How do you design toy sets like Lego’s Ferrari F40? We talk to Mike Psiaki, Senior Designer with the LEGO Group.

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Mike Psiaki is a Senior Designer with the LEGO Group. He has been designing products for the LEGO(r) Creator and LEGO(r) Creator Expert product lines for nearly four years. When he’s not trying to figure out new ways to put LEGO bricks together he spends his time exploring the running trails and parks in the small town of Vejle, Denmark where he lives with his wife and son. He is currently working on all sorts of new LEGO products that he’s not meant to talk about.

Joshua Gans, Professor of Strategic Management at the University of Toronto, discusses his new book, The Disruption Dilemma.

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Joshua Gans is a Professor of Strategic Management and holder of the Jeffrey S. Skoll Chair of Technical Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto (with a cross appointment in the Department of Economics). Since 2013, he has also been Area Coordinator of Strategic Management. Joshua is also Chief Economist of the University of Toronto’s Creative Destruction Lab. Prior to 2011, he was the foundation Professor of Management (Information Economics) at the Melbourne Business School, University of Melbourne and prior to that he was at the School of Economics, University of New South Wales. In 2011, Joshua was a visiting researcher at Microsoft Research (New England). Joshua holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University and an honors degree in economics from the University of Queensland. In 2012, Joshua was appointed as a Research Associate of the NBER in the Productivity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program.

At Rotman, he teaches MBA and Commerce students Network and Digital Market Strategy. He has also co-authored (with Stephen King and Robin Stonecash) the Australasian edition of Greg Mankiw’s Principles of Economics (published by Cengage), Core Economics for Managers (Cengage), Finishing the Job (MUP) and Parentonomics (New South/MIT Press) and Information Wants to be Shared (Harvard Business Review Press). His most recent book is The Disruption Dilemma (MIT Press, 2016).

While Joshua’s research interests are varied he has developed specialities in the nature of technological competition and innovation, economic growth, publishing economics, industrial organisation and regulatory economics. This has culminated in publications in the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, RAND Journal of Economics, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Journal of Public Economics, and the Journal of Regulatory Economics. Joshua serves as an associate editor of Management Science and the Journal of Industrial Economics and is on the editorial boards of the BE Journals of Economic Analysis and Policy, Economic Analysis and Policy, Games and the Review of Network Economics. In 2007, Joshua was awarded the Economic Society of Australia’s Young Economist Award. In 2008, Joshua was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, Australia. Details of his research activities can be found here. In 2011, Joshua (along with Fiona Murray of MIT) received a grant for almost $1 million from the Sloan Foundation to explore the Economics of Knowledge Contribution and Distribution.

On the consulting side, Joshua is managing director of Core Economic Research and an Academic Associate with The Brattle Group. In the past, Joshua has worked with several established consulting firms including London Economics, Frontier Economics and Charles River Associates. He has also been retained by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Federal Trade Commission where he worked on expert testimony in several abuse of market power cases as well as on issues in telecommunications network competition. Overall his consulting experience covers energy (gas and electricity markets), telecommunications, financial services and banking, pharmaceuticals and rail transport.

Nathan Eagle’s business, Jana, is the largest provider of free unrestricted internet access in emerging markets. Eagle explains this innovative model and what this extra access to data may mean for the future of great ideas.

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Nathan Eagle is the co-founder and CEO of Jana, the largest provider of free unrestricted internet access in emerging markets. Nathan also holds an adjunct assistant professor position at Harvard University. He graduated from Stanford University with a B.S. in mechanical engineering and master’s degrees in management science and engineering and electrical engineering. His Ph.D. from the MIT Media Laboratory on reality mining was declared one of the “10 technologies most likely to change the way we live” by the MIT Technology Review. He was also named a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum in 2014.

How can innovation become part of our daily lives? Dr. Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks explores effective ways to brainstorm, test, and evaluate ideas.

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Dr. Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks is a professor of Management and Organizations at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. He received his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Michigan with graduate training in Cultural Anthropology. Previously, he was on the faculty at the University of Southern California and has had visiting appointments at universities in Singapore, France, Turkey and Russia. His research on bricolage advances our understanding of how individuals, teams and organizations can be more innovative.

How is innovation occurring in education? Dr. Barbara Kurshan shares her experience as both an academic and an award-winning entrepreneur.

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Dr. Barbara Kurshan provides executive-level leadership for a series of entrepreneurially-focused programs and efforts, and helps develop new degree and non-degree programs at the Penn Graduate School of Education. She serves as a leader for the annual Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition, bringing over 35 years of experience in education and technology to Penn GSE.

Dr. Kurshan’s career as both an academic and an award-winning entrepreneur is centered on her vision of “what can be,” using technology while supporting the growth of new education companies and developing innovative software products. She began her teaching career at Virginia Tech, where she obtained her doctorate, and was the Director of Academic Computing and Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Hollins College for many years. Dr. Kurshan researched the impact of technology on learning and helped her students explore the applications of technology across the curricula.

As an educational entrepreneur, Dr. Kurshan serves on the boards of several education companies. She developed the first children’s software products for Microsoft, and also created award-winning products for McGraw-Hill, Apple, CCC (Pearson), and others. Previously, she served as President of Educorp Consultants Corporation, providing strategic consulting and seed funding in the areas of education, technology and innovation. While Executive Vice President of WorldSage, a consortium of for-profit higher education institutions in the EU to address education for the 21st century, Dr. Kurshan identified innovative investments in learning institutions. As Executive Director of Curriki, she helped build one of the most innovative and robust global open-source education communities. Additionally, Dr. Kurshan previously served as co-CEO of Core Learning an education investment fund, and as the Chief Academic Officer of bigchalk.

Her recent awards include the prestigious WISE Award for Innovation at the World Innovation Summit for Education in Doha, Qatar, and the 20 to Watch award from NASBE in 2009. In 2008, Dr. Kurshan was named Laureate, Tech Awards from Technology Benefiting Humanity. She was awarded the 2007 UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize. In 2005, Dr. Kurshan received the ISTE Making It Happen award and the Women’s Venture Fund Highest Leaf Award.

Michael Klassen, author of HIPPIE INC, explores how the hippie subculture has impacted the business world over the past few decades.

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MICHAEL KLASSEN is a marketing professor at the University of Northern Iowa, business consultant, and the author of five books and over fifty journal articles. He received his Ph.D. from Kansas State University in 1987 and since that time has spoken to audiences at national and international conferences and invited lectureships in Asia, Europe, and South America. His research has been featured on ABC 20/20, NBC News Magazine Europe/Asia, and he has appeared on Dateline NBC.

Klassen is the author of HIPPIE INC.: The Misunderstood Subculture That Changed the Way We Live and Generated Billions of Dollars in the Process.

How do you spark innovation in an older, traditional business? Suzy Ganz of manufacturing company Lion Brothers explains how to stay innovative.

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Susan J. Ganz is the CEO and Principal Shareholder of Lion Brothers Co. a leading designer and manufacturer of apparel identity. Established in 1899, Lion’s clients include lifestyle and licensed sports apparel brands such as Nike, Adidas, Underarmour, VF and Puma as well as leading organizations such as the Boy Scouts of America, Girl Scouts of the USA and Little League Baseball. Lion also manufactures products for the Federal and Commercial Uniform sector, College Bookstore Brands as well as Internet, Catalog and Bricks and Mortar retailers.

Lion is recognized throughout the industry for the company’s unwavering commitment to innovation.

What can businesses learn from orchestras? Grammy Award Winner Christian Gansch explores what it takes to create harmony within a team.

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Grammy winner Christian Gansch, highly regarded internationally as a conductor, producer and consultant, was born in Austria in 1960. His book “From Solo to Symphony – What businesses can learn from orchestras” was published in 2006, and he is a keynote speaker of the highest calibre.

From 1981 to 1990 Christian was leader of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. He then moved into the music industry and produced over 190 CDs worldwide with artists such as Pierre Boulez, Claudio Abbado and Anna Netrebko. Winner of four Grammys, amongst many other international awards, Christian lectures in German and English. He was the recipient of the Record Academy Award Tokyo, for conductor in the category “Best Concerto Disc” for Beethoven’s five piano concertos, and as a producer for Mahler’s 8th Symphony with the Berlin Staatskapelle under the baton of Pierre Boulez.

During his time as a conductor Christian worked with the English BBC Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the German Symphony Orchestra Berlin, the Russian National Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in Paris and the NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo. He conducted Beethoven’s 9 symphonies with the Orchestra Teatro La Fenice in Venice in 2004 and gave his Proms debut at London’s Royal Albert Hall. As an opera conductor, he celebrated success in England with Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro.”

With two distinct perspectives of the musical world, as a musician and as a manager, he has been able to create a unique coaching concept, which demonstrates the similarities between orchestras and company structures.

Gansch compares these similarities and demonstrates what companies can learn from the complex structures in orchestras, which outwardly look like a perfect unit to the audience. Orchestras with their high potential for human conflicts, leadership issues and complex integrated communications are a perfect example of how to bring a huge variety of specialists and instruments together to form one integrated harmonious unit.

Since 2003 Gansch has worked as a consultant for a number of major companies with direct reference to communication and “orchestral consciousness”. He has also published two books on this subject, “Vom Solo zur Sinfonie” and “Wer auftritt, muss spielen”.

Dan Levitin explains the connection between music and the brain. Can a song increase our work productivity?

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DANIEL J. LEVITIN, PhD, is the James McGill Professor of psychology and behavioral neuroscience at McGill University—where he also teaches in the graduate school of business—and dean of the College of Arts and Humanities at the Minerva Schools at KGI. He is the author of two New York Times bestselling books, This Is Your Brain on Music and The World in Six Songs.

Levitin earned his B.A. in Cognitive Psychology and Cognitive Science at Stanford University, and went on to earn his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Oregon, researching complex auditory patterns and pattern processing in expert and non-expert populations. He completed post-doctoral training at Stanford University Medical School (in Neuroimaging) and at UC Berkeley (in Cognitive Psychology).

For ten years, Levitin worked as a session musician, commercial recording engineer, live sound engineer, and record producer for countless rock groups (including work with Santana, Narada Michael Walden, and The Grateful Dead), and also served as Vice President of A&R for 415/Columbia Records. Levitin has been awarded 17 gold and platinum records.

Levitin brings the full force of his experience as a consultant to companies as diverse as AT&T, Apple, Wells Fargo Bank, Sirius XM, and Philips Electronics, as well as every major record label. He has also consulted on audio sound source separation for the U.S. Navy, and worked for two years at Paul Allen’s Interval Research Corporation, a Silicon Valley computer firm where he worked on issues in Human-Computer Interaction, and Applications of Cognitive Psychology. He taught at Stanford University for 10 years, as a Lecturer in the Departments of Music, Anthropology, History of Science, Computer Science (Program on Human-Computer Interaction), and Psychology.

Levitin has written extensively, both in scientific journals and mainstream press, and has appeared frequently on national media, including The Today Show, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, Fox News Channel, PBS Newshour, various NPR shows, and The Discovery Channel.

How can diversity improve innovation? David Livermore explains and discusses his new book, Driven by Difference: How Great Companies Fuel Innovation Through Diversity.

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David Livermore, PhD, is the author of Driven by Difference: How Great Companies Fuel Innovation Through Diversity. He is also president of the Cultural Intelligence Center in East Lansing, MI, a visiting scholar at Nanyang Business School in Singapore, and has worked with leaders in more than 100 countries.