Real innovation is hard, and most companies are just "walking dead" organizations waiting to fail. On the Season 1 finale of The Non Fiction Book Club, the powerhouse CMO of Spur Corporation, Vuyokazi Henda, dives into Elvin Turner’s ‘Be Less Zombie’. Drawing on her massive experience at Unilever and Spur, Vuyo explores how to build a sustainable innovation engine and escape the "zombification" of corporate life.

We discuss the unique challenges of innovating within a franchise, the power of rapid experimentation, the "just do it" test methodology, and why real change always starts with yourself.

This is our final episode of the season! Thank you for an incredible journey so far—stay tuned for some big announcements regarding Season 2.

What actually works in raising countries out of poverty? On this episode of The Non Fiction Book Club, ecosystem builder and CEO for Africa at Allan & Gill Gray Philanthropies, Ant Farr, discusses the ‘The Prosperity Paradox’ We discuss market-creating innovation, the concept of ‘competing against nothing’, and what he is already seeing on the ground in South and East Africa as he applies this thinking to raising up entrepreneurs.

In our enthusiasm for generative AI we have forgotten that AI is fundamentally predictive. In this episode of The Non Fiction Book Club, digital pioneer Mike Stopforth discusses the brilliant 2022 book, ‘Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence’ by Agarwal, Gans, and Goldfarb. We dive into the shift from generative AI to near-zero cost prediction, how decisions will split between judgement and prediction, why incumbents struggle with systems solutions, and Mike's experience wrestling with organizational adaptation to massive technological change.