Uday Dandavate: SonicRim’s CEO on Poetry, Design Activism and Creativity

"Every human being has the ability to transcend their reality and think constructively and imagine a different future.” ~ Uday Dandavate

 

Uday Dandavate joins me for this podcast to discuss his new book of poetry “a window for a home without walls”, the importance of collaborative innovation, and why design activism - not design thinking - is needed now more than ever. 

 

Uday has had a long career at the intersection of design, innovation, and technology; as the CEO of SonicRim, a firm that has supported creative initiatives at leading companies such as Google, Microsoft, and eBay. I partnered with SonicRim over 10 years ago during my career at Microsoft to explore consumer needs and trends in support of product innovation. It was nice to catch up after so many years to discuss how we can apply a design activist mindset to today’s pressing leadership issues. By the way, even if you aren’t a reader of poetry, I think you will find his book of poems both thought-provoking and inspiring. 

 

In this podcast we discuss:

 

Skills every designer needs

Writing a book can be a fun and playful act

Value of having the right questions, not the right answers

Listening to inner wisdom 

Fearlessness as a way to see the world objectively

Being authentic in business

What the pandemic is teaching us about leadership

Moving beyond design thinking to design activism

Comics as a storytelling vehicle

What leaders can do to unlock creativity

…and much more!