In this thought-provoking episode, Lisa Ryan welcomes Bruce Vojak, a leading authority on strategic innovation with a unique combination of deep and broad experience. As a business advisor, board member, senior fellow with The Conference Board, and author of two highly regarded books on innovation published by Stanford University Press, Bruce helps mature companies in mature industries survive and thrive in an increasingly volatile, complex, and ambiguous world.

Bruce shares his journey from engineer and techie to innovation strategist, sparked by his fascination with remarkable innovators—not their processes or cultures, but the people themselves. This curiosity led him to decades of research exploring the question: "How do they know what to do?" His work focuses specifically on mature manufacturing companies, making his insights particularly relevant for today's industrial leaders.

Bruce clarifies a common misconception: innovation isn't just creativity or something new—it must have financial impact and marketplace value. While many manufacturers focus on lean implementations, Six Sigma, or equipment upgrades, true innovation changes the basis of competition in an industry. It creates advantages or protects against disadvantages in transformative ways.

He illustrates this with compelling examples:

1. The Carrot Evolution: From knife peeling to safety peelers, then to Oxo's ergonomic design and finally pre-peeled baby carrots that increased overall consumption
2. Moneyball: How the Oakland Athletics revolutionized baseball team optimization using sabermetrics instead of gut feelings

The lesson? Innovation exists in every industry, you just need to start looking for it by asking questions you didn't think you needed to ask.

For manufacturers at the maturity stage of their lifecycle, the biggest danger is retreating to familiar ways of doing things without questioning unarticulated assumptions. Bruce emphasizes that the real risk isn't making big innovation investments—it's failing to ask the right questions at all.

He frames innovation investment through two financial lenses:

1. Insurance: Protection against being blindsided by market changes
2. Options: Opportunities for future growth beyond the "bond-like" steady returns of optimized manufacturing operations

Both require relatively small initial investments, often just time and attention, but provide critical protection and opportunity.

With AI and other technologies transforming business at lightning speed, Bruce advises companies to focus on three critical elements:

1. Internal Alignment: Both strategic and tactical
2. Strategic: Are we really going to invest in innovation?
3. Tactical: What about this specific idea or problem?
4. Alignment failures can derail innovation even at individual contributor levels
5. Simple Processes: Especially for small and mid-sized companies
6. Don't need elaborate systems

In this insightful episode, Lisa Ryan welcomes Dr. Joshua Tarbutton—Chairman and Chief Innovator at Bravo Team, an engineering firm specializing in custom automation solutions for manufacturers facing tough challenges. The conversation tracks Joshua Tarbutton's journey from childhood curiosity with Light Brights and exposure to structural engineering via his father, through military service, academia, and ultimately into entrepreneurship and innovation in manufacturing.

The episode tackles the urgent push for automation in manufacturing, driven by rising costs, supply chain instability, and workforce challenges. Joshua Tarbutton reflects on how fear and control can impede leadership decisions, and points out the importance of moving beyond blame and understanding the deeper social and economic forces at play.

A major theme is reskilling the workforce in response to automation. Joshua Tarbutton highlights the pressures at the lower end of the labor pool—jobs that are tough to automate and have high turnover—and notes the necessity of upskilling those in roles most likely to be displaced by technology. He emphasizes a need for earlier cultivation of manufacturing interest and skills in young people, advocating for more proactive outreach beyond "manufacturing month."

For companies lacking robust R&D departments, Joshua Tarbutton suggests an experiment-focused, risk-decreasing approach—start small, test hypotheses, and find the right experts to guide implementation. He cautions leaders to seek out genuinely knowledgeable advisors rather than relying solely on titles.

AI and large language models are discussed as powerful tools for manufacturers at every scale. Joshua Tarbutton sees AI as both a knowledge accelerator and a supportive "smart friend," especially for leadership looking to execute better and maintain margins.

Both speakers explore workplace culture, emphasizing that even in an automated world, people and teams remain the heart of innovation. Creating environments where it's safe to fail and learn, and supporting open, honest communication across teams and departments, are crucial for successful transformation.

Joshua Tarbutton closes by outlining Bravo Team's approach: solving tough, high-value problems for clients through clever engineering and collaboration, supporting innovation from machine design to full product development.

1. Automate Strategically:
2. Don't rush into automation out of fear—carefully assess timing, ROI, and reskill your workforce to maximize benefit and minimize disruption.
3. Invest in People Early:
4. Start cultivating interest and skill in manufacturing at a young age. Partner with schools and programs for real hands-on exposure beyond industry holidays.
5. De-Risk Innovation:
6. Before committing big budgets, run small, targeted experiments to prove out new ideas. This minimizes financial and technical risk in automation and R&D projects.
7. Find the Right Experts:
8. The right solutions depend on the right people, not just credentials. Seek out advisors and partners who prioritize transparency and a proven track record.
9. Leverage AI for...

Manufacturing’s next big leap won’t come from machines, it’ll come from mindset. In this episode of The Manufacturers Network, Lisa Ryan talks with Vince Sassano, President of Strategic Performance Company and creator of Proto Track, about how manufacturers can build trust in data, connect generations, and drive meaningful change on the shop floor.

With more than 30 years at the intersection of technology and operations, Vince explains how AI, automation, and analytics only work when people do. He shares what happens when leaders stop treating digital transformation like a software install and start treating it like a human one.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why the real barrier to AI adoption isn’t tech—it’s fear of losing control.
• How generational mindsets shape how fast teams adapt to change.
• What it takes to move from a 10% gain in productivity to 30%—and why that leap starts with culture.
• The difference between data and trusted data, and why both matter.
• How to connect culture to hard metrics like throughput, retention, and profit.
• Why turnover is now a more critical KPI than margin.

Action Steps for Manufacturers:

1. Lead with people. Culture drives capability; tech follows.
2. Clarify KPIs. Make sure everyone—from operators to execs—knows what success looks like.
3. Build trust in data. Transparency beats dashboards.
4. Invest in cross-training. Multi-skilled teams adapt faster than machines.
5. Reframe “productivity.” Faster isn’t better unless it’s smarter.

Listen now to learn why the future of manufacturing belongs to leaders who combine data discipline with human courage.