13: Innovation in Japan: Tak Umezawa, a leading voice in Japan’s ecosystem, and Chairman, CIC Japan

13: Innovation in Japan: Tak Umezawa, a leading voice in Japan’s ecosystem, and Chairman, CIC Japan

In this episode of Where Innovation Happens, I sit down in Tokyo with Tak Umezawa, a leading voice in Japan’s innovation ecosystem and Chairman of CIC Japan, for a wide-ranging conversation about Japan’s innovation economy. Tak has had a front-row seat to many sides of Japanese innovation. For much of his career, he led A.T. Kearney in Japan, stepping down as its Chairman last year. In that role, he served as an advisor to the CEOs of many large Japanese corporations, as well as to senior Japanese government leaders. He is known as a proponent of the idea that Japan can recognize and build on its uniqueness, not just as a technological power, but also as a cultural power. He helped spur many initiatives in this area, including the well-known Cool Japan initiative and fund. Tak also happens to have been my classmate at MIT Sloan School of Management, and a friend for 33 years. Since CIC’s arrival in Japan, Tak has helped build CIC into one of Japan’s most important startup communities. He agreed to become our Chairman a little under a decade ago, while continuing in his role at A.T. Kearney. This conversation is not just about startups. It is about the deeper question of how Japan can turn its extraordinary strengths into new global companies. And it is also two old friends catching up on a topic of shared interest. Japan is still one of the world’s great countries for quality, manufacturing, science, design, culture, and trust. But as Tak explains, having great ideas is not the same thing as innovation. Innovation requires making those ideas real. It requires commercializing them. It requires building companies that can compete in the most important markets in the world. We talk about why large Japanese companies are so good at their core businesses, but often struggle with disruptive innovation. We also talk about why Japanese startups may need to think globally from the beginning, rather than first building only for the Japanese market and expanding later. Tak makes a provocative suggestion: for some Japanese startups, getting acquired early by the right global company may actually be a smart way to bring Japanese innovation to the world faster. We also explore what Japanese innovation policy could look like if the goal were to create more globally competitive startups. Tak highlights three big ideas: Japan should attract more international investors; Japan should unlock the technology and talent trapped inside large corporations; and Japan should internationalize its people, companies, and institutions much more deeply. This leads us into a broader discussion about talent. We talk about women in Japan’s workforce. We talk about Japanese people who have lived abroad and may not feel fully welcomed back. We talk about dual citizenship, overseas Japanese talent, and what Japan might learn from countries like India and China. We also talk about Japan’s global cultural power. Food, anime, manga, gaming, beauty, fashion, and design are no longer niche interests. They are major global markets. But in many cases, non-Japanese entrepreneurs have been faster than Japanese companies at building global businesses around Japanese culture. That is both a warning and a huge opportunity. Toward the end, we talk about CIC Japan itself. Tak shares what he thinks helped CIC Tokyo develop such a strong community. He also talks about CIC Catalyst, climate innovation, life sciences, Fukuoka, Osaka, and the next stage of CIC’s work in Japan. For me, this conversation is really about Japan’s next chapter. Japan has world-class science. It has trusted brands. It has creative culture with global appeal. It has extraordinary talent. The question is how to connect those strengths to entrepreneurship, global markets, and places where innovators can find each other. That is where innovation happens. Featured guest: Tak Umezawa Chairman, CIC Japan Host: Tim Rowe Founder and Executive Chair, CIC

12: A Conversation with Sheamus McGovern, author of "The AI Skill Flip"

In this episode of Where Innovation Happens, I sit down with Sheamus McGovern, founder and CEO of ODSC AI and author of The AI Skill Flip, to talk about what AI really means for professionals, cities, and innovation ecosystems.The book itself can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/AI-Skill-Flip-Professionals-Reinventing/dp/B0GTX3D6W8Sheamus has been part of the data science and machine learning world for many years.He built ODSC from its early roots in the Boston data community into one of the largest practitioner-focused AI and data science conference communities in the world.And, as it turns out, part of that story began right here at CIC in Cambridge: he was here when he founded the conference.We talk about the moment when data science became AI in the public imagination, especially after ChatGPT brought these tools into everyday life.This conversation is about what people can actually do with AI.Sheamus makes the case that AI is not simply replacing skills.It is flipping which skills matter most.If AI can now help you write, code, summarize, research, or review documents, then the scarce skill – the one that will matter for humans – becomes “judgment”.Can you tell whether the output is good?Can you ask the right question?Can you use the tool in a way that makes you more capable, rather than just faster?We also talk about what this means for cities and regions that want to lead in AI.Many governments now have an AI strategy.But Sheamus argues that the most important work may not start with a top-down strategy document.It should start with people, communities, literacy, and practical use cases.Boston’s innovation ecosystem comes up naturally in the conversation.We talk about CIC, MassChallenge, MassRobotics, meetups, practitioner communities, and the kind of bottom-up learning that helps new technologies spread.We also explore a useful mental shift: treating AI less like a tool and more like a teammate.That does not mean trusting AI blindly.It means learning how to work alongside it, give it context, build feedback loops, and use it to extend your own capabilities.This episode is for professionals trying to understand how AI will affect their careers.It is also for founders, policymakers, city leaders, and ecosystem builders who are thinking about how AI will shape the next generation of innovation hubs.Featured guest:Sheamus McGovern, founder and CEO of ODSC AI and author of The AI Skill FlipHost:Tim Rowe, founder of Cambridge Innovation Center, co-founder of LabCentral and MassRobotics, and host of Where Innovation HappensKey topics:AI and the future of workThe AI Skill FlipAI literacyData science and machine learningChatGPT and generative AIAI for professionalsAI tools versus AI teammatesInnovation ecosystemsBoston and Cambridge innovationStartup communitiesODSC AIOpen Data ScienceCIC CambridgeMassChallengeMassRoboticsCities and AI strategyEconomic development and AIFuture of workKnowledge workEntrepreneurshipStartup hubsPlaces where innovation happens

11: [Bonus] Selecting Amazing Candidates to Work at Your Business Part 1: Resume Review

In this bonus episode of Where Innovation Happens, I take a slight departure from the main focus of our podcast — the places and spaces where people innovate — to explore a key process that is important for all innovation companies: selecting amazing candidates to work for your business. I will publish two parts to this episode: Part 1, this video, which focuses on how to choose who to interview based on the candidates who apply, and a future Part 2, which will focus on how to conduct great interviews. For this episode, I sat down with Karina Wozniak, CIC’s Global Head of Human Resources, for a practical conversation about reviewing resumes. This is one of the most important, and underrated, skills in building any organization. Here is the gist of what we talked about: Most people are asked to review resumes at some point, but few people are taught how to do it well. Yet it is important that we do it properly. When we decide to move forward with interviewing someone who doesn’t actually have the experience or capabilities we need, it is costly to the company. First, there are some qualities that we can principally only evaluate well at the resume-review stage, such as whether candidates have the right experience and whether they were high performers in past jobs. If we neglect to draw a firm conclusion about these things at the resume-review stage, there is a chance that when we interview them, we will “like” them because of their communication style or natural charm, and that we will end up hiring someone without the actual experience and capabilities we need. Even if we catch in the interviews that they are not the right hire, we will typically have squandered a full day of team time on unnecessary interviews. So we need to learn how to make the right selections up front about whom to interview. We talk about tips for focusing our review of the candidate’s past experience, and determining whether it is relevant to us. And we talk about how to assess whether the person was a high performer in past jobs — what we call evidence of “real-world horsepower.” Understanding these things is key to determining whether the person is likely to become a high performer in the specific role you are hiring for. One of the main ideas in the episode is that a resume is not just a biography. It is a map. It can show patterns, such as repeated promotions — or the lack thereof. It can show awards, selective acceptances, major accomplishments, and other signs that leaders in the candidate’s prior organizations saw them as exceptional — or the lack thereof. One of the most useful signals is what is missing on a resume: you need to look past the words to see what is not stated. You need to notice the things we need to see that aren’t there. We talk about why repeated promotions are such a powerful signal. A promotion is not just a title change. It is evidence that the people who actually knew the candidate’s work thought highly enough of them to give them more responsibility. When that happens repeatedly, it is the strongest sign available to us from a resume that a candidate has the judgment, drive, execution ability, and learning velocity to succeed. We also discuss how to think about early-career candidates, where there isn’t much past work experience to go on. In those cases, we can look for other signals of initiative, leadership, achievement, and follow-through in school and other pre-career settings. This episode is for founders, managers, recruiters, and anyone who wants to get better at hiring. Because hiring exceptionally well is not magic. It is a skill. And like most skills, it gets much better when you have a few good tools. Featured guest: Karina Wozniak, Global Head of Human Resources, CIC Host: Tim Rowe, Founder and Executive Chair of CIC

8: Innovation in St. Louis: John Land, GM of CIC St. Louis

In this episode of Where Innovation Happens, I sit down with John Land, General Manager of CIC St. Louis, to explore the innovation story of St. Louis, Missouri. St. Louis is one of America’s great historic innovation cities. Its position on the Mississippi River made it a gateway for goods, people, and ideas moving across the continent. Over time, that geographic advantage helped the city become home to major companies and industries, from Anheuser-Busch and McDonnell Douglas to Monsanto, Enterprise, Edward Jones, Mastercard, Square, and Block.John and I talk about how that history is shaping the next generation of innovation in St. Louis. The city has deep strengths in AgTech, biotech, geospatial technology, aerospace, fintech, and life sciences. It is also unusually affordable compared with many other major U.S. innovation markets, which gives startups and growing companies a chance to stretch their capital further. We discuss why St. Louis has become one of the world’s most important centers for agricultural technology and plant science, including the role of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, Washington University in St. Louis, and the region’s long-standing agricultural and bioscience expertise. We also explore the rise of geospatial technology in St. Louis, including the impact of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s major investment in the city, the Taylor Geospatial Institute, and the growing cluster of companies, universities, and researchers working in mapping, defense, location intelligence, agriculture, and data-driven infrastructure. John and I spend time on Cortex, the 200-acre innovation district at the heart of St. Louis’ startup and deep-tech ecosystem. Cortex was founded by Washington University in St. Louis, Saint Louis University, the University of Missouri–St. Louis, BJC HealthCare, and the Missouri Botanical Garden. What began as a former industrial area has become one of the most important innovation districts in the middle of the United States. We also talk about CIC St. Louis, which operates across multiple buildings in Cortex and includes flexible office space, coworking, private labs, shared wet labs, event space, and community infrastructure for entrepreneurs. CIC St. Louis is now one of the largest innovation hubs in the central United States, supporting companies across biotech, bioscience, software, services, fintech, and many other sectors. Along the way, John shares why he moved to St. Louis sight unseen more than a decade ago, what surprised him about the city, and why he believes St. Louis remains a hidden gem for founders, researchers, investors, and international companies looking to build in the United States. This conversation is about St. Louis, but it is also about a bigger question at the heart of this show: how do older industrial cities use their history, institutions, talent, infrastructure, and affordability to become powerful places for the next generation of innovation? About the studio: This show is the first Where Innovation Happens episode to be recorded in my new mobile podcast studio. It is a 28' Frank Lloyd Wright Limited Edition Airstream, named "Amaterasu," that I brought with me to St. Louis. I hope to record many future episodes in this beautiful traveling space. As the quintessential American midwestern architect, perhaps Wright would have appreciated that his namesake trailer was used to help tell a story about Midwest innovation. Featured guest: John Land, General Manager of CIC St. Louis Host: Tim Rowe, Founder and Chair of CIC Where Innovation Happens explores the people, places, and ecosystems that help entrepreneurs thrive — from startup hubs and innovation districts to the communities that make ambitious new ideas possible.

10: Innovation in Housing: A conversation at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell

In this post, I share a "fireside chat" I was part of at the Housing Innovation Summit held on April 29th at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.The conversation was moderated by the UMass Lowell Vice Chancellor Anne Maglia. I was joined onstage by Kei Hayashi, Principal at BJH Advisors. Kei spent much of her career at New York City's Economic Development Corporation, and is a housing expert. We discussed why housing is one of the hardest and most important innovation challenges in the United States, and what we might be able to do about it leveraging the concept of innovation hubs. Other speakers included the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Secretary of Housing and Liveable Community, Juana Matias and the Chancellor of UMass Lowell, Dr. Julie Chen, and a slew of experts and technologists in the field. The full program can be found here: https://www.uml.edu/research/buildsmart/events.aspx.Our home state of Massachusetts, like many places around the world, does not have enough homes that people can afford.We explored why housing has been so resistant to innovation, even while sectors like software, biotech, finance, logistics, and advanced manufacturing have changed dramatically.A big part of the problem is that housing is not just one industry.It is made up of layered disciplines, including construction, finance, land use, zoning, policy, materials, community needs, workforce, infrastructure, and local politics all wrapped together.That makes it hard for startups and new technologies to break through.But it also means that the opportunity is enormous, if we can "fix" it.In this conversation, we explore whether it might be possible to build an innovation hub focused on reducing the cost of delivering new houses.We talk about some of the technology solutions, such as modular housing, factory-built construction, AI, robotics, advanced materials, new financing models, public-private partnerships, and the role of universities and cities in creating places where new ideas can actually be tested, but also some of the possible solutions in other areas such as housing finance.I share some of my learnings from co-founding CIC, LabCentral, MassRobotics, and other innovation hubs.I make the point that innovation ecosystems need not happen simply by accident: we can build them.Of course, they require strong people, shared tools, convening power, trust, capital, and a reason for the best people in a field to gather in the same place.That is true in life sciences in Kendall Square.It is true in film in Hollywood.It is true in finance in New York.And it may now be possible to create something similar for housing innovation in Lowell.Kei brings a thoughtful real estate and planning perspective to the conversation.She talks about the barriers that make housing hard to innovate in, the importance of public-private partnership, and the need to think not only about the cost of housing, but also about the quality of life inside the home itself.As mentioned, we also discuss a possible new model for financing housing innovation.New housing technologies often struggle because banks do not want to finance what has not yet been proven.That creates a gap between invention and deployment.One idea we discuss is whether public capital could help bridge that gap in a way that supports innovation, gets repaid (as opposed to a subsidy), and helps bring down the cost of housing at scale.This episode is about housing, but it is also about a larger question at the heart of this show:How do we build places where entrepreneurs, researchers, policymakers, builders, investors, and communities can work together to solve problems that are too big for any one organization to solve alone?Housing may be one of the oldest industries in the world.It may also be ready for one of the biggest waves of innovation it has ever seen.