Amer Iqbal is an innovation consultant and author of the upcoming book "The 5 Ways to Innovate: a pop culture guide to corporate innovation".
Amer is the former APAC Head of Digital Transformation at Meta (Facebook). Before joining Meta, he helped to scale Deloitte Digital from the ground up to the leading digital creative consultancy in the region. Previously he was General Manager & Head of Strategy at Deepend, a multi-award winning advertising agency in Sydney, Australia. Over the past 20 years he has also built several successful startups and advised dozens of Fortune 500 corporations on their innovation strategy.
Amer was a finalist for 2011 Young Executive of the Year and has been featured in numerous publications including Australian Financial Review, Economic Times, HRM Asia, AdNews and WARC.
He has lectured at University of NSW and UTS, mentored at Sydney Marketing Society and delivered executive coaching across Southeast Asia. He is regularly engaged as an industry thought leader, speaker, and facilitator.
Talking Points
5 Ways to Innovate
The problem with innovation and how corporates are dealing with it.5 Ways to Innovate
Throw a rock and you’re likely to hit an innovation lab. Chances are your company has a team of people walking around in jeans and sneakers, a room filled with VR headsets and IoT tech, or a mysterious incubator for disruptive ideas somewhere in the business.
Every organisation is investing in innovation, but the ugly truth is that very few know where they should be placing their bets. From our experience with hundreds of companies across many geographies, we have observed five typical ways that corporates approach innovation - the problem is choosing which one is right for you.
The 5 Ways to Innovate is a simple framework that helps organisations learn from the world’s best innovators in order to build for the business of tomorrow.
Step into the Metaverse
A guide for businesses to get real about virtual realityStep into the Metaverse
AR / VR technology isn’t a new thing - Morton Heilig invented the first immersive tech way back in 1962.
So why has the world suddenly gone Metaverse mad? When Facebook rebranded to Meta and announced their $10b / year bet, the Metaverse industry was born and it became a feeding frenzy.
But all the talk of NFT’s, Web3’s and Crypto keys hasn’t helped businesses make sense of what they should actually be investing in.
Amer Iqbal developed Meta’s enterprise readiness model for the Metaverse and through the process he uncovered a series of big myths that are pervading the industry. By clearing the clutter and focusing on a readiness model, this topic helps corporates make sense of what their metaverse strategy should be and develop a pragmatic roadmap in order to move in the right direction.
Mastering the art of change from within
Unlocking new capabilities from your internal teams.Mastering the art of change from within
What do Balinese coffee, Japanese martial arts, and Covid-19 have in common?
Let’s face it: a global pandemic is a strange environment for business as usual. According to Satya Nadella, we saw 2 years of digital transformation in 2 months. Something strange is brewing. Unprecedented times certainly call for unprecedented measures, but is there some common wisdom available to help the business world wake up and smell the coffee?
One of the most common ways that corporates innovate is through internal upskilling programs, but many of these efforts fall short: armies of newly agile certified employees flock back to their desk only to discover everything around them stayed the same. This session reveals some of the secrets that global tech companies have used to drive innovation behaviour, providing a simple framework for internal change that has been successfully adopted by incumbents in traditional industries.
From “Better Websites” to True CX
How to actually put the customer at the heart of your businessFrom “Better Websites” to True CX
What does Customer Experience mean to you? In a corporate world grappling to come to terms with jargon and concepts from the alien field of design, the term CX has come to cover everything from focus groups to website design.
The reality is most organisations are currently investing in some form of customer centricity initiative, and the level of investment has been constantly increasing over the past five years. However, very few leaders are willing to rate their organisation as having achieved a sufficient level of customer centricity.
In order to turn the tide of increasing wasted investment and executive burnout, we explore some practical structural and operational changes that can be made in most organisations to drastically improve the effectiveness of their CX investments and truly put the customer at the heart of their business.
The Purist & the Pragmatist
How to build organisations that change the game.The Purist & the Pragmatist
Steve Jobs was the ultimate purist - but whether it was members of Jony Ive’s design team or members of the board, would Apple have been as successful without the pragmatists who balanced him? On the other hand, pragmatism and consensus alone rarely changes the game; as the saying goes, if you search every park in every city in the world, you’ll find no statues of committees.
So when it comes to designing organisations, what is the right balance of purism vs. pragmatism?
Like an elastic band, only when we have two equally opposing forces do we stretch the possibilities. Only when we create tension in the right balance do we generate energy that can be harnessed into corporate innovation. Digital disruptors have created disproportionate impact across numerous industries by finding this balance. What can large corporates learn from the startup world and how can leaders organise their teams for success in a digital economy?
Let’s Get Digital
How to get your corporate to think, act and behave more like a startupLet’s Get Digital
Digital transformation is a lot like buying a Ferrari.
Without investing in people, no one knows how to drive it. Without investing in process, there is no manual to service and maintain it. Without investing in data, there is no fuel to make it move.
Without these things, the Ferrari stays parked in the driveway. It looks good, but goes nowhere.
And when everyone is following industry best practice, all of your neighbours have the same Ferrari parked in their driveways too.
Hundreds of billions of dollars are spent on digital transformation each year, and yet these investments are still focused on outdated technology procurement principles. We’ve worked for some of the largest digital organisations on the planet and are now able to put their principles in the hands of traditional incumbents in order to outpace their more nimble digital disruptors.
When information kills innovation
How the classic business case is stifling corporate innovation efforts and what you can do to fix itWhen information kills innovation
“If it’s so innovative, show me an example where our competitors have done it before”
The field of innovation is rich with stories of how the core business is often disconnected from the role that innovation plays in the organisation. No one is more familiar with this than those who work in the innovation teams, labs, incubators and accelerators across the corporate landscape.
One of the key challenges any innovation team faces is maintaining the speed and autonomy required to truly achieve new things. The risk averse traditional business case process of endless information gathering, data point development and stakeholder navigation is often the very thing that stifles innovation efforts and ironically ensures failure.
This topic provides guiding principles and operational frameworks to business leaders charged with managing innovation efforts, as well as practical advice for practitioners working hands-on within innovation teams.
Amer is a true expert in the field of innovation, and his insights and ideas always leave a lasting impression! He speaks with great clarity and enthusiasm, sharing stories from lived exper ... keep reading Deloitte Consulting
We were honoured to have Amer Iqbal as our keynote speaker. He shared an amazing framework on the 5 Ways to Innovate to help organisations learn from the world's best innovators. His enthusiasm was infectious and the audience loved the way he delivered the entire session.
Great tips! Really valuable for large enterprise customers. Thanks for the constructive ideas on what is the best approach to tackle the big issues.
Amer, spoke at an industry thought leadership event we hosted at Meta. He was excellent! He has a diverse and eclectic background that he leans on to generate an original point of view. His delivery has a brilliant mix of thoughtful consultant and entrepreneurial flair.
