#51 - Tessa Finlev | Dolby Laboratories | Running a Futures Council

Innovation Rockstars

“To assume that running a Foresight or Future program is something that people can do on the side of their regular work would doom the whole thing directly to failure.” In this episode, we are joined by Dolby Laboratories' first-ever Foresight Strategist, and current founder of her own consultancy, Tessa Finlev. As Head of Foresight, she has launched an internal Futures Council, a company-wide resource that scans the horizon and connects the dots back to Dolby. In addition to a brief explanation of how Tessa "accidentally" became a futurist, and a short dive into the foresight activities at Dolby Laboratories, we address the core question of how to run a Futures Council. If you want to learn more about the characteristics, responsibilities, and goals of such a council, but also how time travelers come into play in that context, you shouldn’t miss this episode. The episode at a glance: Who is Tessa? (00:01:29) Tessa, please complete the 3 sentence starters… (00:02:57) Foresight X Dolby Tessa’s story about “accidentally” becoming a Futurist. (00:05:03) How Tessa kick-started corporate foresight movement within Dolby (00:06:17) Who were Tessa’s first followers inside Dolby? (00:08:13) How Tessa managed to get the internal buy-in for using a software platform within Dolby (00:10:33) How do gamification approaches come into play to increase engagement in corporate foresight activities? (00:12:50) The “Either-Or” game (00:13:38) The Futures Council of Dolby Why Tessa recommends having a dedicated futures team inside a company (00:15:12) What are the characteristics, responsibilities, goals and structure of such a council? (00:16:44) Who is the audience of the Futures Council? (00:22:17) In Tessa’s opinion, where should Foresight ideally sit within the corporate context, and why? (00:25:21) A look ahead: What are some of the most relevant H2/ H3 topics Dolby is currently dealing with? (00:27:07) Tessa’s 3 actionable key recommendations to take away from this episode (00:33:12) Looking back. Tessa’s Innovation Rockstar moment (00:34:30) *** FEEDBACK WELCOME If you would like to learn more about Tessa and her boutique futures firm, “Facilitating Foresight”, then why not visit her at veryfuture.xyz. For feedback on this episode, just shoot us a note at [e-mail]. *** LISTEN - LIKE - SHARE More inspiring innovation stories, to be found on our website at www.innovationrockstars.show or visit our Innovation Rockstars channel on all major podcast platforms and leave us a rating or a review!