Ellen Di Resta
Managing Director at Pearl Partners LLC
Management Consulting
Education: Rochester Institute of Technology - Boston University, Questrom School of Business
Boston, MA, USA
Biography
After decades of partnering with heads of market-leading organizations, Ellen Di Resta has seen again and again that when organizations fail, it's because they over-focus on their technology and invention, and under-focus on the intervention it is presenting to the world.
From her work ensuring the market success of her clients that include: P&G; TetraPak; AstraZeneca; and MIT backed startups - Ellen will challenge your audience to think differently; to recognize and value capabilities that are often invisible and taken for granted. Meeting and conference attendees leave with a new perspective on their work, and how to ensure successful launch and accelerate growth in the market.
In addition to her client work, Ellen has continued to extend the reach of these transformational ideas through publishing (several articles and book chapters on designing successful ventures), speaking (for global professional organizations, and international leadership and academic conferences, and university lecturing.
Passion
In my talks, I lead audiences through experiential activities so they can truly feel the discomfort and uncertainty of working on the "intervention" as opposed to the "invention." Watching their faces when it all comes together is rewarding, and they forever talk differently about their work!
Best Story
I was convening an internal workshop of corporate leadership team that spanned multiple disciplines. The goal was to align the senior team toward a common customer goal from within their different functional disciplines. As we uncovered the layers of what motivated their customers, one participant was clearly concerned. I addressed the group "It’s not uncommon to feel some discomfort with this type of work." This participant piped up and said "Discomfort!?!?! I've already run out of discomfort!" The group laughed and I was able to directly address the issue by comparing to working in normal operations, and this group went on to create one of the company's most successful products.
All of my stories are rooted in finding a source of emotional pain, whether it’s affecting a customer or an employee group. Innovation and disruption can be scary, and I talk about how we use discomfort as fuel to create the best products and services. Clients always exceed their expectations as a result.
Origin Story
I started my career as an engineer in a large medical device company, and soon became frustrated that I was doing a good job of building the wrong products. I made successive career and education moves to put myself in a position to be able to help organizations to design the right products in the first place.
The abysmal track record (often cited as 70% of new venture failure) has taught me that the startup model of product development is broken. Whether a new startup, or a new venture in a large company, the "conventional wisdom" results in prioritizing getting a technology to market, as opposed to getting the right product to market. This results in tremendous waste - imagine what the world could do with the money saved if the 70% ratio were reversed?
The 70% ratio can be avoided, and it is now my mission to fix it.
Example talks
Innovation Is Broken: How We Can Fix It
People don't want to engage with your products or your new technology. They want to engage with the experiences your products and technologies enable them to have. And yet the majority of time and money spent on new ventures is in the act of creating and developing the new product or technology.
It's no wonder that the frequently cited statistic, that approximately 70% of new ventures fail, has not changed in the last thirty years.
In this talk, discover what it means to create the intervention your company should have in the market, how it guides venture development, and why it gets too little attention in most companies. Audiences will experience what it feels like to create an intervention, and will see examples of the interventions that have enabled globally successful products to lead their markets.
Capitalism Gone Rogue: Rethinking Value Creation (Solo Presentation or Interactive Talk Show)
From the Scientific Revolution through the Industrial Revolutions, society has adopted the mechanistic model of identifying discrete parts to efficiently create tangible, physical goods. The efficiencies enabled by this mechanization unlocked tremendous value driving the tangible economy for decades. As technology continued to evolve and these efficiencies were refined, businesses/industries turned to a new form of investment - intangible assets. Software, R&D, branding, training programs and process improvements have become the focus in driving economic advancement, yet the mechanistic paradigm and our methods of accounting for and attributing value remain inadequate when identifying, accounting for and rewarding value creation. At its core, capitalism rewards value creation, but we have become so entrenched in the paradigms that drive tangible value creation, we do not recognize (much less reward) intangible value creation.
Technology enables more value creation from intangible assets than from tangible assets. Yet metrics, rewards, and societal hierarchies only recognize the tangible economy, resulting in misaligned reward structures, unequal distribution of value, and exploitation of people generating intangible assets that drive this new value creation. This incomplete recognition of value creation exploits the real value creators and sustains economic inefficiencies.
This talk urges a call to action. Capitalism is not the problem, rather the lack of systems to consistently recognize intangible value creation and attribution fairly to its creators. I have have, through different roles and disciplines, harnessed intangible assets to create tangible business value. This presentation draws from these roles as practitioners to initiate an experiential dialog with participants to catalyze action around systematizing these issues from industry. Frustratingly, academic resources are either so theoretical they cannot be applied to business use or are too observational to systematically affect any meaningful change.
Whether as a solo presentation or as an interactive talk show, I (We) seek to bridge the inaccessible principles and “on the ground” action, such that we can collaborate with academics who can codify these principles for business leaders to systematically establish in practice.
Businesses are built on tacit knowledge - they just don't know it
Explicit Knowledge consists of clearly observable, quantifiable behaviors and metrics that drive the operations of most businesses, such as stated customer needs, direct observation of user behavior, cost structures, technology feasibility, competitive landscape, etc.
Tacit Knowledge is invisible. It consists of the deep motivational drivers that influence decision-making in the market, and is based on underlying human motivations such as trust, fear, confidence, shame, etc.
Here’s a little secret: Every successful business is built on a foundation of deep Tacit Knowledge - they just don't know it.
In this talk I review the value of tacit knowledge, why it's often overlooked, and how to consciously use it to improve business success.
Intended Audience - This talk is ideal for Startups, especially those who need to transform a technology into a product, and for HR teams looking for new ideas for innovation and product development training.
New Opportunities for Financial Services to Serve Market Needs
In doing deep research with community bank members, we've learned that there is an interesting tension in banking. In general, consumers strongly trust banks to provide basic services. Yet they deeply distrust the motivations that drive the banking system. In between there are many opportunities to create new, highly valued services that create value for both financial service institutions and their clients.
Intended Audience - This talk is ideal for FinTech startups, and for Financial Services executives whose companies that are at risk of being disrupted by the startups.
Patient-Centered Innovation
Like consumers, patients can't tell you what they want, and healthcare providers cannot read minds. Yet we must find new ways to serve patients and healthcare providers to help bridge this gap. This talk shares examples of how that can happen, and why the industry struggles to innovate.
Intended Audience - This talk is ideal for HealthTech startups, executives of Healthcare companies wanting to learn about new ways to innovate, and for Healthcare regulators.
From Insight to Innovation
If organizations want to innovate new products and services that will reliably connect with the market, they must develop
expertise in translating market motivations into products and services that will satisfy
them.
This is best achieved using people who possess the synesthesia-like ability
connect seemingly disparate disciplines in new ways. This type of translation skill is not
broadly recognized by the majority of people who work within large companies, yet it is
vitally important in developing opportunities that are relevant to the market. And it can be learned.
Intended Audience - This talk is ideal for HR or Learning and Development training groups who are looking for training on innovation and new product development. It's also an interesting talk for an internal corporate executive meeting.
Aligning innovation process with how we all think
We have little control over an individual’s desire or ability to overcome their cognitive barriers to innovation. However, for those who are ready, we can use this new knowledge to deliberately create programs that combine the right process, people, and environment to facilitate the creation of relevant new ideas. Since it is increasingly important that companies innovate in game-changing ways, an innovation program must be distinctly different from current product development programs.
The focus for innovation professionals is to consistently apply this knowledge about these mental functions to their work, so that best practices for innovation can be established. Currently, there are no standards to guide the creation or selection of innovation programs. We can now remove the mystery behind why some innovation processes are successful and others are not, based on the extent to which they facilitate the mental functions that are the source of relevant new ideas, and minimize the mental barriers to creating these ideas.
Intended Audience - This talk is ideal for HR or Learning and Development training groups who are looking for training on innovation and new product development. It's also an interesting talk for an internal corporate executive meeting.
Featured Video
I am willing to travel
More than 100 miles
When it comes to payments
I generally get paid for speaking but make exceptions
Topics
Best Story
I was convening an internal workshop of corporate leadership team that spanned multiple disciplines. The goal was to align the senior team toward a common customer goal from within their different functional disciplines. As we uncovered the layers of what motivated their customers, one participant was clearly concerned. I addressed the group "It’s not uncommon to feel some discomfort with this type of work." This participant piped up and said "Discomfort!?!?! I've already run out of discomfort!" The group laughed and I was able to directly address the issue by comparing to working in normal operations, and this group went on to create one of the company's most successful products.
All of my stories are rooted in finding a source of emotional pain, whether it’s affecting a customer or an employee group. Innovation and disruption can be scary, and I talk about how we use discomfort as fuel to create the best products and services. Clients always exceed their expectations as a result.
Origin Story
I started my career as an engineer in a large medical device company, and soon became frustrated that I was doing a good job of building the wrong products. I made successive career and education moves to put myself in a position to be able to help organizations to design the right products in the first place.
The abysmal track record (often cited as 70% of new venture failure) has taught me that the startup model of product development is broken. Whether a new startup, or a new venture in a large company, the "conventional wisdom" results in prioritizing getting a technology to market, as opposed to getting the right product to market. This results in tremendous waste - imagine what the world could do with the money saved if the 70% ratio were reversed?
The 70% ratio can be avoided, and it is now my mission to fix it.
Example talks
Innovation Is Broken: How We Can Fix It
People don't want to engage with your products or your new technology. They want to engage with the experiences your products and technologies enable them to have. And yet the majority of time and money spent on new ventures is in the act of creating and developing the new product or technology.
It's no wonder that the frequently cited statistic, that approximately 70% of new ventures fail, has not changed in the last thirty years.
In this talk, discover what it means to create the intervention your company should have in the market, how it guides venture development, and why it gets too little attention in most companies. Audiences will experience what it feels like to create an intervention, and will see examples of the interventions that have enabled globally successful products to lead their markets.
Capitalism Gone Rogue: Rethinking Value Creation (Solo Presentation or Interactive Talk Show)
From the Scientific Revolution through the Industrial Revolutions, society has adopted the mechanistic model of identifying discrete parts to efficiently create tangible, physical goods. The efficiencies enabled by this mechanization unlocked tremendous value driving the tangible economy for decades. As technology continued to evolve and these efficiencies were refined, businesses/industries turned to a new form of investment - intangible assets. Software, R&D, branding, training programs and process improvements have become the focus in driving economic advancement, yet the mechanistic paradigm and our methods of accounting for and attributing value remain inadequate when identifying, accounting for and rewarding value creation. At its core, capitalism rewards value creation, but we have become so entrenched in the paradigms that drive tangible value creation, we do not recognize (much less reward) intangible value creation.
Technology enables more value creation from intangible assets than from tangible assets. Yet metrics, rewards, and societal hierarchies only recognize the tangible economy, resulting in misaligned reward structures, unequal distribution of value, and exploitation of people generating intangible assets that drive this new value creation. This incomplete recognition of value creation exploits the real value creators and sustains economic inefficiencies.
This talk urges a call to action. Capitalism is not the problem, rather the lack of systems to consistently recognize intangible value creation and attribution fairly to its creators. I have have, through different roles and disciplines, harnessed intangible assets to create tangible business value. This presentation draws from these roles as practitioners to initiate an experiential dialog with participants to catalyze action around systematizing these issues from industry. Frustratingly, academic resources are either so theoretical they cannot be applied to business use or are too observational to systematically affect any meaningful change.
Whether as a solo presentation or as an interactive talk show, I (We) seek to bridge the inaccessible principles and “on the ground” action, such that we can collaborate with academics who can codify these principles for business leaders to systematically establish in practice.
Businesses are built on tacit knowledge - they just don't know it
Explicit Knowledge consists of clearly observable, quantifiable behaviors and metrics that drive the operations of most businesses, such as stated customer needs, direct observation of user behavior, cost structures, technology feasibility, competitive landscape, etc.
Tacit Knowledge is invisible. It consists of the deep motivational drivers that influence decision-making in the market, and is based on underlying human motivations such as trust, fear, confidence, shame, etc.
Here’s a little secret: Every successful business is built on a foundation of deep Tacit Knowledge - they just don't know it.
In this talk I review the value of tacit knowledge, why it's often overlooked, and how to consciously use it to improve business success.
Intended Audience - This talk is ideal for Startups, especially those who need to transform a technology into a product, and for HR teams looking for new ideas for innovation and product development training.
New Opportunities for Financial Services to Serve Market Needs
In doing deep research with community bank members, we've learned that there is an interesting tension in banking. In general, consumers strongly trust banks to provide basic services. Yet they deeply distrust the motivations that drive the banking system. In between there are many opportunities to create new, highly valued services that create value for both financial service institutions and their clients.
Intended Audience - This talk is ideal for FinTech startups, and for Financial Services executives whose companies that are at risk of being disrupted by the startups.
Patient-Centered Innovation
Like consumers, patients can't tell you what they want, and healthcare providers cannot read minds. Yet we must find new ways to serve patients and healthcare providers to help bridge this gap. This talk shares examples of how that can happen, and why the industry struggles to innovate.
Intended Audience - This talk is ideal for HealthTech startups, executives of Healthcare companies wanting to learn about new ways to innovate, and for Healthcare regulators.
From Insight to Innovation
If organizations want to innovate new products and services that will reliably connect with the market, they must develop
expertise in translating market motivations into products and services that will satisfy
them.
This is best achieved using people who possess the synesthesia-like ability
connect seemingly disparate disciplines in new ways. This type of translation skill is not
broadly recognized by the majority of people who work within large companies, yet it is
vitally important in developing opportunities that are relevant to the market. And it can be learned.
Intended Audience - This talk is ideal for HR or Learning and Development training groups who are looking for training on innovation and new product development. It's also an interesting talk for an internal corporate executive meeting.
Aligning innovation process with how we all think
We have little control over an individual’s desire or ability to overcome their cognitive barriers to innovation. However, for those who are ready, we can use this new knowledge to deliberately create programs that combine the right process, people, and environment to facilitate the creation of relevant new ideas. Since it is increasingly important that companies innovate in game-changing ways, an innovation program must be distinctly different from current product development programs.
The focus for innovation professionals is to consistently apply this knowledge about these mental functions to their work, so that best practices for innovation can be established. Currently, there are no standards to guide the creation or selection of innovation programs. We can now remove the mystery behind why some innovation processes are successful and others are not, based on the extent to which they facilitate the mental functions that are the source of relevant new ideas, and minimize the mental barriers to creating these ideas.
Intended Audience - This talk is ideal for HR or Learning and Development training groups who are looking for training on innovation and new product development. It's also an interesting talk for an internal corporate executive meeting.