In this episode of Nordic Visionaries, I had the chance to sit down with Magnus Egeberg, CEO of Mastercard Payment Services, live at TechBBQ. Magnus shared his journey from consulting and Nets to leading Mastercard’s Nordic business, and how he found himself at the center of one of the company’s most significant acquisitions. He walked me through what it meant to migrate national payment infrastructures across five countries, handling trillions of dollars while making sure everything worked flawlessly from day one.

We talked about the role of account-to-account payments as the backbone of both consumer and business transactions, and why the next wave of innovation lies in embedded finance. Magnus described how payments are being integrated directly into the workflows of professionals in industries such as law and healthcare, making once cumbersome processes faster, safer, and far more intuitive.

Cybersecurity was another prominent theme in our conversation. Magnus explained why security is never an add-on at Mastercard but part of the DNA, from zero-trust design to developer training and global threat intelligence. He also shared a very personal story about his battle with cancer, and how it deepened his admiration for medical innovation.

As we wrapped up, Magnus pointed to sustainability as the innovation challenge of our time and why Mastercard is pushing toward net zero by 2040. It was an inspiring reminder of how financial infrastructure, resilience, and human stories all intersect in the Nordics.

In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I sit down with John Rossman, the former Amazon executive who helped launch the Amazon Marketplace and is a co-author of Big Bet Leadership: Your Transformation Playbook for Winning in the Hyper-Digital Era. Our title says it all: How to Continue, Kill, or Pivot Your Pilots with Clarity and Confidence.

John and I get practical about the moments that make or break innovation programs, from shaping the problem statement to running the high-stakes meetings where leaders must choose a path. If you have ever wondered why competent pilots stall, or how to defend a tough call in the room, this one is for you.

John takes me inside the “working backwards” mindset and the rewired playbook he built with T-Mobile’s new business incubation team in Bellevue. We also dig into how decisions actually get made.

John lays out the discipline behind those pivotal Continue, Kill, Pivot, or Confusion meetings, including clear criteria, facilitation, and communications so decisions stick rather than drift into ghost projects. We discuss strategic communication and the role of the Chief Repeating Officer, drawing lessons from successes at Amazon and hard-won insights, such as the Gates Foundation’s inBloom post-mortem, where great technology and funding still failed without a proactive narrative that addressed resistance.

You will hear how I approach innovation culture as an anthropologist, treating every company like its own country, with its own history, norms, and incentives that shape what is possible. We explore tools that invite people into the future rather than dictate it, such as “imagine if” framing and pre-mortems, which surface risks without killing momentum.

John also shares a few provocative ideas he believes the world needs now, from real-time freedom to shift cloud workloads to snap-switching your mobile carrier, all designed to put choice and competition back in the hands of users.

If you are juggling pilots and pressure, this conversation gives you a plain-English playbook for moving from noise to momentum. You will leave with concrete steps to sharpen your problem statements, wire your experiments to the P&L, structure decisive meetings, and communicate like a leader who can carry a big bet across the line. Listen in, take notes, and get ready to make your next decision with clarity and confidence.

I sat down with Lukas N. P. Egger, VP of Product Strategy and Innovation at SAP Signavio, to explore how storytelling derisks significant transformation and AI programs. We begin with his path from Austrian startup life to leading innovation within a global enterprise, and why early “peacocking” demos are only the first step.

Lukas demonstrates how he and his team transform messy narratives and SOPs into usable process models, then utilize Signavio’s Transformation Advisor to connect business pain points to the first processes worth addressing. What struck me most is his take on strategy as a story. He explains how the correct narrative makes the unfamiliar feel familiar, helping teams bridge silos, align incentives, and transition from feature checklists to real outcomes.

I share my approach to co-creating a shared future with stakeholders before pitching any solution, and Lukas adds a candid look at why some high-ROI pilots still fail when they threaten power structures. We discuss reframing, empathy, and the mindset shift innovators need to achieve lasting impact.

Lukas also raises a timely warning about AI systems that can build emotional rapport at the marginal cost of electricity, and why our incentive structures need an upgrade if we want technology to serve people, not the other way around.

If you have a high-stakes AI initiative on your desk and you need a story that lowers the cost of failure, this conversation will give you practical ways to start, align, and deliver.