are healthy snacks made with nuts, fruits and other all natural ingredients, backed up by scientific and nutritional research. This is their meeting story.
Bite-sized Berliners is our “short and sweet” podcast series serving up fresh, under-10-minute food for thought that’s perfect to chew on while enjoying your favorite beverage. Tune in as Berliners* – both participants and alums – offer up their juicy observations on life and work.
*In Germany, a Berliner is also a jelly donut
Daniel Prianti, Berliner from Class 8, and Roberto Sirotsky, Berliner from Class 19 and our Cannes Creative Leaders Programme 2012, met at our Executive MBA in Creative Leadership’s Asia Module in 2017. Shortly after, together they founded BPool, a curated, pre-negotiated and transparent marketing services platform that connects companies with independent talent through one legal entity. This is their meeting story.
Bite-sized Berliners is our “short and sweet” podcast series serving up fresh, under-10-minute food for thought that’s perfect to chew on while enjoying your favorite beverage. Tune in as Berliners* – both participants and alums – offer up their juicy observations on life and work.
*In Germany, a Berliner is also a jelly donut
Craig Fagan is Programme Director at the Global Disinformation Index, a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization based in the UK that aims to provide advertisers, ad tech companies and platforms with trusted and independent ratings of the disinformation risks of news sites with the aim to disrupt, defund and down-rank such sites.
Although fake news has been a topic in the media since at least the 2016 US elections, the troubling pandemic of disinformation regarding possible treatments of COVID 19 and the rampant spread of conspiracy theories around the virus’ origins have been making big headlines of late. Disinformation has also played a key role in disseminating hate speech online, not only helping fund white supremacist websites, but spreading misleading information about organizations such as Black Lives Matter on social media and beyond.
Becky McOwen-Banks is a Berliner from Class 23 of our Executive MBA in Creative Leadership. She's the Executive Creative Director at VaynerMedia and this is what she has to say on leading from a distance.
Bite-sized Berliners is our “short and sweet” podcast series serving up fresh, under-10-minute food for thought that’s perfect to chew on while enjoying your favorite beverage. Tune in as Berliners* – both participants and alums – offer up their juicy observations on life and work.
*In Germany, a Berliner is also a jelly donut
Aidis Dalikas is a Berliner from Class 25 of our Executive MBA in Creative Leadership. He's the Chief Growth Manager at SOMA agency and this is what he has to say on agency life after lockdown.
Bite-sized Berliners is our “short and sweet” podcast series serving up fresh, under-10-minute food for thought that’s perfect to chew on while enjoying your favorite beverage. Tune in as Berliners* – both participants and alums – offer up their juicy observations on life and work.
*In Germany, a Berliner is also a jelly donut
Marília Lobo is a Berliner from Class 18 of our Executive MBA in Creative Leadership. She’s Director of Strategy and Learning Innovation at the Berlin School and this is what she has to say on how new ways of behaving and consuming have arrived with the pandemic, giving rise to new, unexpected rituals and ritual spaces.
Bite-sized Berliners is our “short and sweet” podcast series serving up fresh, under-10-minute food for thought that’s perfect to chew on while enjoying your favorite beverage. Tune in as Berliners* – both participants and alums – offer up their juicy observations on life and work.
*In Germany, a Berliner is also a jelly donut
As soon as the COVID-19 lockdown was put in place in the UK, Chrissy Levett, founder and CEO of Creative Conscience, as well as TEDx speaker, author and industry speaker, launched a free webinar series called ‘Help + Hope’, together with her team. Conceived to encourage people to remain positive, inspired and take meaningful action, ‘Help + Hope’ is one of the many purpose-driven initiatives Creative Conscience has spearheaded since their inception in 2012.
A global movement and digital platform that offers creative thinkers support and training in, as well as viable channels for, putting their talents towards positive social and environmental change, Chrissy seemed the ideal person to talk with on the subject of Creativity For Good.
Dr. Tania Peitzker is CEO and Chief Technology Innovation Officer of the Munich-based company AI Bots as a Service. In the bots business for over 10 years, Dr. Peitzker’s projects have evolved from classic 2D chatbots to 3D AI bots. Her latest launch, Birgit am Bodensee, is a cognitive interface which appears in life-like human form using sophisticated hologram-technology. Designed as a prototype for deployment across numerous Smart Cities worldwide, in addition to speaking over 130 languages, Birgit can be completely transformed, renamed, re-gendered and otherwise customized to meet the needs of different clients and markets.
Wojtek Materka recently joined the ranks of the Berlin School’s visiting faculty. When he’s not teaching with us, he’s an Adjunct Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD, one of the world’s top-ranking business schools, as well as an executive coach and consultant.
Materka wrote his PhD on the topic of Trust in the Digital Age – and with technology swiftly taking on a new role in our working lives under the Covid-19 isolation measures, we were keen to get his thoughts and impressions on the ways in which technology touches and alters our lives.
Wojtek Materka recently joined the ranks of the Berlin School’s visiting faculty. When he’s not teaching with us, he’s an Adjunct Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD, one of the world’s top-ranking business schools. He’s also a coach and consultant specialized in addressing how leaders can develop in the face of an increasingly complex and uncertain world.
Given these credentials, he seemed ideally suited to address the topic of leadership in a crisis with Rose, Content Strategist at the Berlin School, as we continue to weather the storm of the Covid-19 pandemic sweeping the globe.
Imagine a world where a simple test would tell you whether you’re at risk for cancer, and which types, so you could monitor and catch any growths in their early stages. This is the innovation Jo Bhakdi is on the brink of launching. He’s the Founder and CEO of Quantgene, a medical technology company based in Santa Monica and Berlin that’s disrupting the bio-tech ecosystem – using the power of the Deep Human Genome to create early detection precision technology ultimately for the better prevention of all genetic diseases.
In this episode of our Meet the Experts podcast, Megan, Marketing Manager at the Berlin School, had the chance to sit down with Jo in-person in the school’s offices back on Monday, March 9th, 2020 – exactly 1 week before the coronavirus covid-19 lockdown started in Germany and the topic of innovation in medical technology became foremost in everyone’s minds.
Karyn Riegel is a creative business leader working for the impact investment unit of the global life sciences company, Bayer. Leaps by Bayer, as the unit is called, has a valiant mission to conquer the ten huge challenges it sees as having the greatest impact on humanity in the decades to come – challenges which include curing genetic diseases, reducing the environmental impact of farming, eradicating insect born infections and driving transformational digital business models.
At times like these – when many of us are asking ourselves just where our world is headed, it has offered some hope to see the world’s brightest scientific minds battling side by side on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic – working at unprecedented speed to find ways to prevent the spread of the virus and treat those already infected.
Karyn spoke to Rose, Content Strategist at the Berlin School, about the value of intellectual partnerships in science innovation, the responsibility of being a science communicator in these heady days of fear and misinformation and the tremendous potential that the Leaps’ projects offer for humans to enjoy a more sustainable and healthy future on our planet Earth.
Recently we invited our community to meet up online with Berlin School Executive MBA alumnus and independent strategy director, Barry Mowszowski to discuss topics around this year’s highly appropriate Cannes Creative Leaders Programme (CCLP) theme, “Seeking Creative Authenticity Amongst Ambiguity”.
Because we found Barry’s insights both highly relevant and helpful to understanding CCLP, we’ve decided to share the webinar here in audio format, for your listening and learning pleasure. Be sure to keep an ear out for future webinars in audio format as we work to further enrich your 'Meet the Experts' experience!
In this episode of our International Women’s Month series, Rose speaks with Shireen Nababteh, Creative Director at Cheil Worldwide in their Jordan office. Recently, Shireen published an article titled “Challenging the Norm” about her experiences working as a female creative leader in the Arab Ad World. Rose takes the opportunity to learn more about Shireen’s career journey into a leadership role, perceptions of the gender divide across the Middle East and what the future of women in advertising might look like there.
Shireen was a participant of our 2018 Cannes Creative Leaders Programme. When she’s not busy brainstorming the big idea, she’s going all out as an extreme sports enthusiast. She’s climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, gone sky diving and bungee jumped off the Bloukrans Bridge in South Africa – and we can’t wait to find out where her next adventure will take her.
Because one day of celebration just wasn’t enough, we decided to extend the festivities for International Women’s Day throughout the entire month of March – making it International Women’s Month! In the coming weeks, we’ll be bringing you a wide range of interviews with female leaders in the creative industries across the globe.
To kick things off, we spoke with Tina Ateljevic, Community Directress/Heart of Empowerment at goalgirls. Their unique agency structure embraces Holacracy, a method of decentralized management and organizational governance in which authority and decision-making are distributed across self-organizing teams rather than being vested in a management hierarchy.
This episode of Meet the Experts is hosted by Leonard Sommer, a Berlin School alumnus and co-founder of SOMMER + SOMMER and martech consultancy, XQ Digital. He spoke with co-founder and chief innovation officer of Volocopter, Alexander Zosel.
Volocopter's aim is to provide urban air mobility in addition to existing transport options in order to enable a wide range of users to reach urban destinations faster and more comfortably than ever before. In 2017, Volocopter put the world's first air taxi in the skies over Dubai. Together Alex and Leonard discuss the future of air mobility and why urban transport needs more disruption.
This episode of Meet the Experts is presented by Megan Lillick, Marketing Manager at the Berlin School. She interviews Steve Keller, Sonic Strategy Director at Pandora and participant of our Executive MBA program, on his recent trip to Ecuador for REINVENTION.
Steve was a speaker at the event and Megan gets the brief summary on this keynote titled, “Sound Business: a Brief Introduction to Sonic Strategy.” They also talk sound success stories and what the future seems to hold for brands in terms of utilizing sound as a more integral part of their marketing strategies.
This episode of Meet the Experts is hosted by Leonard Sommer, a Berlin School alumnus and co-founder of SOMMER + SOMMER and martech consultancy, XQ Digital. He spoke with Amy Rodgers, head of research at WARC, a leading resource for brands and agencies, who utilize its extensive archive of case studies, best practices, research and data to make their marketing more effective.
Amy manages WARC's annual rankings of the best campaigns in creativity, effectiveness and media. Leonard and Amy discuss WARC's most recent report(done in collaboration with BDO), 'Martech: 2020 and Beyond', the role martech plays in the current agency landscape and what lies ahead for its future.
For this special recap episode of the Future of Doing series, Sean from the Berlin School joins Tracy Brown and Barry Mowszowski, the two Experience Strategists behind the Future of Doing insights research, to look back on the most vital takeaways from the previous six episodes and how these lessons can be applied in the workplace to improve employee experience.
Meet the Experts is delighted to present this special podcast series called ‘The Future of Doing’ presented by Tracy and Barry, who have led design, strategy, technology and creative teams around the world. What needs to be done by the brands of the future to attract and retain the right creative talent to innovate, survive and thrive? Across six episodes (and one recap episode), our guest-hosts present their findings on the future of meaningful work environments and experiences.
To create this study, Tracy and Barry ran a series of interviews and surveys with a diverse sample of global creatives including designers, tech strategists and creatives to uncover the unique perspectives and needs of creative teams of the future.
Based on an insight research and the success of this podcast series, the Future of Doing evolved into a four-day workshop that aims to rethink the key pillars of employee experience, as well as co-design a future workplace for creative makers. Join the movement that will take place in select cities across the globe. Find out more information and/or register your interest at www.berlin-school.com/futureofdoing
The Future of Doing Episode #6: Multi-disciplinary Collaboration
This week, our guest hosts look into the nature of Collaboration and the many ways it shapes leadership dynamics.
Meet the Experts is delighted to present a special podcast series called ‘The Future of Doing’ presented by Tracy Brown and Barry Mowszowski, two Experience Strategists who have led design, strategy, technology and creative teams around the world. What needs to be done by the brands of the future to attract and retain the right creative talent to innovate, survive and thrive? Across six episodes, our guest-hosts present their findings on the future of meaningful work environments and experiences.
To create this study, Tracy and Barry ran a series of interviews and surveys with a diverse sample of global creatives including designers, tech strategists and creatives to uncover the unique perspectives and needs of creative teams of the future.
Based on an insight research and the success of this podcast series, the Future of Doing evolved into a four-day workshop that aims to rethink the key pillars of employee experience, as well as co-design a future workplace for creative makers. Join the movement that will take place in select cities across the globe. Find out more information and/or register your interest at www.berlin-school.com/futureofdoing
The Future of Doing Episode #5: The Work Environment
This week, our guest hosts look at how the physical work environment and the evolution of remote work impacts creative minds.
Meet the Experts is delighted to present a special podcast series called ‘The Future of Doing’ presented by Tracy Brown and Barry Mowszowski, two Experience Strategists who have led design, strategy, technology and creative teams around the world. What needs to be done by the brands of the future to attract and retain the right creative talent to innovate, survive and thrive? Across six episodes, our guest-hosts present their findings on the future of meaningful work environments and experiences.
To create this study, Tracy and Barry ran a series of interviews and surveys with a diverse sample of global creatives including designers, tech strategists and creatives to uncover the unique perspectives and needs of creative teams of the future.
Based on an insight research and the success of this podcast series, the Future of Doing evolved into a four-day workshop that aims to rethink the key pillars of employee experience, as well as co-design a future workplace for creative makers. Join the movement that will take place in select cities across the globe. Find out more information and/or register your interest at www.berlin-school.com/futureofdoing
The Future of Doing Episode #4: How Creative Services are Sold
This week, our guest hosts look into whether organizations are willing to put their money where their mouth is when they engage creative partners.
Meet the Experts is delighted to present a special podcast series called ‘The Future of Doing’ presented by Tracy Brown and Barry Mowszowski, two Experience Strategists who have led design, strategy, technology and creative teams around the world. What needs to be done by the brands of the future to attract and retain the right creative talent to innovate, survive and thrive? Across six episodes, our guest-hosts present their findings on the future of meaningful work environments and experiences.
To create this study, Tracy and Barry ran a series of interviews and surveys with a diverse sample of global creatives including designers, tech strategists and creatives to uncover the unique perspectives and needs of creative teams of the future.
Based on an insight research and the success of this podcast series, the Future of Doing evolved into a four-day workshop that aims to rethink the key pillars of employee experience, as well as co-design a future workplace for creative makers. Join the movement that will take place in select cities across the globe. Find out more information and/or register your interest at www.berlin-school.com/futureofdoing
The Future of Doing Episode #3: How to Inspire Great Ideas
This week, our guest hosts look into how companies can create better environments to inspire ideas by asking participants to explore what motivates them to collaborate and find innovative solutions.
Meet the Experts is delighted to present a special podcast series called ‘The Future of Doing’ presented by Tracy Brown and Barry Mowszowski, two Experience Strategists who have led design, strategy, technology and creatie teams around the world. What needs to be done by the brands of the future to attract and retain the right creative talent to innovate, survive and thrive? Across six episodes, our guest-hosts present their findings on the future of meaningful work environments and experiences.
To create this study, Tracy and Barry ran a series of interviews and surveys with a diverse sample of global creatives including designers, tech strategists and creatives to uncover the unique perspectives and needs of creative teams of the future.
Based on an insight research and the success of this podcast series, the Future of Doing evolved into a four-day workshop that aims to rethink the key pillars of employee experience, as well as co-design a future workplace for creative makers. Join the movement that will take place in select cities across the globe. Find out more information and/or register your interest at www.berlin-school.com/futureofdoing
The Future of Doing Episode #2: How to Make Talent Feel Valued
This week we explore the question: How do companies remunerate and reward talent to keep them engaged and motivated? We also explore diversity and the commercial value of creative talent.
Meet the Experts is delighted to present a special podcast series called ‘The Future of Doing’ presented by Tracy Brown and Barry Mowszowski, two Experience Strategists who have led design, strategy, technology and create teams around the world. What needs to be done by the brands of the future to attract and retain the right creative talent to innovate, survive and thrive? Across six episodes, our guest-hosts present their findings on the future of meaningful work environments and experiences.
To create this study, Tracy and Barry ran a series of interviews and surveys with a diverse sample of global creatives including designers, tech strategists and creatives to uncover the unique perspectives and needs of creative teams of the future.
Based on an insight research and the success of this podcast series, the Future of Doing evolved into a four-day workshop that aims to rethink the key pillars of employee experience, as well as co-design a future workplace for creative makers. Join the movement that will take place in select cities across the globe. Find out more information and/or register your interest at www.berlin-school.com/futureofdoing
How do brands define their 'reason for being'? Does this line-up with the purpose of their employees and creative-makers? How is this purpose articulated through brand messaging or social impact?
Meet the Experts is delighted to present a special podcast series called ‘The Future of Doing’ presented by Tracy Brown and Barry Mowszowski, two Experience Strategists who have led design, strategy, technology and creative teams around the world. What needs to be done by the brands of the future to attract and retain the right creative talent to innovate, survive and thrive? Across six episodes, our guest-hosts present their findings on the future of meaningful work environments and experiences.
To create this study, Tracy and Barry ran a series of interviews and surveys with a diverse sample of global creatives including designers, tech strategists and creatives to uncover the unique perspectives and needs of creative teams of the future.
Based on an insight research and the success of this podcast series, the Future of Doing evolved into a four-day workshop that aims to rethink the key pillars of employee experience, as well as co-design a future workplace for creative makers. Join the movement that will take place in select cities across the globe. Find out more information and/or register your interest at www.berlin-school.com/futureofdoing
This episode of Meet the Experts is presented by Berlin School alumnus and co-founder of SOMMER + SOMMER and martech consultancy, XQ Digital, Leonard Sommer. He spoke to Scott Brinker, Vice President of Platform Ecosystem at Hubspot and a renowned expert in the field of Marketing Technology.
Sometimes referred to as the “Father of Martech”, Scott’s work and research has chronicled the rise of marketing technology and its impact on marketing strategy, management and business culture over the past decade. He spoke to Leonard about the rapid expansion of Marketing Technology, the disruption felt across traditional marketing mediums, and how companies can better equip themselves to scale up their digital marketing.
"You need to have role-models and you need to have mentors in order to help women to get to the top."
In this week’s Meet the Experts, Julie spoke to Executive Strategy Director at the Service Plan Group and recent Berlin School Graduate, Dr. Rosa Kriesche about her Executive MBA thesis, titled ‘The Leadership Ideal: Style Values and Sex Role Stereotypes’ and it addresses the facts behind the leadership gender-divide in the Creative Industries and asked how we can be doing more to empower women in these fields.
Rosa’s thesis went on to win the Michael Conrad ‘Outstanding Thesis’ Award this year.
"When you have a pre-programmed way of doing things, you tend to repeat it. That's your lifeline. Innovation tries to break through this psychological pattern."
This week we interviewed Katja Nettesheim, Founder and Managing Director of Mediate_, Professor of Digital Transformation at Steinbeis School, and guest speaker at our Executive MBA in Creative Leadership.
Katja is focused on discovering & implementing smart new ways to boost a company’s revenue, especially in unchartered territory such as the Digital Transformation. Her philosophy consists of building digital businesses together with her clients - mediating not only digital revenues, but also cultural change.
She hosted a panel as part of our EMBA program titled 'European Digital Transformation and Innovation Landscape' with Cem Ergün-Müller, Head of Digital Open Space at Deutsche Telekom, Moritz Klämt, Global Digital Director at Henkel and Daniel Simon, CCO at Aperto.
"Newsroom leaders have to bring creativity to this discussion."
This July, we celebrated a new class of creative leaders at our annual Graduation Day. One of the graduates was journalist, entrepreneur and professor, Paul Glader.
He sat down with us to discuss his Berlin School journey and his Executive MBA Thesis: Vetting the News - Solving Information Pollution in the Post-Truth World.
"Things change. We need to not only accept change, but encourage change."
Meet the creative mind behind the ‘Burger King Whopper Detour’ - Gabriel Schmitt, Berlin School Executive MBA Participant and Executive Creative Director at FCB NY. Whopper Detour is the turf-invading campaign which invited BK customers to order a Whopper for 1¢, but only when the app was activated on or near the grounds of Mc Donald’s! We spoke to Gabriel about the fierce success of the campaign, the fine line between being "a smart ass and an asshole", and the importance of embracing industry change to create streamlined creative strategy and agency culture.
If you're not familiar with the Whopper Detour, you can check out the campaign here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlOJXVnDqnc
"It's important to use your position, however big or small that is, to effect as much good as you can."
Keryn Nossal is an Executive MBA participant with a story to tell. Several stories, in fact. Keryn is the Founder and Managing Director of Fancy Films, a women-run creative content agency based in Melbourne, Australia.
Inspired by the #MeToo Movement in 2018, Keryn and her team created ‘From A to Me’ as part of the #100DaysforChange project in Australia. The web-series, which recently won the International Award of Distinction at the US 2019 Communicator Awards, documents the stories of a diverse range of women breaking the glass ceiling of their industries and speaking out for those still fighting for their voice. During her visit to Cannes Lions, Keryn took some time out from the busy festival to speak to Julie at the Berlin School about creating 'From A to Me', the experience of running a women-led organisation, and the importance of using powerful voices to give others a seat at the table.
You can find out more about 'From A to Me' here: https://fromatome.com.au
"the catalytic change depends on creating a sustainability market-place of people and actions."
Throughout the month of June, Rio will play host to LivMundi Festival - a month-long series of events encouraging leaders and local community members of all backgrounds to come together and take action on sustainability through projects, installations, talks and educational initiatives. We spoke to LivMundi Founder, Luciane Coutinho, and Curator, Ana Lavaquial - both Berlin School alumni - about the festival's origins, the role of creative leaders, and the importance of inclusivity and education to the conversation on sustainability.
You can find out more about LivMundi's ongoing initiatives here: https://www.livmundi.com
"I think the human factor in journalism is getting stronger."
In our final dispatch from this year's SxSW festival, we spoke with Head of Digital Programming at Deutsche Welle
At this year's festival, Ellen caught up with Managing Director of XQ Digital and Berlin School alumnus, Leonard Sommer, and discussed the most interesting trends shaping the world of technology and striving for ethical journalism in a world of complexity and adversity.
"Most people think you can't learn empathy. I think you can - you can train it."
In our 2nd dispatch from this year's SxSW festival, we chatted with Head of Digital Channels for Microsoft Germany, Magdalena Rogl.
She sat down with Managing Director of XQ Digital and Berlin School alumnus, Leonard Sommer and they discussed the role of empathy and emotional intelligence in a position of creative leadership, as well as the need to implement A.I. ethically.
"To stay relevant to the consumer, you need to constantly come up with new offerings and new ideas."
This week's special guest is Bessie Lee, Founder and CEO of Withinlink, a China-based startup incubator and early stage venture fund, focused on Marketing Technology that supports China's media communications industry. Lee spoke with Julie from the Berlin School about her work at Withinlink, the trends and challenges of innovating and staying relevant in China, and some key advice for empowering innovation in large organizations.
Bessie Lee will be leading a session with our Executive MBA class as part of this year's Asia module.
Find out more about our part-time, flexible Executive MBA program here: https://www.berlin-school.com/executive-mba
"I think it's important that we demonstrate that creativity can be a force for good."
In this week's episode, we spoke to Executive MBA participant, Luis Miguel Messianu - CEO of Alma and ground-breaking voice in multicultural advertising. Alma has made a name for itself by being fearless in tackling complex, social issues in campaigns such as 'Your Hero Needs You', the 'Just DOnate it' campaign with Nike, and the '#GuacIsBack' campaign which took a moving stance against gun violence in the wake of the Parkland school shooting in 2018. Julie from the Berlin School spoke to Luis about multi-cultural campaigns and why diversity in representation is vital, now more than ever.
Luis Miguel will also be a guest speaker at this year's Cannes Creative Leaders Programme. Read about the full programme here: https://www.berlin-school.com/cannes-creative-leaders-programme
Are self-identified 'creatives' more likely to take creative ethical liberties? What can employees do to empower creativity while minimising this potential behaviour? This week we spoke to Senior User Experience Researcher at Google, Kelly Moran, about the complex intersection between creativity and ethics and how ethics can help us to produce better work.
If you're passionate about creativity and ethics, why not check out our scholarship opportunity in focussed on ethics in creative business. https://www.berlin-school.com/hmc
In the first of our SxSW Dispatches, we speak to Sascha Kurfiss, Senior Consultant at XQ Digital. Sascha looks back on some of the key topics featured at this year's conference including the era of hands-free mobile, the debate on data and privacy, and why so many creative leaders are looking to China to see what's next when it comes to innovation, technology and creativity.
"Retaining talent is so unbelievably important for an organisation to operate."
Experience Strategist, Tracy Brown, has written volumes on the importance of meritocracy to the success and sustainability of organizations. We spoke to her about creating fairer and smarter workplaces, implementing transparency, and the imagining the future of work.
Tracy Brown will be speaking at this years Cannes Creative Leaders Programme and expanding on her work on meritocracy and its role in the future of work and creativity.
Find out more about our immersive nine-day leadership programme at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity: www.berlin-school.com/cclp
“My whole career, I’ve wanted to do 'profit and social-purpose' led work and the market has really caught up to that.”
In the episode of ‘Meet the Experts’, we spoke with Independent Strategy Director and Executive MBA alumnus Barry Mowszowski to get beneath the surface of brand experience – a key topic at this years Cannes Creative Leaders Programme where he will be the leading instruction. Barry shares his experiences on the changing definition of Brand Experience, the role of agencies, and the power of creating purpose-led creative work.
Find out more about our immersive nine-day leadership programme at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity: https://www.berlin-school.com/cclp
In this week’s episode, we chewed the fat with co-founder of Sommer + Sommer, XQ digital and an alumni of the Berlin School, Leonard Sommer.
He sat down with Julie from the Berlin School to discuss the need for a nuanced understanding of digital transformation. One that encompasses the three major challenges ahead for new companies: the rapid and destructive technological innovation, dramatic increase in customer expectations and new business models blurring industry boundaries.
In this episode, we had the pleasure of speaking with Strategy Director of AKQA and graduate of the Cannes Creative Leadership Programme, Miriam Sauer.
She sat down with Julie from the Berlin School to discuss the role of brand purpose and building a more holistic and upstream way of working with strategy.
Find out more about our immersive nine-day leadership programme at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity: www.berlin-school.com/cclp
Ahead of their exciting collaboration at this year's XQ Digital Summit, 'Disruption is the End of Silence', we spoke to innovation and engineering experts Uwe Andreas Hermann and Prof. Dr. Søren Salamo about reimagining the purpose and power of the hearing aid of the future, as well as the connection between innovation, Sci-Fi and improving human wellbeing.
This week we spoke with creative leader at Pescador Public Strategies and a graduate of our Cannes Creative Leadership Programme, Evita Puente.
A self-described ‘creative instigator’, Evita Puente believes in the wisdom of the crowd... and is known for helping her teams apply their individual insights to broader emerging trends, especially as global culture rapidly shifts.
She sat down with Julie from the Berlin School to offer her insights in diversity in leadership from a Latino point-of-view, finding creativity in every position and ‘creative acumen’.
Find out more about our immersive nine-day leadership programme at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity: www.berlin-school.com/cclp
Martin Woska is the Chief Creative and Strategy Officer at TRIAD advertising and a graduate of our Cannes Creative Leadership Programme.
Martin sat down with Julie from the Berlin School to share his insights learnt from growing an agency in the Slovakian market. He also discusses the evolution of the agency at the advent of digital advertising and how they managed to grow and remain agile at the same time.
Find out more about our immersive nine-day leadership programme at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity: www.berlin-school.com/cclp
Sergio Garcia is a Strategy Director at Ps21 and a graduate of our Cannes Creative Leaders Programme.
He shares his learnings and challenges on leading Ps21's evolution from a creative agency to a creative transformation agency and how their mission went from producing creative work to applying creativity along the entire value chain of a company from internal processes, communication and finished product.
Find out more about our immersive nine-day leadership programme at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity: www.berlin-school.com/cclp
Mukti Khaire is Girish and Jaidev Reddy Professor of Practice at Cornell Tech.
Mukti’s research focuses on entrepreneurship in the creative industries, such as art, advertising, architecture and design, fashion, film, music, publishing, and theater.
In particular, she is interested in understanding how entrepreneurs create markets for new categories of cultural goods by constructing their value, while also changing consumers’ beliefs about what attributes of cultural goods are appropriate and valuable.
We sat down with her before her last masterclass on our EMBA program to talk about cultural value, the role of the intermediary in cultural markets and how to create value.
Erik Lozano is a self-described 'accidental entrepreneur' who turned his passion for Mezcal into a career by co-founding San Cosme Mezcal.
In this episode we catch up with Erik and discuss the evolution of Mexico's country brand, sharing the taste of Mezcal with the world and his journey as a Berlin School EMBA participant.
This week we sat down with Rebecca Salerno, Berlin School EMBA participant and director of content marketing at Indiana University's Kelly School of Business.
Rebecca has extensive experience leading creative teams in developing marketing and communications for student recruitment and engagement.
We spoke about the role talent development and brand storytelling play in her line of work and how the university engages with its students to create authentic storytelling
We caught up with creative and organisational consultant Julian Stodd, who returned to teach a masterclass as part of our Executive MBA program.
We take a look at Julian's concept of Social leadership and how were moving on from more outdated models of hierarchical leadership for more decentralized structures.
'It doesn't really matter how much data you have if you don't have understanding'
Mikkel Rasmussen is a founding partner of ReD associates, a strategy consulting company who made a name for themselves by applying human sciences such as anthropology, humanities, sociology to big business problems.
He discusses the difference between data and understanding why you do what you do as well as building a relationship with your clients based on authenticity and transparency.
Creative evangelist and design consultant Jeremy Tai Abbett draws on his experience starting several ventures that found their genesis at the intersection of design and technology.
We spoke to him at this year's DMEXCO's conference about how companies need to face their fear and take digital transformation head on.
Roxy Guellmeister is an architect, urbanist and designer at Foster + Partners. She focuses on human centered design that goes beyond architecture, nranching out towards technology, interface and future urban living. After conducting a masterclass as part of our EMBA program, we sat down with Roxy to discuss the role diversity plays in a leadership context and the connection space, environment and creativity.
'What's the balance between technology and Creativity in Marketing?'
Head of Content Strategy for EMEA & APAC at Contently, Giuseppe Caltabiano discusses the role creativity plays in leaderhip, understanding your audience through data and debunking the 'inspiration' theory.
A.I. offers a new level and depth of customer engagement but leading clients on this new journey continues to be a challenge.
Partner and Global Chief Creative Officer for IBM iX, Billy leads teams across 42 studios to create digital brand experiences with progressive strategies, human-centered design, and transformative technology. Billy discusses how A.I.. can push brands to new heights and why it is a necessity in today's digital landscape .
When Jarrod Eckstein accidently dropped a 16,000¥ vase in the middle of a luxury Shanghai department store, it triggered a ripple of comradery amongst his classmates. Berlin School EMBA participants, Jarrod Eckstein and Line Grove Hermansen tell the story of the broken vase that became a symbol of generosity and community in action.
Leaders can no-longer be rigid their approach to talent and people development. Author, Inspiration Director, and Agile People Coach, Pia-Maria Thorén, believes in a radical approach to HR and management. Pia looks to other areas of business such as finance, IT, and strategy to explore more creative, adaptive, and spontaneous ways to create a healthy and productive work environment for talent to evolve.
Finance Professor Olivier Tabatoni believes to dissect the complex interactions of finance, strategy and leadership takes both an analytical and creative approach. We spoke him about the role of trust in the world of finance, the importance of embracing the creative thoughts process, and about the complex technologies such as blockchain that will affect the future of leadership and business.
EMBA participant Joel Ryan sees his leadership development and learning as a raised flag to the 15,000 employees in his company. As Group Manager Themed Entertainment & Children Activities at the Sandals Group, his job is to blend the latest technologies and trends to innovate the hospitality industry in the Caribbean. We spoke to him about the challenges and the opportunities facing his industry today and how learning from diverse experiences and voices is feeding his outlook and day-to-day life as a leader.
Robert Weisz is an expert in the role of psychology in leadership. He believes that emotional intelligence is key in effective leadership and that many leaders risk placing too much emphasis on content and direction, and not enough on people. Professor Weizs speaks about the importance of self-awareness, the impact of emotional expression, and how to facilitate effectiveness.
Robert Weizs is Professor of Organizational Behavior & Organizational Development at the IAE Aix-en-Provence, University of Aix-Marseille and Head of the Academic Advisory Board at the Berlin School of Creative Leadership.
Iepe Rubingh described himself as a ‘Start-Up Artist’ – a cross between artist and entrepreneur. He is also the inventor of Chessboxing, a new sport wherein two opponents go head to head in the ring, alternating between rounds of chess and rounds of boxing. Iepe opens up about challenging the elitism of the art world, and about learning the business skills they don’t teach you in art school.
A new economy is emerging. International consultant Esko Kilpi talks about the role of humans in this increasingly automated environment, the emergence of decentralised business structures, and the opportunities that new technology presents to augment the way we create, communicate, and do business.
Leading communications expert, Julian Stodd says that companies need to adapt to become fit for the ‘social age’. We spoke to him about the emergence of this new era and the shift in power that it brings. In the race for social strength, what leadership challenges are faced when big companies are no-longer the ones with the loudest voice?