Trailblazer 04: Seth Godin Entrepreneur of the Information Age
36m
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Energy Trailblazers | hosted by Holly Ransom | powered by EY
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Seth Godin is a best-selling author, entrepreneur, speaker, and, above all else, a teacher who gives people the tools they need to make the impactful changes they want to see in the world. By focusing on everything from effective marketing and leadership, to the spread of ideas, Seth has been able to motivate and inspire countless people around the world. He is a global thought-leader on the post-industrial revolution, how ideas disseminate, marketing, quitting, leadership, and most of all, changing everything including the uneven distribution of food, unequal access to medicine, and our energy system. Seth has famously made the bold statement that climate change is a marketing problem, not a technology problem. His blog on marketing, tribes, and respect was named by Time among its 25 best blogs.
In addition to launching one of the most popular blogs in the world, Seth has written 20 best-selling books addressing various aspects of marketing, advertising, business venturing, and leadership, including The Dip, Linchpin, Purple Cow, Tribes, and What To Do When It's Your Turn (And It's Always Your Turn). His books, This is Marketing, was an instant bestseller in countries around the world. Free Prize Inside was a Forbes Business Book of the Year in 2004, while Purple Cow sold over 150,000 copies in more than 23 print runs in its first two years. The Dip was a Business Week and New York Times bestseller; Business Week also named Linchpin among its "20 of the best books by the most influential thinkers in business" on November 13, 2015.
Seth is also known as "the ultimate entrepreneur for the information age". Though renowned for his writing and speaking, he also founded two companies, Squidoo and Yoyodyne. Yoyodyne, launched in 1995, used contests, online games, and scavenger hunts to market companies to participating users. In August 1996, Flatiron Partners invested $4 million in Yoyodyne in return for a 20% stake. At Yoyodyne, Godin published Permission Marketing: Turning strangers into friends and friends into customers which describes and promotes a non-traditional marketing technique that advertises goods and services when advance consent is given. In 1998, Seth sold Yoyodyne to Yahoo! for about $30 million and became Yahoo's vice president of direct marketing.
In March 2006, Godin launched Squidoo, a revenue-sharing writing site and by July 2008, Squidoo was one of the 500 most visited sites in the world. Godin raised more than $250,000 from readers with a Kickstarter campaign In June 2013, which in turn secured him a book contract with his publisher for his book "The Icarus Deception." He was also one of just three professionals inducted into the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame. In an astonishing turn of events, in May 2018, he was inducted into the Marketing Hall of Fame as well. He might be the only person in both.
"This world is changing faster than it has changed in 10,000 years. The real urgency in front of us is to get clear about what the change we seek to make is and who we seek to change, that it might feel good to push people to use grocery bags that can be reused 100 times instead of 30 times. But it feels to me like it's way more urgent to stop mining coal. And we have just got to come up with our priority list. Be really clear about how we're going to tell stories around those things. So that urgently people decide that they were right all along, in wanting this problem to go away. They were right all along and choosing to act a certain way. And people like us, we do things like this. What are those things? And we're missing that component right now of passionate, generous, dignified storytelling."
Useful links:
Seth's Blog
Seth's Website
Seth's TEDTalks
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Trailblazer 12 | Knud Erik Andersen | Renewable Pioneer
Knud Erik Andersen is a true industry pioneer and one of the earliest champions of a 100% renewable energy future. Today, he is the CEO of European Energy, a leading Danish renewables firm responsible for building some of the world's largest wind and solar farms.
Erik started drawing plans for wind turbines in school, and with a group of other students began to develop, understand and optimise turbines, creating one of the first home-made turbines on a summer holiday.
In 2004, Erik sold his second company and saw the potential to “define energy production in the future” by leading the transition to 100% renewable energy. He launched European Energy with co-founder Mikael D. Pedersen with a vision to leverage wind capacity as a significant force in the global transition to a fossil free society.
Since then, the company has expanded significantly, with 400% growth between 2021-22. The team is moving into construction, grid infrastructure and access as well as innovative technology. European Energy have completed more than 100 wind and solar power projects in 11 countries across Europe as well as Brazil, Australia and the United States.
At European Energy Erik and the team utilise latest technology to create value for partners and society as a whole. They are focused on scale in order to grow the 2-3% of electricity that comes from wind and solar in the global economy.
Throughout the years, European Energy has developed, constructed and acquired renewable energy projects with a total capacity of approximately 1 GW and with a value of more than one billion euro.
Today, European Energy is building a multimillion-dollar solar power farm in southern Denmark. As the biggest installation of its kind in northern Europe, it will provide enough power to supply more than 75,000 households. Eager to inspire future generations of green energy champions, European Energy has donated a solar panel test site and helped to establish a PhD position with the Technical University of Denmark.
Useful links:
EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2021
Erik Andersen issues Green Bonds
European Energy
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Trailblazer 11 | Elisabeth Brinton | Energy Visionary & Change Agent
Elisabeth Brinton is Executive Vice President of Shell’s Renewables & Energy Solutions (formerly New Energies) business, steering the company’s work in power, renewables and lower-carbon technology. This role covers Shell’s work in wind and solar, new mobility options such as electric vehicle charging, Nature Based Solutions and laying the foundation for an integrated lower-carbon power business.
In 2021, Elisabeth joined the Anglo American Board as an ESG focused non-executive director where she is a member of the board's sustainability committee.
Elisabeth is a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur and utility industry veteran that is passionate about the role electricity and technology can play in moving the world towards a lower carbon energy system. Throughout her career Elisabeth has grown energy and technology businesses in some of the world’s largest markets including the USA and Australia.
Elisabeth joined Shell in 2018 from AGL Energy, Australia’s largest integrated energy company, where she was Executive Vice President, New Energy. There she helped to increase adoption of renewable energy, build the world’s first residential virtual power plant and grow and sell a profitable smart metering business.
Previously, Elisabeth was the Corporate Strategy Officer for PG&E Corporation, the US utility company that specialises in renewables, customer solar, energy efficiency and electric mobility.
From 2008 to 2013, Elisabeth was Chief Customer Officer of Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) and held founding and management roles in four successful Silicon Valley start-ups including, Loudcloud, a web infrastructure company that went public in May 2001.
Useful links:
MORE INFO
Elisabeth Brinton World Economic Forum
Elisabeth Brinton LinkedIn
Elisabeth Brinton Shell
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Trailblazer 10 | Francesco Venturini | Innovation Ninja
Francesco Venturini is the highly successful Chief Executive Officer of Enel X, the innovative business unit charged with creating an energy ecosystem through electric mobility, electrification, digitalization and the provision of new energy services at the residential and commercial level to pave a new energy future and at the same time creates value for our shareholders.
Born in New York (USA) in 1968, Francesco graduated cum laude in Economics from the University of Rome La Sapienza, where he also served as assistant professor of Banking Strategies and Techniques during the academic year 1991-1992.
He is a London Business School alumnus and he received an MBA from MIT’s Sloan Business School in 2015. Francesco served as Financial Controller for Elsag Bailey Process Automation, and later became Chief Financial Officer for several companies of the Elsag Bailey Process Automation and Hartmann & Braun groups in both the United States and Brazil.
He joined the Enel Group in 1997 as Head of Administration and Management Control at Enel S.p.A., contributing to the company listing on the New York and Milan Stock Exchanges. Mr. Venturini later became Head of Internal Audit within Enel's Distribution and Market Division, and subsequently Head of Sales Administration within the same division.
Traditional utilities as we knew them are trying to survive in an evolving scenario where margins are squeezing because of increasing competition and disruptive innovation. In 2009, Francesco was appointed Head of Finance in Enel Green Power. Afterwards, he took on the role of Head of Business Development and later, in 2011, as Head of the North America Area. He was named Chief Executive Officer and General Manager of Enel Green Power in May 2014.
Enel began shifting it's attention from the “asset” to the “service” dimension of the business, moving from being pure commodity vendors to service providers. To this end, Enel is was keen to harness inspiration from new trends and technologies to develop its own activities through a new Global Division called Enel X (e-Solutions). Francesco was appointed Enel's Head of Global e-Solutions in May 2017 and CEO of Enel X in November 2017.
Francesco intends to continue leading the business to be a key sector player by coupling profitability with sustainability and by creating value for our customers in each segment in which they operate.
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Trailblazer 09 | Chris Voss | FBI Master Negotiator
Chris Voss is the former lead international kidnapping negotiator for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as the FBI’s hostage negotiation representative for the National Security Council’s Hostage Working Group. Prior to becoming the FBI lead international kidnapping negotiator, Christopher served as the lead Crisis Negotiator for the New York City Division of the FBI. Christopher was a member of the New York City Joint Terrorist Task Force for 14 years. He was the case agent on such cases as TERRSTOP (the Blind Sheikh Case – Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman), the TWA Flight 800 catastrophe and negotiated the surrender of the first hostage taker to give up in the Chase Manhattan bank robbery hostage taking.
Today, Chris Voss is the CEO & Founder of The Black Swan Group Ltd and best-selling author of Never Split the Difference. Voss has revolutionized negotiation tactics and greatly impacted how organizations and individuals globally understand and negotiate with one another. His book aims to provide a comprehensive guide to negotiating theory and strategy, giving you the tools you need to negotiate successfully. Voss’s thesis is that good negotiation happens on the emotional level of the brain, not the rational level. Your job as a negotiator, Voss argues, is to practice and display empathy toward your counterpart by understanding their emotions, learning to see the situation from their point of view—and, ultimately, getting them to feel comfortable enough with you to let their emotional guard down.
During Chris’s 24 year tenure in the Bureau, he worked through approximately 150 kidnappings worldwide. He was trained in the art of negotiation by not only the FBI but Scotland Yard and Harvard Law School. He is also a recipient of the Attorney General’s Award for Excellence in Law Enforcement and the FBI Agents Association Award for Distinguished and Exemplary Service. Taking emotional intelligence and intuition to the next level, Chis takes us through the negotiation skills that can give us the competitive edge in any discussion, especially as we attempt to drive collective buy-in to a clean energy future.
Favourite quotes:
"Negotiation is the art of creating possibilities"
"Persuasion is not about how bright or smooth or forceful you are. It’s about the other party convincing themselves that the solution you want is their own idea. So don’t beat them with logic or brute force. Ask them questions that open paths to your goals. It’s not about you."
Handy links:
Chris's website
Chris's book
Chris Voss video interview
Chris on Medium
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Trailblazer 08 | Anika Molesworth | Farmer, Scientist, Storyteller
Dr. Anika Molesworth is a passionate farmer, scientist, and storyteller. She is raising awareness of the environmental effects of climate change and injecting a strong new voice of hope for the farming and agricultural communities. She has been invited to speak at the UN Paris COP21 climate meeting. Anika encourages her audiences to look past the status quo, to have critical and creative perspectives, and hopes to inspire others to seek excellence in environmental and agricultural work.
From her home property in New South Wales, Anika brings real stories, heartfelt warmth, authenticity, and optimism to bear on complex global challenges. In an age of overwhelm, particularly for younger generations, Anika's power lies in shifting the narrative to highlight the immense opportunity we have to work together towards a sustainable energy future. Speaking openly about biodiversity loss, waste and overconsumption, and mental health in rural communities, Anika argues we each play a crucial role in fostering a thriving future food system, agricultural sector, and healthy environment, whether we know it or not. Anika has undertaken a PhD in agricultural and environmental science enabling her a well-founded understanding of science-backed eco-agricultural systems design.
Anika is a founding member of Farmers for Climate Action, connecting land managers to researchers through her platform Climate Wise Agriculture to help build resilience into farming communities. She’s won numerous awards, such as the 2015 NSW Farmer of the Year, and in 2017 was the state’s finalist for Young Australian of the Year. In 2018, Anika was awarded the Green Globe Awards Young Sustainability Champion, the NSW/ACT Regional Achievement and Community Award for Agricultural Innovation, and the 350.org Heroes of a Low-Carbon Economy Youth Champion. In 2019, she was recognised as a Future Shaper by InStyle and Audi, and a Women of Influence by the Australian Financial Review. In 2020, she was awarded the Emily Hensley Award for self-discipline, integrity, compassion, and contribution to the wider community.
Anika's book
Anika's website
Anika's Tedtalk
Farmer's for Climate Change
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