Academic: Business Experiments for Sustainability Innovations by Ilka from Leuphana University of Luneburg

Welcome to Episode 5 of AGILE Sustainability. In this episode, we will talk about leveraging business experiments to derisk sustainability innovations with Ilka Weissbrod.
Ilka is a sustainable innovation expert and researcher. She works closely with both academic researchers and business practitioners. One of her research elaborated on the benefits of business experimentation in facilitating sustainability transitions. Given the time sensitivity around sustainability transitions, business experiments can serve as a useful tool to derisk the business innovations on sustainability and iteratively polish the transition plan based on feedback from the experiments.
The topics in this podcast are:

• 00m08s: Introduction to Ilka and her research
• 03m11s: Radical Innovations vs Normal Innovations
• 04m50s: Radical Innovations in Relation to Sustainability
• 08m32s: Example Radical Sustainability Innovations
• 09m52s: Barriers and Challenges Around Sustainability Innovations
• 11m18s: Business Capabilities that Help to Overcome the Barriers
• 13m39s: Templates to Design the Business Experiments
• 17m57s: Common Timespans for Business Experiments
• 19m27s: Keys to Promote Collaboration between Academic and Business Practitioners

One of the highlights from Ilka's sharing is utilizing the Lean Startup methodology and Business Model Canvas as a template to design business experiments. When designing the experiments, businesses could quickly polish their business innovations by shortening the period of the experiment. At the same time, businesses could derisk radical innovations and gain confidence in the innovation among the organization by validating assumptions through business experiments.
If you like this podcast, you can learn more about Ilka's experiences and research on her website.
Find out the topics to be explored at https://www.agilesustainability.org/
We would like to hear from you at podcast@agilesustainability.org
Reach out to us for any questions or challenges you face in adopting sustainability solutions.
Music by Wataboi from Pixabay