How can Legacy companies transform themselves to compete with Startups? What lessons can be learned from the different ways legacy companies Microsoft and IBM navigated the new business landscape. What can we expect from the new tech hubs popping up around the world that aim to be a recreation of what makes Silicon Valley work?

Vivek Wadhwa is an academic, entrepreneur, and author of five best-selling books: From Incremental to Exponential, Your Happiness Was Hacked, The Driver in the Driverless Car, Innovating Women, and The Immigrant Exodus.

Greg and Vivek discuss Vivek’s journey from tech entrepreneur to academic and prolific author. They discuss Vivek’s different books focusing on innovation, legacy companies, and the impact of technology on society. Vivek highlights the failures of traditional innovation methods, the cultural transformations necessary for company revitalization, and the broader societal impacts of technology addiction. Additionally, Vivek shares his personal strategies for managing tech distractions in his own life and emphasizes the necessity of face-to-face interactions for true innovation in business.

*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*

**This episode was recorded in 2021.**

Show Links:

Recommended Resources:

Guest Profile:

His Work:

Amazon Author Page
From Incremental to Exponential: How Large Companies Can See the Future and Rethink Innovation
The Driver in the Driverless Car: How Your Technology Choices Create the Future
Your Happiness Was Hacked: Why Tech Is Winning the Battle to Control Your Brain—and How to Fight Back
The Immigrant Exodus: Why America Is Losing the Global Race to Capture Entrepreneurial Talent
Innovating Women: The Changing Face of Technology

Episode Quotes:

The reason silicon valley can't be replicated

14:19: Silicon Valley can't be replicated because you need much more than a few people. It's all about culture, the fact that we interact with each other. I mean, you go to parties over here. I mean, I remember coming to Silicon Valley 12 years ago and bumping into Mark Zuckerberg. I said, "Oh my God, Mark Zuckerberg is here." And then you bump into Mitch Kapor, you know, all of these people, and you just go up to them, and they talk to you like normal people. So it's informal; you go to any coffee shop over here, and you ask someone, "You know, what are you doing?" First of all, they'll start telling you about all the things that they failed in. They'll show off about their failure, and then they'll openly tell you what they're doing. Try doing that anywhere else in the world.

On how are the people being addicted to technologies

47:41:The fact is that all of us are addicted. We're checking email. We wake up in the morning, and we check email. We go to bed late at night; we're checking email. We're traveling home from work; we're checking email. Right? We're now exchanging texts, you know, 24/7. When we have any free time, we'll start watching some TikTok videos. I mean, the kids, from the time they're like six months old now, seem to be on their iPads and so on. And the result is that teen suicide rates are high. We're not aware. All the studies about happiness show that we are less happy than we ever were. So everything good that should have happened hasn't happened. Instead, we've become addicted, and it's become a big problem for us.

Disruption can come from anywhere

08:38: You have to be aware that disruption would come from everywhere, and you need to have all hands on deck. It's no longer R&D departments that specialize in developing some specific technology—it's everyone in your company, right? Marketing, customer support, sales, your engineers, of course, finance—everyone now has a role in disruption, helping you reinvent yourself.

515. Reinventing Legacy Companies and Navigating Tech's Impact feat. Vivek Wadhwa

unSILOed with Greg LaBlanc