Today, we launch Connectiv’s BizMedia Podcast, a monthly series dedicated to discussing emerging trends and highlighting thought leaders in the business media and information industry.

We’re kicking off the program with a preview of two terrific keynotes at the upcoming Business Information & Media Summit (BIMS) Nov. 11-Nov. 13: Industry Dive CEO Sean Griffey and Tony Ulwick, founder and CEO of Strategyn.

• Episode 1: New Owners, New Opportunities: Industry Dive’s Next Chapter. Industry Dive was one of B2B’s most successful (and contrarian) independent publishers, more than doubling revenue without dabbling in events or acquisitions that have driven growth for so many other publishers. Now that private equity has come calling, how does Industry Dive expand while retaining its formula of culture and content that’s worked so well?

Sneak Peek with Sean Griffey: “The most important thing for us was the due diligence we did when we were looking for a partner. This certainly wasn’t the first time someone approached us as financial investors or strategic buyers and thought that we could do more with them. We were very deliberate about who we picked because the culture is the dynamic that matters. The great thing about Falfurrias is that the first time they came in and sat down for coffee, the first words out of their mouth were ‘the journalism’ and ‘the media.’ We immediately said these guys are different from anyone we talked to before. Clearly, there are always risks there, but I think the thing we did the best is pick a partner that shares the same vision and values and is a cultural fit for us. The partners and founders, Ryan [Willumson], Eli [Dickinson] and myself, we’re all sticking around to help make this a bigger and better company."

• Episode 2: Outcome Driven Innovation: A New Way for Publishers to Look at Their Product Roadmap. Media and information companies are offering more products—and different types of products—than ever before. But success requires a new mode of product development that relies on data-driven decisions over gut-feel and understanding how to actually solve problems for customers. Tony Ulwick, founder and CEO of Strategyn, author of best-selling book What Customers Want, and creator of the Outcome Driven Innovation Theory, will show you how to put ODI into practice, address your most complex innovation challenges and tie it all back to a practical, actionable plan using case studies from both media and other industries to show you the way.

Sneak Peek with Tony Ulwick. “I started as a product planner back in the ‘80s for IBM and my first product, the day after it was announced, The Wall Street Journal declared it a flop. You can imagine the feeling that overcame me and the product team seeing a product that we poured our hearts and souls into declared a flop the day after it was introduced. Clearly, we did something wrong. 

It was a flop—in fact, it sits as number two behind New Coke as the all-time biggest product flops but it sparked my passion for innovation. How could a company like IBM, with all their resources, still fail at product innovation? The mistake we made with the PC Junior is that we went out and talked to customers and asked them what they wanted and gave that to them and two years later when we introduced it, they no longer wanted it. What happened is their needs changed and the inputs that we used to create the product were not the inputs they used to gauge the value of the product once we introduced it.”

The Connectiv BizMedia Podcast is available on the Connectiv website, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Deezer,  Spotify and SoundCloud.

Matt Kinsman is vice president of content + programming at Connectiv, the only association focused on the integrated b-to-b model—including publications, events, digital media, marketing services and business information. Prior to joining Connectiv's predecessor American Business Media in 2011, Kinsman was executive editor of Folio:, the leading information provider for the magazine industry.