039: How to Leverage Innovation, Grow Customer Engagement & Loyalty (w/ Nicholas Webb)
Summary: Dr. Nicholas Webb is one of the world’s top business thought leaders as a senior partner at Lassen Innovation (www.lasseninnovation.com). He works with Fortune 500 companies throughout the world to help them lean their industries in innovation and strategy. He is a Bestselling author who has been awarded over 45 patents for breakthrough technologies including one of the world’s smallest medical implants. He is also the founder and CEO of Cravve (<a href="http://www.whatcustomerscrave.com/">www.whatcustomerscrave.com</a>). He has over 25 years’ experience working with leading brands to solve complex strategic, innovation and customer experiences challenges that drive growth and profit. His clients represent top global brands like FedEx, Pfizer, Blue Cross, Kaiser Permanente, McDonald’s, Gatorade, Dimer Motors Corporation, Johnson & Johnson and Cisco. <br> <br> Nicholas is also one of the world’s Top Keynote Speakers and travels the world speaking on Innovation, Future Trends, Healthcare, Leadership and Customer Experience. <br> <br> Time in full-time business <br> <br> Nick says he hasn’t had a job in over 30 years. He left corporate life in favour of being autonomous. <br> <br> Current Revenue streams <br> <br> He generates his revenue by providing Fortune 500 companies with a diverse range of consultant services related to strategy, innovation and customer experience. He helps them build future ready organizations. <br> <br> He also generates considerable revenue from his speaking business. He will have done 60 to 80 talks around the world in 2017 alone. <br> <br> Tip 1: To be a successful boutique consultant competing with the largest firms in the world, you have to earn the right to serve your target clients. You need to write popular books, speak at all the top conferences, and have your community of fellow thought leaders validate your importance in the thought leader ecosystem. <br> <br> Tip 2: Books are not a money maker but they help to propagate your message and differential view of the universe. <br> <br> Science/Innovation type business <br> <br> Nick invented one of the world’s smallest micro silicone implants for ocular surface disease. He also invented one of the world’s first wearable medical technologies 18 years ago. He is currently working with strategic partners like universities and industrial partners to start building out a disruption lab that will develop connected technologies that will help meet some of the new modern day challenges of healthcare. <br> <br> Starting out in business <br> <br> He used to work as a lifeguard in California when a friend referred him to a new company (STAAR Surgical) that was starting to make the first minimally invasive implant for cataract surgery. His friend needed someone to help market the product so Nick took up the challenge. Before marketing the product, he had to spend several weeks in a lab doing surgery on pigs’ eyes. His experience in that lab intrigued him. Nick did very well in helping them launch the technology and later went on to start his own ophthalmology company through which he worked with a famous refractive surgeon, Dr. Ron Jensen. Together they created a line of breakthrough technologies in the area of refractive surgery. He later sold the company to one of the largest medical companies in the US. <br> <br> He used his experience and expertise from running the ophthalmology company to start providing consulting services to healthcare companies. <br> <br> Initial focus on strategy and innovation <br> <br> Nick used to have a new product development function within his previous business through which they used to develop non-regulated medical devices. Eventually, they choose to concentrate more on helping companies understand the future trajectory of technology and consumerization so the companies can take what they learn and apply it towards improving the...
