'Think Sideways' be Analytical and Communicate

Melissa Clark-Reynolds ONZM presented the 5th session in Marsden's Innovation Series for students, staff and members of our community this morning.

Melissa is a Professional Director after 25 years as an entrepreneur and CEO of various Technology companies. Passionate about girls' education she went to university as a 15 year old and now works with food and agri focused companies to execute transformational strategies through futurecentre.nz.  In her spare time she is a keen beekeeper and tweets as @HoneyBeeGeek.

During her talk we were impressed with Melissa's future-focused journey, from learning coding as a teenager, to analysing big data in the 80s, and writing her own Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the 90s. Melissa gave us a lot to think about in regards to the businesses who are disruptors, often turning what we would traditionally consider a product into a service and what that means for the future. A few examples she gave of businesses thinking outside the square are Whirlpool with an oven that works in conjunction with other platforms to order and cook your food, the Amazon Fridge that orders your food without you having to leave home and the Tesla Solar Roof made from glass tiles with invisible solar cells.

With the continual rise of e-commerce, and noting that females contribute 78% of all online purchases, it’s really important there is increased diversity in those spaces making decisions for us all.

Her lasting message was, show you can ‘think sideways’, be analytical, learn to communicate with others, have confidence and don’t overly worry about the choices you’ve made going into your next step, but think about what your future pathways could look like.

It was a really inspiring talk that left us all with something to consider, thank you Melissa.