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ANDREA KATES

Co-founder, Futureproofing : Next  / Managing Director – iScale /

“The Cross-industry Revenue Accelerator”

Andrea is the co-founder of Futureproofing : Next, a global community of corporate innovators. She focuses on strategic innovation and technology commercialization based on research that emphasizes “innovation you can take to the bank”. 

As former CEO of a San Francisco-based SaaS technology company, Andrea pioneered the application of lean startup methods for large companies (Intel, Ford, Mayo Clinic, Nasdaq). She has also led growth projects with 200 companies around the world including Audi, SuMi Trust, GM, Intel, Cisco, KK Wind, Stitch Fix, Tokio Marine, Roche, JLL and Allstate.

Since 2017, she and her team originated the concept of “Future-Oriented Co-Creation” with Ford and Fujitsu, to drive product development in mobility, cybersecurity, fintech, and the future of work.

She has a strong background in bringing the right early stage corporate initiatives to market. The co-creation initiatives she’s led have successfully engaged an entire ecosystem: corporations + startups + universities + government.

Andrea is a current advisor to Fujitsu’s Open Innovation Gateway and Ford (cybersecurity + technology) and the Business Institute in Aalborg, Denmark. She has been a featured thought leader at TED, Aspen Institute, and the CxO Forum (Tokyo.).  Andrea has also authored a critically-acclaimed book  “Find Your Next – Using the Business Genome Approach to Find Your Company’s Next Compeitive Edge” (McGraw-Hill).

 

“Catch up, don’t give up.”

  • Global Innovation Strategy & Cross Sector Expertise
  • Technology Commercialization
  • Silicon Valley-based Agile & Lean Startup Methods and Tools
  • Team & Leadership Development and Change Management
  • Business Model Generation
  • Experimentation, Rapid Prototyping & Project Validation
  • Customer Co-Creation & User Collaboration

Andrea’s Story

I’m on a mission to bring a new breed of business growth to corporate leaders.

I am forever the rational optimist as we jump into our ambitious venture Futureproofing: Next. By applying a simple 4-step model—SEE, LEARN, DECIDE, COMMIT—we will help clients drive innovative concepts to market. Our projects bring out the best of corporate scale, the nimbleness of startups, the technical savvy of R&D from universities and research groups, and the strength of government organizations to create STRONG NETWORKS OF INTERRELATED INNOVATORS.

We’d love to work with you to explore new future possibilities–develop your big ideas into scalable new lines of business. Right now, we’re working with large companies (Ford, Fujitsu) and growth companies (Stitch Fix, Common Grounds) on big opportunities in the fintech, mobility, cybersecurity, the future of work, technology (AI, IoT), and consumer markets. 

Andrea's Point-of-View - Why FUTUREPROOFING : NEXT IS NEEDED? EXCITING? TIMELY? CREDIBLE?

Futureproofing : Next is exciting because it is a combined effort with Sean Moffitt to update the playbook for corporate growth.

In the past few years, the business environment has changed in ways that baffle even the most savvy leaders. There are a lot of individual solutions for the narrow challenges (design thinking, lean startup, agile, open innovation, co-creation), but until now it’s been hard to make sense of what to do, when.

That’s what inspired us to cull the best of what’s working today into a guide for corporate growth designed for an age of speed, choice, and exponential technology development.

Sean and I specialize in distilling the most important business principles into practical and essential rules of thumb.

In Futureproofing : Next, we synthesize insights from the most recent wave of successes fueled by innovation into a step-by-step process that combines the best thinking and lessons learned from large companies like Amazon, Alibaba, Lego, Fujitsu, Schneider Electric and Ford; as well as startups & medium sized companies that have grown fast like Stitch Fix, and CommonGrounds, and new players in new fields like Clarifai, Lemonade, and Andela.

Andrea's Analysis- How can F:N Uniquely Improve the way coMPANIES INNOVATE

I’m obsessed with redefining business innovation. Companies have to stop limiting innovation to a debate between what we call Room A versus Room B, in which a conflict is set up between the bright shiny objects of the new (Room B) and the comfort of existing commerce (Room A).

Futureproofing : Next screams out as a refreshingly different approach in which Room A and Room B find common ground and combine their perspectives to expand their thinking beyond their 4 walls and even outside their industries to forge a more powerful path to the future.

Andrea's Foresight - A View of a Better, Bolder, Simpler Future in an Era of Disruption

I am an enthusiastic but rational optimist about the future.

At Futureproofing : Next, we study the facts in tremendous detail, but also operate from the assumption that business leaders are not victims of inevitable doom.

We believe that the future is ours to create, and that the only thing that prevents companies from growth is a limited mindset.

We’ve seen successes for years that prove out that belief—in virtually every industry from mobility to retail to financial services to healthcare to technology to energy.

That’s why we’re working hard to create the next generation of business tools–beyond the “business model generation” and into the Futureproofing : Next generation + global community of FN thinkers.

“Andrea was electrifying. She introduced the playbook we’ve been wanting for hands-on innovation. She got our whole global team to think differently, resulting in game-changing initiatives. The action-oriuented & interesting format applied forces collisions that lead to new revenues.”

“Our company was at a crossroads–we were uncertain if we had the capacity to seize on a new, emerging energy market. What we needed was a blend between industry savvy and business model innovation expertise. What we got was a powerful process to explore an unknown future with confidence. The result? 18 months later,  we were leaders in a new energy segment and sold the division for $500mm.”

Get to Know Us. Say Hello. 你好. Hola. مرحبا. Guten Tag. Bonjour.

We’re hungry to do work with passionate, driven people. The future is unwritten, let’s bring some  future chapters to life.

San Francisco – Toronto – Global

+281 802-4778

hello@futureproofingnext.com

To Get in Touch with Andrea for ANY engagements or collaborations:

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