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Tue Sep 25, 2018

Lunch & Learn Series

 

 

The Subject:

Design Thinking: A Strategy for Innovation

Have you ever tried a product that you did not know existed before, but now you cannot live without it? Or an app on your phone that "changed your life"?  It was almost as if the business that designed it knew exactly what you wanted, and YOU didn't even know you wanted it! If you have had this experience, chances are you have been a customer of a company that uses an innovation process called "Design Thinking".

One of the pillars of a Sixeight company is innovation. In fact, at Sixeight, Dr. Brad Greene and his team believe that the lifeblood and future of a business depends on its ability to innovate. Every company that they invest in uses Design Thinking as the primary innovation philosophy. These companies want to sell products and services that their customers love, as opposed to trying to make them love the products that the company chooses to make. And just as importantly, the entire organization is committed to build a culture of innovation that allows employees to innovate again and again. 

In this Lunch & Learn, you will learn:
  • The power of the Design Thinking process
  • When best to use it in your innovation processes for new products and service development
  • How to develop a culture of innovation using Design Thinking in your business

Join us September 25th at The Legacy Centre to learn more about how to improve your company's ability to innovate and to create that customer experience that keeps them coming back for more.

The Expert:

Brad GreeneDr. Bradley Greene is the CEO of Sixeight, a private equity firm that invests in high impact opportunities in the East TN region. They look for businesses that have high growth potential, are strategic to the region, and are disruptive to their industry or market. In addition to investing capital, Sixeight uses seasoned executives and professionals to transform their investments into high growth enterprises.

Brad’s core passion is helping companies unleash the latent creativity and innovation that exists within the people of their organizations. Most of his professional work has involved leading major organizational change, combining business process reengineering with cultural transformation and ultimately leading companies to become perpetually innovative organizations. The common thread of Dr. Greene’s professional career is leading these types of initiatives, whether as an internal employee or an outside consultant, in a manner that requires working cross-organizationally, cross-functionally, and with all levels of the organization from the front-lines to the boardroom.

Dr. Greene’s passion for building healthy, high-performance teams in the business world is founded on his athletic career, in which he was privileged to be a part of some very successful teams. Brad was a part of the University of Tennessee (UT) baseball teams that won back-to-back Southeastern Conference Championships and placed third in the 1995 College World Series. Following his career at UT, he went on to graduate school at the university where he completed requirements for his Masters and Doctorate in Industrial Engineering. His specific area of research was in the application of the Toyota Production System principles to types of businesses other than the high-volume automotive business (i.e. low volume aerospace manufacturing).

Upon completion of his studies at UT, Brad went to work with Nissan North America in the Supply Chain Management group, where he was able to experience the application of Japanese principles of business and manufacturing first-hand. It was during this time that Brad got his first taste of leading major organizational change.  He was part of a team that led the complete integration of the accessory business into the mainstream business processes. This included integrating the sales and marketing, product planning, engineering, production control, manufacturing, purchasing, and supply chain functions of the organization. The result of the reengineering was a $25 million increase in year-over-year profits to the accessory business.

In 2004, Brad left Nissan to join On-Time Performance, a Knoxville-based consulting firm that specialized in major business transformation using the principles of the Toyota Production System.During the time he spent with On Time Performance (which became the Center for Business Transformation, where Brad became the CTO and was responsible for developing industry-specific, standard methodology for transformation), Dr. Greene led major organizational improvement in companies in the agricultural equipment, automotive, construction materials, media, and medical equipment industries.

In 2005, Brad had an experience that totally reshaped and redirected his life, when he worked with Operation Christmas Child, a project of the Samaritan’s Purse. He led a team that streamlined the system for processing the millions of shoeboxes that flow through their national Processing Centers each Christmas. The team was able to improve the flow time per shoebox from 4.5 hours to 1 minute, and the processing time from 250 seconds /box to 51 seconds/box and the necessary warehouse space required to process a shoebox from 6960 to 96 sq. ft. This increased the daily capacity from 25,000-30,000 per day to 50,000-60,000 per day in the Boone, NC facility. The new process also significantly improved volunteer experience by allowing volunteer groups to work in teams and have a greater sense of satisfaction with their work, because they could see the entire process. This experience had a tremendous impact on Brad, because it opened his eyes to see his business talents and gifts can be used for purposes beyond the world of for-profit business.

In July 2008, Brad left his position as CTO of the Center for Business Transformation and started GridWell with an emphasis on balancing his work with for-profit business organizations alongside non-profit, government and social organizations. This dual emphasis forced him to create a more robust design process for organizational and system design.

In 2017, Brad was part of a group that launched two new companies that build on the work at GridWell: Pedal and Sixeight. Pedal is a joint venture with partners that bring deep product development experience and focuses on Design and Innovation of products and services. Sixeight utilizes the innovation capability of Pedal and the transformation experience from GridWell combined with financial investment to help companies pivot into healthy, accelerated growth that serves customers, employees, and the world. 

Dr. Greene resides in Knoxville, TN, and is married to Julie. They have three children, Hannah (16), Jacob (13), and Sarah Katherine (9).

Lunch Provided.


Note: The Legacy Centre's Lunch & Learn Series is a monthly/bi-monthly educational workshop in a small group setting that gives owners and key employees the freedom to ask questions and seek specialized training from experts on professional topics pertinent to their business success.
When

Tue Sep 25, 2018
11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Where

The Legacy Centre
6312 Kingston Pike
Knoxville, TN 37919