Dev Patnaik

Disney’s CEO search highlights a key question for all leaders: Are you living into the right archetype for your role? Understanding your own—and aligning it with what your organization truly needs—can transform both leadership and outcomes.

Ratan Tata, former CEO of Tata Group, transformed the company into a global powerhouse through innovation and purpose-driven leadership. His relentless curiosity and vision inspired both business success and social change.

From electric cars to streaming services, economic uncertainty is driving many companies to tap the brakes on major growth initiatives that were seen as top priorities until recently. The real challenge may lie in innovation leaders’ inability to account for two fundamental dynamics of human psychology.

Fixing the Now is fine. But not at the expense of creating the Next. Every day, thousands of very smart people at excellent companies devote vast amounts of time and energy to tasks that feel important but really aren’t. 

Consumers’ perception of value extends far beyond price. Creating value requires companies to have a keen understanding of the explicit and implicit needs they solve for customers; seeing how those needs are evolving and solving them in new and compelling ways.

Is DTC really dead? Not yet. The big challenge isn’t the direct-to-consumer model itself. It’s the way it’s being implemented—and that’s a very solvable problem.

The pandemic pushed every office worker in America into a giant experiment. Trapped at home, we were forced to learn new habits, adopt new technologies, and develop new ways of interacting. Here’s what we learned about how to optimize our workplaces for productivity and efficiency.

In 40 years, TED evolved from a conference into the media powerhouse it is today. TED creates a space to temporarily ignore the distractions of the present. It’s a place to be future-focused. If you’re a leader of strategy or innovation, the experience can be especially transformative.

For a while, the world’s biggest companies found success by focusing on a medium price and quality point. In Forbes, Dev Patnaik outlines the three big shifts that have disrupted this middle-market strategy, and how to move from “how to win” to “where to play” in order to unlock new growth.

Unilever’s decision to spin off Ben & Jerry’s along with its ice cream business has fed the misconception of “Go woke and go broke.” The real lesson to take away from the split is the opposite—that purpose pays—and it’s more important than ever to be future-focused in order to grow.

While most large companies have an established approach to innovation, few have one that really works—or one that will get them to their next phase of growth. In this article, Dev Patnaik discusses how leaders can fundamentally rethink their innovation strategy based on their unique strengths and limitations.

Years spent communicating remotely and being glued to our smartphones have left many of us hyper-focused on the present. To reconnect with ourselves and our place in the world, we can start by cultivating our strong and weak ties.

When thinking about what to expect from new CEOs, people tend to pay attention to prior work history and accomplishments. In this article, Dev Patnaik breaks down the five types of CEOs and how their unique mindsets—more so than their resumes—speak volumes about how they’ll navigate growth challenges now and in the future.

Companies are finding it harder to connect with customers in ways that matter, as seen in nostalgia-heavy Super Bowl 2024 commercials. And the usual growth strategies aren’t fixing the problem. In Forbes, Dev Patnaik advises brands on how to stay future-focused and resonate with a new generation of shoppers.

Across industries, leaders are recognizing that they can’t achieve outsize growth simply by drumming up mass demand through product innovation and new loyalty programs. In this article, Dev Patnaik explains how the rise of microtribes and niche preferences necessitates a fundamentally new approach to innovation.

After navigating pandemic-era supply chain issues, many companies are struggling to deliver on investor demands for the next wave of billion-dollar growth. This article explains how leaders can identify and act on the underlying shifts in the world that are necessitating a completely different approach to growth.

From burnout to quiet quitting, American workers have become disillusioned by the “work to live” mindset for many years. In Forbes, Dev Patnaik outlines how we can embrace the “live to work” mindset by reconnecting to a sense of personal purpose and making meaningful contributions to others.

It’s difficult to tell true signals of the future from the noise. In Forbes, Dev Patnaik unpacks the top ten news stories of 2023 that indicate major shifts unfolding in our world, with critical implications for the future.

REI’s decision to close its stores on Black Friday and encourage shoppers to explore the outdoors isn’t a savvy marketing campaign, but an example of an Iconic Move: an authentic, courageous expression of the company’s purpose and values. In his latest Forbes article, Dev Patnaik shows how true Iconic Moves, despite costing companies something in the short term, set them up for long-term success.

WeWork, a darling of the disruptive tech industry, officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy following years of financial distress. The company’s grim fate isn’t just a cautionary tale for startup founders or venture capitalists. In his latest article for Forbes, Dev Patnaik unpacks WeWork’s mistakes to provide lessons that every leader should heed when launching new ventures in their organizations.

The idea of corporate purpose is now under sustained attack by business traditionalists, activists, and cynics. It’s never been more important to have a convincing case for change. This article provides a solid argument for leaders to continue on the purpose-driven path, showing that there’s greater risk in ignoring purpose.

Many businesses have experienced tremendous growth over the last five years due to strong execution. However, that alone won’t get you to the next S-curve. To do so, Dev Patnaik explains in Forbes, you’ll need a future-focused strategy that defines where to play and how to win next.

Customers and employees increasingly want companies to have purpose and values that align with their own. But recent controversies prove that companies that try to appeal to everyone end up appealing to no one. Dev Patnaik explains in Forbes what those companies are misunderstanding about purpose and how they can become truly purpose-driven.

Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour doesn’t just display her brilliance as a performer or marketer—it shows us how to overcome the biggest challenges facing business today. In this article, Dev Patnaik shares the five lessons we can learn from how Swift embodies future-focused leadership in a manner that’s on par with Steve Jobs.

As inflation retreats, most leaders know they need to think about what’s next. The bad news is that most won’t be able to. The problem is in our heads. In this article, Dev Patnaik emphasizes the urgent need to become more future-focused and outlines how we can do so, starting with rewiring our brains.

Many companies that report impressive revenue and earnings are still valued lower than their peers. Dev Patnaik outlines how leaders must think beyond current performance, articulate a clear vision for the future, and be rewarded in turn by the market.

The complex, ambiguous challenges of our time demand wise leaders, not just knowledgeable ones. Dev Patnaik explains how leaders can attain wisdom by pursuing a new paradigm that accounts for personal growth and moral development.

In the wake of disruption and turmoil, many senior leaders turn to the traditional cost-cutting playbook. In Forbes, Dev Patnaik discusses how leaders can identify the right projects to discontinue while investing in growth initiatives.

Customers increasingly want brands to take stands on social and political issues. Dev Patnaik writes in Forbes how companies can focus on developing the three pillars of strategy, culture, and leadership to connect with customers authentically.

ChatGPT. Stable Diffusion. DALL-E. Chances are, you’ve experienced the recent hype around generative AI. Every company, regardless of industry, needs to devise an AI strategy. Dev Patnaik provides a framework with which to start.

As traditional media companies like Disney and Sony struggle to adapt to the digital age, print publications that have proven unexpectedly resilient can illuminate the path forward.

Learn why hybridity is the key to tackling today’s most ambiguous business challenges.

Regardless of the economic climate, it pays dividends to assume the best of your team and the worst of your strategy. This article outlines how leaders can adopt the right mindset to drive growth and ensure that their businesses can withstand disruption.

You might think it’s about the player, but it’s about the game. And the game is tougher than ever. In this article, Dev Patnaik explains why it’s important for CEOs to be future- focused, and how watching them succeed — or fail — is incredibly instructive for our own careers.

Whether selling sneakers or streaming services, marketers need a tribal strategy. This article outlines how brands can harness passionate communities of consumers to drive growth.

The urgent business imperative of our time is a delicate balance: to perform and transform. Here’s how leaders can play the long game, meeting short-term business goals while preparing for the future.

As the recent rise of Generative AI has proven, the cost of missing out on something truly transformative is enormous. Dev Patnaik provides strategies for leaders to evaluate which new technologies they should focus their organizations on, and which they should ignore.

Economic uncertainty calls for strategic action, not just contraction measures. Dev Patnaik explains in Forbes how senior leaders can keep their organizations future-focused and invested in the right growth initiatives.

In uncertain times, business leaders must articulate a clear and concise plan that cuts through the noise. Dev Patnaik explains in Forbes the two questions every CEO should answer right now to establish certainty, meaning and direction for their business and team.

While large companies are phenomenal at managing complexity, they’re actually quite bad at tackling ambiguity. So how do we face issues like healthcare, immigration, education, defense and economic growth in an increasingly ambiguous world?

Why is it so difficult to focus on the future? Or at the very least, avoid getting blindsided by it? For disrupted companies like Kodak or Blackberry, the problem was clearly not a lack of effort or ability to innovate. As it turns out the problem lies in how we’re all hard-wired to think.

The difference between good companies and great companies is not the quality of their ideas. It’s their ability to anticipate and act on the needs of their customers. Widespread empathy is about getting every single person in an organization to have a gut-level intuition for the people who buy their products and services–the folks who really matter.

Organizations working to better understand their customers would do well to employ direct observation techniques. But how do these techniques actually work? Here are some guidelines for the novice practitioner.

We live in uncertain times, and good ideas are needed more than ever.

A good innovation strategy takes a sizeable amount of rigorous thinking, backed up by data.

Set up the rules before you play the game.

How IBM, Hallmark, and Apple get innovation right—but not for the reasons you might think.

People in organizations with a widespread sense of empathy possess an intuitive vibe for what’s going on in the world that helps them to see new opportunities faster than their competitors.

Compare the Segway with disposable diapers and what do you see? The difference between mere invention and world-changing innovation.

In a new opinion piece, Jump’s Dev Patnaik teams up with Kathleen Enright, the CEO of Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, to discuss the growing need for empathy in the non-profit world. In this rocky economy, simply caring deeply for others isn’t enough to grow and succeed.

Consider this article your first history lesson in ideation. To help you get started, we’ve tracked down some of the best thinkers and most creative companies of all time.

Best practices imply that there’s no room for improvement. There is.

Here’s a simple equation that leads to new thinking and novel products. But it’s a formula that too few companies have grasped.

To grow and innovate, few things are more important than developing deep connections with the people you serve.

Insurers have both a tremendous opportunity and a serious threat.

Fundamental changes are occurring in the way we work. As we spend more and more time at the office, our workplace behaviors and expectations are changing to more closely mirror the rest of our lives. For companies like Metro Furniture, that connection can lead to inspiration.

Increasingly, Chief Marketing Officers are being called upon to help their organizations manage change and drive new growth for their companies. That can present a whole new set of challenges for any CMO looking to succeed. Here’s some advice on where to get started.

Industry leaders have been successfully using qualitative research for decades. But for many years, we didn’t really understand why it worked. Now we know, and understanding these dynamics can supercharge your research.

Business leaders must understand what their stakeholders’ behaviors will look like after the pandemic. Drawing on research into habit formation, technology adoption and behavioral economics, leaders can make reasonable predictions to unlock a new era of growth.

Over the last decade, most companies have realized the need to become customer-centric. Yet, very few actually are. Customer centricity isn’t just about digital tools to improve customer service. It’s a strategy and a culture: a way to differentiate and make better decisions faster.

In marketing and branding, the mantra of the development process is “respond to customer needs.” But as Dev Patnaik makes clear, not all needs are created equal. Here, supported by examples and case studies, he describes a hierarchy of customer needs and suggests how corporations can use this design-based analysis-system logics-to inform their strategic and tactical decision making.

The do’s and don’ts for running a successful innovation operation inside a traditional business.

There’s a slew of data out there to measure innovation, but it’s crucial to tailor performance metrics to specific goals and people.

Those who are struggling to deal with ambiguity can learn a lot from organizations that seem to thrive in uncertain environments.

Especially in tough times, innovation matters. Just remember: It’s not about novelty.

Learn why hybridity is the key to tackling today’s most ambiguous business challenges.

Innovation is one thing; success in the marketplace, quite another. By understanding where your product or service falls in the adoption curve, you can focus your design strategy to win with customers and gain traction.

How do you find out what people really need? The answer is a hybrid of social science and design planning methodologies. Focus on critical needfinding principles to figure out what’s really going on.