179: How Partnerships, Startups and Tech Are the Recipe Long Term Innovation

In this episode of Innovation Storytellers, I sit down with Yaron Flint, author, and seasoned innovation strategist, to explore what it truly takes to drive long-term innovation in today’s dynamic environment. As someone with deep experience spanning automotive, smart materials, environmental, and construction tech, Yaron brings a wealth of insights into how to make innovation strategies a reality within established organizations. Yaron argues that no innovation effort can thrive without a champion at the helm—a dedicated advocate who navigates complexities galvanizes support, and keeps the momentum alive. This champion, he explains, must be willing to take calculated risks, champion the cause, and turn passive stakeholders into active supporters. Yaron shares stories from his career on how internal champions, equipped with strategic storytelling and persistence, have driven breakthrough success and garnered buy-in even when facing resistance. We also touch on Yaron’s recent achievements, including projects that bridged technologies from unrelated industries to achieve new solutions, like his award-winning environmental project in manufacturing. Yaron provides a glimpse into his methodology for forging partnerships and cross-sector collaborations, emphasizing that a genuine partnership is an ongoing commitment to learning and evolving together. As we dive into his book, Innovative Business Development: Implementing Transformation from Within, Yaron offers practical tools for leaders looking to adopt and sustain innovation across sectors, no matter the challenges. Tune in to discover why having a champion is essential and learn how cross-cultural and cross-sector experiences can be leveraged to foster innovation that is as profitable as it is transformative. Is your organization ready to make the leap? Listen now and share your thoughts on what it takes to turn innovative ideas into organizational wins.  

Om Podcasten

Did you ever wonder how an innovation got to its finish line? How innovators saw the future, made a product, and created change – in our world and in their companies? I did. Innovation Storytellers invites changemakers to describe how they created their innovation and just as important – THE STORIES – that made us fall in love with them. Come learn how great innovations need great stories to make them move around the world and how to become a better storyteller in the process. I’m Susan Lindner, the Innovation Storyteller. But I wasn’t always. I’ve been a wannabe revolutionary, an epidemiologist at the CDC and an AIDS educator in the brothels of Thailand helping to turn former sex workers into entrepreneurs. Trained as an anthropologist and the Founder of Emerging Media, I’ve spent the last twenty years working with innovators from 60+ countries. Ranging from cutting edge startups to Fortune 100 companies like GE, Corning, Citi, Olayan, and nine foreign governments, helping their leaders to tell their stories and teaching them how to become incredible advocates for their innovations. Great innovation stories make change possible. They let us step into a future we can’t see yet. I started this podcast to shine a light on our generation of great innovators, to learn how they brought their innovation to life and the stories they told to bring them to the world.