Phenomena

How do you turn cultural insights into products that make a difference in people's lives? In this episode, we are joined by Stefan Biel, a scientist turned innovator who for over 25 years has looked to uncover unexplored opportunities and translate them into meaningful products. Having worked for various large players across the consumer goods industry, he now finds himself at Tesa, the global adhesive manufacturer, as their Head of Technical Foresight & Product Development. In conversation with ReD Partner Sandra Cariglio, Stefan shares his insights on building high-performing innovation teams, taking accountability as a leader, and how to balance corporate legacy with future-focused evolution. He also discusses the critical role of deep consumer understanding in innovation, and how to translate weak signals from out in the world into products that actually make a difference in people's lives by anticipating changing social realities.

How to build a corporate strategy for Africa's largest international health NGO? In our latest episode of Leading with Perspective, we are joined by Dr. Githinji Gitahi, Group CEO of Amref Health Africa. Amref is committed to transforming the health of African communities serving 30 million people in 35+ countries annually.​ Since joining as CEO in 2015, Dr. Gitahi has led Amref through a remarkable transformation, shifting from a vertical disease-focused approach to a systems-led strategy. Under his leadership, the organisation has doubled its impact and budget while pioneering innovative approaches to community health. Joined by ReD's manager partner Mads Holme, Dr. Gitahi discusses Amref's journey from its origins in the 1950s to becoming a leading voice in African healthcare policy, the challenges of transforming a large organisation's strategy and governance, and why addressing issues like climate change and youth engagement are critical for the future of health in Africa.

How has the financial sector looked to regain trust with consumers and play a more meaningful role in their lives? In this episode, we are joined by Camilla Dahl Hansen who was most recently with Saxo Bank where she held a number of roles including its Global Chief Saxo Experience Officer and Senior Executive Vice President. Before that, Camilla spent 14 years with Danske Bank as the Head of Group Marketing and SVP for Wealth Management with focus on marketing, communications, transformation, and strategy. Joined by ReD partner Martin Gronemann, Camilla discusses the state of the financial sector today, particularly with regards to where it is on its journey to becoming more inclusive of women both on the customer side and at the organisational level. If we look back over the last 15 years, how have things changed? And what has stayed the same?

What foundational ideas should guide our thinking around future approaches to care? In 2026, the Mary Elizabeth Hospital in Copenhagen will open to the public. It is a hospital that will revolutionise the experience for children, teens, pregnant women and their relatives before, during and after treatment. And they are doing this by centering the hospital all around play. Alongside Elisabeth Ida Ginsberg and Thomas Frandsen the hospital's chief project manager and chief medical officer respectively, ReD's Anne Mette Worsøe Lottrup and Iago Noguer Storgaard discussed how play became the foundational idea to both the hospital's design principles and day-to-day operations. A project that has been over a decade in the making, they also discuss how an idea, or human insight such as play, can be guarded as the governing principle through something as complicated and large-scale as building a new hospital.

In another live edition of the ReD podcast, we are joined by Taylor Price, a leading Gen Z financial expert with over a million followers on TikTok, and Matt Klein, a writer, cultural theorist and head of foresight at Reddit, to discuss what spaces or figures people are turning to as trust in traditional sources of authority is in decline. In the conversation, we get into the "who" – has relatability become the new stand-in for expertise? – the "where" – what are some of the tradeoffs to finding expertise in smaller, community-based online spaces? – and the "how" – what can traditional institutions learn from these spaces about meaningfully connecting with consumers? We also covered the growing homogenisation of culture, the ability for AI to both disrupt and affirm existing models of authority and when brands should, and shouldn't, hand over power to their consumers. The panel was hosted by ReD's editorial director Matthew Janney, as part of our wider exploration on where authority comes from today.

In our age of AI and hyper-replication, who really is the author? To explore this question we sat down with with Charles Gorintin (co-founder of Mistral AI and co-founder and CTO of Alan) and Neil Beloufa (artist and co-founder of the collective EBB) who alongside ReD's Charlotte Vangsgaard discuss: How should companies that thrive on originality respond to this new age of mass participation? What kinds of new business models might emerge from this new landscape? And how can we understand the complex question of ownership as creative authority becomes increasingly distributed? The panel was hosted by ReD's Paris director Alexis Jakubowicz, as part of our wider exploration on where authority comes from today.

How to embrace uncertainty and channel chaos as the leader of a legacy brand? In this episode, we are joined by Alvin Lu, CEO of Kodansha USA Publishing, fresh from the opening of Kodansha House – an immersive space where people can experience all things Manga – which runs throughout October in New York City.  Kodansha USA Publishing, or KUP, is a subsidiary of Kodansha, one of Japan's largest and oldest publishing houses primarily known for being an industry leader in Manga, Japanese comics from which most anime is based off.  Joined by ReD partner Maria Cury, Alvin speaks about manga's shift into mainstream Western culture, how Kodansha's dedication to quality and creativity has been fundamental to its success, and the art of balancing personal intuition with deep audience understanding as a leader.

In today's data-abundant landscape – where everything from website clicks and customer smiles to our own heartbeats is measured – what makes a metric meaningful? This episode was recorded live at an event a few weeks ago in San Francisco and is part of our ongoing series looking at authority; where authority is coming from today. And this episode will focus on the authority of numbers. To explore this question we sat down with with Alon Halevy (Senior Principal Applied Scientist, Amazon Web Services (AWS)), Gabrielle Merite (information designer and founder of Figures & Figures) and Saumya Gupta (Co-Founder Build IRL Accelerator) – to discuss this special power that numbers hold in our society. The panel was hosted by ReD's Mikkel Krenchel and introduced by Morgan Ramsey Elliot.

What are the do's and don'ts of mobilising change within an organisation? In today's episode, ReD's Charlotte Vangsgaard sits down with one of Denmark's most experienced executives, Mads Ryder, an expert in change management and transformation.  Currently CEO of LeDap, an international group of padel companies, Mads has previously served as CEO of Rosenthal, one of Europe´s largest porcelain manufacturers and retailers, and has also held executive and leadership roles within Royal Copenhagen, Weight Watchers and Legoland Parks. From theme parks, to porcelain, to fashion, he delves into the most common pitfalls that companies make across these industries, shares his recipe for success when it comes to making change that is lasting, and tells us why it's important to admit one's mistakes as a leader.

It's one thing to come up with a great strategy in theory, but leaders often get stuck when it comes to execution. In the first episode of our brand new series Leading with Perspective, we welcome renowned strategic thinker Professor Roger Martin – named the number one management thinker in 2017 – to talk through how to overcome some of these challenges and what good strategy creation and implementation looks like in practice. With ReD partners Filip Lau and Iago Storgaard, they delve into questions such as: Why do many companies develop grand ambitions but fail to execute on them? How should leaders navigate the transition between what a company is doing today and what it wants to do tomorrow?  While in the second part, Roger and ReD's managing partner Mads Holme explore the role of culture in strategy: What does good cultural leadership look like today? And what are some of the concrete ways leaders can actually mobilise change when it comes to cultural transformation?

'Leading with Perspective', a new season of the Phenomena Podcast all about leadership, transformation and strategic thinking with a brand new episode each month. Leading with Perspective is all about having engaging conversations with top industry leaders and hearing about how they effected change within their organisation, their industry and the wider culture.

In a special edition of the ReD podcast, we're bringing you the best bits of a conversation that took place last week in our offices in NYC, where Ian Dull sat down with neuroscientist and entrepreneur Vivienne Ming and VP of Research Science at Meta's Reality Labs, Richard Newcombe, to discuss the role of bodies in the age of AI In front of a packed room on a cold New York evening, they discussed how computers “see” and interpret the world compared to how we as humans do, when and how to integrate these technologies for different industries from healthcare to education, tech to finance, and finally, what's next for more embodied forms of AI.

In this special edition of the podcast, we are live from Copenhagen, Denmark where we hosted a discussion with Oluf Borbye Pedersen, a world expert on the gut microbiome, and Theis Brydegaard, head chef at the Alchemist. Are We Listening to the Gut? was the topic of conversation, and as part of our ongoing content series all about our changing relationship to flesh, offers us a novel lens through which to consider our bodies, our selves and the world around us. Hosted by ReD's Filip Lau and Anne Mette Lottrup, they discuss why we should consider food as preventive medicine, the relationship between what and how we eat and healing and finally, and why paying more attention to our gut might help solve behavioural barriers around adherence.

This is a special edition of the ReD podcast live from Paris, France, where we hosted a discussion with British photographer Maisie Cousins, and Pernod Ricard's head of foresight, Daphnée Hor, at the beautiful Lafayette Anticipations, a gallery space in the heart of Paris. Are We Afraid Of The Body? was the topic of conversation, a question that sits right at the heart of our ongoing content series all about our changing relationship to flesh. Hosted by ReD's Sandra Cariglio, they discuss the changing ways bodies are considered and represented in our age of sanitised, Instagram-ready aesthetics, the growing fascination with perishability, waste and decomposition, and finally, ask whether we're entering a germ renaissance.

Since the sexual revolution of the 1970s, the Western world has been obsessed with representations of sex. And within this historical explosion of sexual imagery, many companies capitalised on the powerful narrative that consumption could deliver sex appeal and in turn, increase one's chances for finding a partner. More recently, however, we're seeing a shift where sex appeal is becoming increasingly dissociated from the idea of romantic love and folded into a wider and more varied set of personal narratives. To unpack this further, host Eliot Salandy Brown sits down with Sandra Cariglio, a partner at ReD Associates, and Polly Rodriguez, co-founder and CEO of sexual wellness brand Unbound, as part of our ongoing special series on our evolving relationship to flesh and the body. Together, they tackle big questions such as: Does sex still sell? How are behaviours and values around intimacy changing? And if the desire to seduce isn't driving consumption in fashion and beauty like it used to, what will take its place?

Money is one of the great stressors of our age, and learning to manage our finances one of our most important life needs. So why do the financial products we are offered still feel so out of sync with how we really experience money? In this episode, host Eliot Salandy Brown sits down with Martin Gronemann, a partner at ReD Associates leading our work in finance, and John Dalton, Vice President of Research at the Fidelity Center for Applied Technology, to unpick how the latest social science can help banks and financial institutions provide better products and services and build deeper interactions with their customer base. How do some executives misunderstand young people? What are the key emerging financial practices to watch? How has the digitization of financial tools made managing money even more overwhelming? And how might introducing productive friction help us make better and more informed financial decisions?

While there are still many questions about what the metaverse of the future will look and feel like, nearly everyone is in agreement that it's a big deal. And while the metaverse has been well covered from a technological angle, what is often missing from the debate are questions about the human and social implications of its evolution. In this episode, Eliot is joined by ReD partner Iago Noguer Storgaard and Jacob Wachmann, a former ReD employee and now strategy director for games and metaverse experiences at the LEGO Group, to discuss the possible directions the metaverse might take, and what that means for businesses as they look to build strategies and technology roadmaps for the future. To what extent does the metaverse mark the next paradigm shift in how we work, play, and learn as humans? How might science fiction be misleading us as to how it will change our lives? And what false assumptions are executives across industries making on features such as immersion and interoperability as they develop metaverse strategies of their own? Listen in as we also share the best books to dive deeper into the topic, from sci-fi to contemporary nonfiction to 1960s theoretical philosophy.

Companies use the word “strategy” more than ever, while strategy consultants with MBAs march the halls of companies penning sensible “strategic plans” that boards enthusiastically approve. Yet companies with a unique perspective on why customers spend with them and how they will win in their chosen space are in the minority. In this special edition of the podcast we speak about strategy with Roger Martin, one of the most influential minds in business and a trusted strategy advisor to global CEOs. In conversation with ReD partners Filip Lau and Iago Noguer Storgaard, Roger outlines the sorry state of strategy today and explains why it is in danger of becoming a lost art. What is the difference between a “strategic plan” and an actual strategy? Why are traditional strategy consultancies actually selling project management services? And how might revisiting the teachings of Aristotle help us come up with better strategies in today's business world?

People use brands to shape social identities. We see this time and again in our work, as we help brands figure out how to deliver more value to their consumers. But what role fundamentally do brands play in people's lives, and why do some resonate better than others? In this episode, host Eliot Salandy Brown is joined by ReD partner Filip Lau, to share ReD's latest thinking on brands, the shifting perceptions around them and the different expectations consumers have of brands across categories and sectors. Eliot is also joined by Matt Johnson, PhD – a neuroscientist, speaker, and author of Branding That Means Business and Blindsight: The (Mostly) Hidden Ways Marketing Reshapes Our Brains – to discuss what neuroscience can teach us about brand perception and how the latest science challenges the core views of many marketeers. What are the key questions brands should ask themselves to better connect with their consumers? What lessons might brand giants take from small, nimble players about approachability? And finally, what can a study about popcorn teach brands about the power of context on consumer behaviour?

Discussions around mental health are everywhere. But as different industries ask themselves how to get mental health right, our research points towards the need for a shift in how we understand its causes and, by extension, deliver solutions. In this episode, host Eliot is joined by ReD partner Anne Mette Wørose Lottrup and Emily Mendenhall, medical anthropologist and professor at Georgetown University, to discuss moving beyond a biological and individual understanding of mental health. How do the social sciences help us get to the social, environmental, and cultural factors underpinning psychological distress? What new opportunities for public and private players does this widening in our understanding afford? And how might a more holistic approach to care offer new approaches to solutions and a way out of our current mental health crisis?

Belonging is in crisis. While it is seemingly easier than ever to build connections with people - either online or IRL - we are lonelier and more fragmented than ever. When we talk about the mental health crisis, political polarisation, or how to build a meaningful workplace culture, what we're really talking about is belonging. In this episode, Eliot is joined by ReD partners Maria Cury and Mikkel Krenchel to unpack why our sense of belonging is in decline, how the sources from which we derive belonging are shifting, and what businesses need to know and consider about these changes. We are also joined by David Sikorjak, author of the recently published Fans Have More Friends, to unpack what we can learn from the sports industry about fandom and building community across the social divide. What are the priorities for businesses who want to cultivate a sense of belonging for their consumers? And how can focusing our efforts on cultural understanding help us build deeper bonds between individuals and communities?

The luxury industry excels at selling desire. But in recent years, it has also successfully weaved sustainability into its appeal to consumers, altering people's assumptions about what can be considered valuable, authentic or desirable. In this episode, Eliot speaks to fellow ReD partner Charlotte Vangsgaard and Dr. Stéphane Girod, a professor at the Swiss-based International Institute for Management Development, about what other sectors can learn from the luxury industry on making sustainability desirable. Where has the luxury industry got things right? How has a deeper understanding of communities helped brands connect more meaningfully with their consumers? And what strategic challenges are the world's biggest luxury brands still grappling with when it comes to sustainability?

From fashion brands to Silicon Valley giants, virtually every company is trying to make algorithms work for their business. But many algorithms are built on questionable assumptions about the way people think and live. To unpack this further, Eliot speaks to Maria Cury and Brendan Muha, partners at ReD, along with Eleonora Maria Mazzoli, a researcher in the Department of Media and Communications at the LSE. When do algorithms get us right and when do they get us wrong? How is our relationship to algorithms changing and how can these insights help businesses make better strategic decisions? And finally, what do user hacks around algorithms tell us about human aspirations?

Post-lockdown, there is renewed enthusiasm and excitement around cities. Urban development and innovation, however, often feel chaotic and atomised and miss the mark on how people actually experience the city. Eliot and his guests Ian Dull, a partner at ReD, and Jeff Risom, chief innovation officer at Gehl Architects, discuss the high stakes for businesses to get the future of the city right. What are some common errors companies make as they try to innovate for the city? How can a more systemic perspective help businesses avoid these pitfalls and create cities that are more meaningful for their inhabitants? And finally, what does a discarded electric scooter in Copenhagen tell us about designing the urban spaces of tomorrow?

How are the algorithms in our lives holding us back? What are the new priorities of urban residents that businesses can help resolve? What can other sectors learn from how the luxury industry is getting sustainability right? These are some of the questions we unpack in season two of the Phenomena podcast by ReD Associates, which explores how a deep understanding of human behaviour can shape better business strategy. During each episode, ReD partner Eliot Salandy Brown interviews colleagues and industry experts on the biggest human and cultural topics of our time, to reveal how they are often misunderstood and how the social sciences can help businesses get them right.

The COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed a tidal wave of interest around best practices in remote collaboration. But the problems emerging from the crisis are testing team problem-solving on a whole new plane. The problems will require highly complex interdisciplinary collaboration. Scientists and technologists across fields are collaborating on urgently needed innovations in diagnostics and therapy. AI experts are gathering with biologists, demographers and policymakers to harness insights on pandemic contagion and its social impact.ReD Associates put together this episode of Phenomena to explore what kinds of problems require interdisciplinary collaboration and how teams get it right when experts are coming from radically different world views. Drawing from a recent project with Facebook Reality Labs, we reconvened our research team composed of an anthropologist, cognitive scientist and machine learning expert to share their experiences of learning together and collaborating.

How can we know we’re getting at the truth, when we inevitably come at the world with various biases? Eliot Salandy Brown and David Zax explore the phenomenon of “selection bias” by visiting with two people who hold very different views of the world: a conspiracy theory debunker, and a 9/11 conspiracy theorist. Can ReD help the debunker better understand the people whose minds he’s trying to change?

In the first episode of Phenomena, the team at ReD Associates asks: What is a generation, anyway? And how do companies successfully study and understand cultural signifiers in order to capture the spirit of a generation? Eliot Salandy Brown and Sandra Cariglio discuss what Greta Thunberg's followers teach us about Gen Z, why the Ford Mustang has staying power through generations, and how we go about interpreting differences in generational identity across cultures. www.ReDAssociates.com