193: How Siemens Transforms Its Culture to Drive Innovation Further

Why do so many groundbreaking ideas stall before they even get started? In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Podcast, Dr. Stefan Dietrich, Senior Advisor in Innovation and Digital Transformation, exposes the real obstacles that prevent innovation from thriving inside organizations. Dr. Dietrich shares his experiences leading digital transformation at Siemens, AXA, and within startups, revealing the cultural and structural hurdles that slow progress. He discusses how middle management—often referred to as "corporate permafrost"—can be one of the biggest roadblocks to change and why the most successful innovators find ways to bypass bureaucracy and go straight to decision-makers. We also explore the dangers of complacency, the challenge of proving ROI for disruptive ideas, and why companies that resist innovation put themselves at risk of becoming obsolete. Dr. Dietrich shares firsthand stories of pushing bold ideas through corporate resistance, including lessons from the early days of mobile transformation and the critical role of data in shaping decision-making. If you've ever struggled to get leadership buy-in, seen your projects get stuck in endless approval cycles, or been asked to put a visionary idea into an Excel spreadsheet, this episode is for you. Tune in to learn how to navigate corporate innovation, avoid the slow death of great ideas, and build a culture that embraces transformation.  

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.