Thoughtful Innovation is about what it really takes to turn new ideas into real-world impact.
It’s for leaders, researchers and builders who want to make new things happen inside real organisations, and who suspect the technology is rarely the hardest part.
What you’ll get
Essays on innovation, leadership, and how AI is changing the way we work and decide. Many of my stories come from healthcare and technology; the lessons apply anywhere. I publish occasionally, only when I have something worth saying, so every post is worth your time.
Where to start
AIccountability: why leaders should treat AI like a very smart intern
With Innovation, Timing is Everything: what Nokia taught me about being too early
M&A as an Innovation Catalyst: why the best window for change opens after a merger
3 Tips for Communicating Your Work Effectively
About me
I’m Brent Edwards, and I’ve spent more than 30 years where new ideas meet the realities of organisations, markets and people.
In the 1990s I led signal processing and audiology research at ReSound, where our team developed one of the first fully programmable digital hearing aids. I later worked at Silicon Valley startups, including one that pitched personalised hearing technology to the world’s biggest phone maker more than a decade before the market was ready. In 2004 I wrote the business plan that created the Starkey Hearing Research Center in Berkeley, California, and built its first team. Today I’m Director of the National Acoustic Laboratories in Sydney, Australia, and I speak internationally on how AI will reshape professional work.
Along the way I’ve watched brilliant ideas succeed, and fail for reasons that had nothing to do with the technology. I’ve been writing about those lessons since 2005.
Get in touch
Reply to any email. I read every response. You can also find me on LinkedIn. For speaking enquiries, email me at brent@edwards.net.
Views here are my own and don’t represent NAL, Hearing Australia or the Australian Government.
