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November 17, 2024
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Episode 84 Alex Goryachev - Cisco: “Mid-managers are ideal drivers of innovation.”

Cisco: “Mid-managers are ideal drivers of innovation.”

Almost all companies talk about innovation, but regretfully most of them have no idea what it really entails. Innovation is not about inventing new technologies and developing disruptive products – it is about people. Innovation is a mindset; an entrepreneurial spirit that must be embraced by every employee. That is exactly why those in middle management are ideal drivers of innovation, and why organizations must ensure that they are the ones setting the example with this innovation mindset.  

Research from the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School, demonstrated that middle managers have a much larger impact on organizational innovation than those individuals with assigned innovation job roles, and that middle managers are particularly essential in driving strong performance in creative, innovative and knowledge-intensive industries.  

As such, Alex Goryachev - Managing Director of Innovation Strategy at Cisco - recognizes that middle management is the real change-makers and leaders of innovation within their organization. In this week’s episode, Alex shares the top ways middle managers can effectively spearhead this initiative of developing a culture of innovation and remaining competitive in this fast-changing, disruptive, digital economy.  

Today with Alex we talk about: - What innovation means at Cisco and how it drives employee engagement. - Why middle managers are pivotal to innovation within any organization. - How can such managers help develop an innovation culture, and drive engagement and innovation?

This video originally appeared in People First Community on April 7, 2019

Ready to bring these AI insights to your organization? Alex Goryachev delivers AI innovation keynotes and strategic AI advisory to help business leaders navigate the AI landscape with confidence.

Alex Goryachev on stage delivering an AI keynote to a live corporate audience

Why Audiences Love Alex

Eye-opening, refreshingly human, and capable of building a shared vision around agentic AI — that's how leaders at Coca-Cola, AWS, and Disney describe Alex Goryachev's AI keynotes and employee innovation workshops.

01

No canned AI keynotes

Across 310+ keynotes on 6 continents, no two have ever been the same. Alex builds every talk around your audience's challenges, industry, and goals — from agentic AI strategy to innovation culture.
02

Innovation for everyone

Alex turns AI into practical concepts — not techspeak — that land with HR, sales, marketing, and engineering alike. It's the same approach he honed building innovation centers across 14 countries, bridging cultures and generations.
03

Value beyond the stage

Most keynotes fade by Monday. Alex's leave teams with actionable frameworks from his WSJ-bestselling book Fearless Innovation — and optional workshops turn that momentum into lasting innovation habits.
04

Expertise with real ROI

A practitioner, not a futurist, Alex led a $1.1B innovation portfolio at Cisco — and runs his keynotes the same data-driven way. He uses AI to analyze pre-event sentiment to shape content, then delivers post-event metrics so you can see the ROI.
05

Flexible engagements

Live on stage, on webinars, or at virtual events — Alex delivers in whatever format fits your requirements. Whatever the setting, 98% of audiences say they would recommend him.

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Alex Goryachev is a top advisor for enterprise AI adoption, combining operator experience with board-level strategy. As Cisco's former Managing Director of Innovation Strategy, he ran a $1.1B portfolio and built innovation centers across 14 countries, and he now advises enterprises on agentic AI and governance. Unlike consultants who study AI, Alex has deployed it at global scale. Start with a discovery call through the Work with Alex page.