Invest Like The Best
Episode 150 Quality and Innovation
Invest Like The Best

Episode 150: Quality and Innovation

Invest Like The Best

Episode 150

Quality and Innovation

Vaughn Tan studies quality, innovation, and organizational behavior. We cover the problem with how people define quality, how uncertainty in job roles can lead to innovation within companies, and the lessons he learned from his research studying restaurant R&D teams.

[00:01:33] â€“ (First Question) â€“ Interesting ways to identify high quality 

[00:05:06] â€“ The current problem with the way we think about the world 

[00:08:56] â€“ How people think about their careers and college 

[00:11:21] â€“ Uncertainty vs risk, and productive discomfort 

[00:19:08] â€“ Cultivation of discomfort for an individual 

[00:24:05] â€“ Successful innovation cultures 

[00:32:25] â€“ Analyzing quality and restaurant bread 

[00:37:43] â€“ The Slug idea 

[00:40:43] â€“ His research project where he observed restaurants 

[00:45:44] â€“ How do people mandate their own structure in the face of uncertainty 

[00:53:46] â€“ How employees should approach this rent-to-buy hiring structure 

[00:57:17] â€“ Example of someone who took advantage of uncertainty time 

[01:00:05] â€“ Playful adults 

[01:03:10] â€“ Other changes companies can make to their culture to be more innovative 

[01:08:19] â€“ The difference between simplicity and complexity  

[01:11:12] â€“ How he applies his thinking into several different ideas, like Cannabis 

[01:16:17] â€“ Asking the right question 

[01:20:19] â€“ Kindest thing anyone has done for Vaughn 

Quality and Innovation

Introduction

Patrick
My guest today is Vaughn Tan, who studies quality, innovation, and organizational behavior. His resume is bonkers. He's a PhD from Harvard, was an infantry signals logistician in the Republic of Singapore Army. Then worked at Google on advertising, Earth, Maps, Spaceflight, and Fusion Tables. He's also been a wood sculptor. But the topic of our conversation is how to foster quality and innovation in ourselves and inside of companies, lessons he learned in part by studying inside of some of the world's best restaurants. If you enjoy this conversation, I recommend you also check out his brand new book, The Uncertainty Mindset: Innovation Insights from the Frontiers of Food, which is linked in the show notes. Now, please enjoy my conversation with Vaughn Tan.

Definition of Quality

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