Projects Get Cut. Business Cases Hardly Ever Do.

A million rand, one year, and a kill switch agreed before anyone falls in love with the idea. That's how S'onqoba Vuba thinks corporate innovation should be funded. In this episode of Nexus of Next, Francois sits down with S'onqoba Vuba - Chief Partnerships Officer at NEXT176, Old Mutual's innovation arm - for a deep dive into how innovation earns its place inside large organisations.

People & Culture Is Not a Soft Science, It's a Power Science

Most large enterprises have gold lying on their streets. It stays there, because nobody takes the walk. In this episode, Francois sits down with Themba Chakela - Head of People, Culture & Change at e-Motion Consulting - for a deep dive into why enterprise innovation programmes succeed or fail on people mechanics long before they fail on technology.

Sleek and Sexy Doesn't Mean What You Think It Means | Danielle Barber on Guardrails, Governance & How Innovation Actually Works

Solving real human problems doesn't need a fancy interface. In this episode, Francois sits down with Danielle Barber, a 20-year innovation veteran at NTT Data, for a deep dive into what innovation actually is, and what it absolutely isn't.

Speed to Learning Always Wins | Ryan Osher on Scale-Up Experimentation, Innovation Culture & What Enterprises Get Wrong

Everyone assumes scale-ups learn from enterprises. The tables have turned - and the lesson runs the other way. Francois sits down with Ryan Osher, co-founder of Civitas Network, on the 18-month stretch where growth wasn't the goal, why innovation has to be a culture rather than a department, and what enterprises get wrong about moving fast.

"The Rules Changed. Are You Still Playing the Old Game?" | Daniel Parraghy on Systems Thinking, Organisational Design & the Future of Innovation

Most organisations don't die because a competitor out-innovated them. They die because the rules of the game changed and they kept playing the old one. Daniel Parraghy has spent 15 years watching it happen across boardrooms, scale-ups and global enterprises. In this episode he breaks down exactly why and what leaders can do differently.

Delight Junkies & Brilliant Basics: Ryan Sauer on Turning Data into Decisions

Most innovation stories get retold as clean, linear success. This one starts with a confident bet... and a day where nothing happened. Ryan shares the messy reality behind entrepreneurship: when to admit your hypothesis was wrong, how to pivot without losing momentum, and why the most valuable breakthroughs often come from getting the fundamentals right.