Looking Outside Joanna Lepore

Today we’re speaking of all things sweet in life, with French trained pastry chef, and Group Head Pastry Chef at Black Star Pastry, Arnaud Vodounou.
Arnaud describes how his six year long training in Paris, covering all the basics of pastry making, gave him the foundation to be confident, flexible and creative in his craft today. A kind of intensive training that is rarely seen today.
Despite his extensive training, Arnaud hesitated when offered his first opportunity as head pastry chef, initially turning it down from fear of letting others down. (A type of humility that is arguably also missing today.) Jo and Arnaud discuss how others' confidence in our potential can push us into places we didn't think possible for ourselves.
Now a confident expert in his field, Arnaud speaks to the importance of continuing to look for creative inspiration for innovation, not just in coming up with new products but in improving the technical processes that form the foundation of pastry making. He describes this kind of creativity as the ability to improve with modern techniques but without a quality compromise. Chefs around the world are doing this and sharing new methods with each other today, which Arnaud says is a critical part of innovation for a traditional field that benefits from open collaboration.
Having worked as pastry chef - including at 2 Michelin star Parisian restaurant Taillevent - across France, Switzerland, Vietnam and Australia, Arnaud also speaks to diversity of experience he has lived, alongside personal learnings of adapting his approach as a leader. Pastry making after all is a precise art, but like everything in life, knowledge is gained through living and learning through failure.
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To look outside, Arnaud travels, either physically or online. Pastry is always in his head and anything can spark his curiosity to create something new and "sensational". But to do this Arnaud says it's important to be observational, to keep your head up and look out, because travel gives you access to different products and techniques no matter where you are.
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Arnaud Vodounou is Group head Pastry Chef for Black Star Pastry, based in Sydney Australia.
With over 16 years of global experience in the culinary arts, Arnaud has cultivated exquisite desserts across many prestigious establishments worldwide. Originating from France, his started his career in Paris, where Arnaud was quickly appointed the Head Pastry Chef at the famous Le Taillevent, a 3 Michelin star restaurant at the age of 24. Arnaud went on to work as the Executive Pastry Chef at the Grand Hotel Kempinski in Geneva, then taking a role as the Executive Pastry Chef at Aman Resorts in Vietnam. His career took him to Melbourne Australia in 2014 where he worked as the Executive Head Pastry Chef at local icon Chez Dre and Bibelot. Arnaud then took a pivotal role as the Group Executive Pastry Chef at George Calombaris’ Made Establishment, across multiple locations. 
Arnaud's next venture took him to Sydney Australia where he currently oversees Blackstar Pastry, managing all pastry operations for multiple boutique stores across Australia, including Black Star Pastry's iconic Strawberry Watermelon Cake, acclaimed as the world's most Instagrammed cake.
Driven by the pursuit of perfection, Arnaud remains dedicated to elevating the pastry experience and continuous innovation. With a wealth of experience and an unwavering commitment to excellence, he continues to redefine the boundaries of pastry craftsmanship.
Follow Arnaud on InstagramCheck out Black Star...

Data Scholar Michael Clark joins Looking Outside to discuss the value behind the data we collect and how the definition of data is changing.
Michael is a futurist focused on data, a digital payment and open banking and Vice President of Global Digital Transformation at Mastercard. His interest in the interconnection of data to other aspects of our lives has led him to become a leading voice in this space and to write a book on the topic. To explore the topic, he starts quite simply by defining what data even is. Speaking to how data’s origin as a gift, quite literally the meaning of the word being datum or gift, has changed over time, Michael contextualizes not just what the concept of data is but how our relationship with it has changed.
There is a difference between holding data as a highly valuable thing, which captures people’s unique memories and stories, with viewing data as a byproduct of a transaction or a statistic. This changing idea or re-evaluation of data has meant we have lost sight of what the value behind that data is, or as Michael puts it, quite literally giving our ‘gift’ away.
In observing the signals of change in the world, Michael says this is not what the future holds for data. Rethink the concept of data means economies may change based on the value that’s ascribed to data, greater granularity may be ascribed to the true ‘cost’ of things and we may be able to even measure what is today unmeasurable.
Through his research for the book he’s writing, “Data Revolution”, Michael provides a glimpse of the future of data, where it is more representative of your identity, where open and democratized systems provide greater sharing of economic rewards and where holders of data are required to operate more ethically as a cost of doing business.
Jo and Michael also discuss the role of private organizations in evaluating what data they even need to collect in the first place, as they look to build first party data loyalty programs. If an individual is re-evaluating how their data is used and the previously hidden value in it, how should companies be thinking about the future customer and the relationship they have with customer data?
Michael stresses the point of asking hard questions when it comes to data, particularly as the systems around it – like GDP driven by limited data capture, or even capitalism itself – are coming into question. It’s what Michael says will help us better understand the interconnected nature of technology to every other system that maintains our livelihoods. As well as the role of experts in democratizing knowledge on the topic; as Michael says, “When you know stuff you have a duty of care to give back, to work with governments and regulators to help them understand it”.
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To look outside, Michael gets outside, literally - out of his own head, into fresh air. This not only helps him get outside himself, but the forced push to stop what he's doing helps him to come back to it better focused. Michael says it's important to be comfortable stopping and simply doing nothing.
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Michael Clark is a data scholar, seasoned industry advisor, and innovation evangelist with over two decades of experience in cutting-edge technology solutions. Leading the data charge, Michael is redefining value and preparing institutions and governments for a future they haven’t even envisioned. His upcoming book, Data Revolution: The New Currency of You, is a roadmap that will decode the world of data and prepare you for the data revolution.
Part of the Digital Labs leadership team at Mastercard, Michael leads Global Digital Transformation with a mandate to drive Disruptive Innovation, Agile Principles, and execution of Mastercard’s Digital vision, whilst also accelerating our client’s digital...

Today we welcome Elena Doms, climate tech leader and head of Earth Plus, on Looking Outside to discuss the progress and positive action taking place in the field of climate tech.
Having spent 11 years at Mastercard on the corporate side, and now in the entrepreneur space in a start up, Elena brings with her a pragmatic and motivating perspective to driving impact in the climate space through partnership with companies big and small.
Elena speaks to how she approaches climate change topics through an optimistic lens, despite the fact that the climate crisis is escalating and is riddled with anxiety and delayed by hardship. She says not despite this but because of it, climate innovation is becoming easier, because it’s no longer an issue that can be ignored but justifies a change in behavior and accelerates investment.
Called a speaker who delivers ‘goosebumps’ with her talks, Elena shares how her stories about climate change are intentionally personal, recalling her time growing up in the Arctic (now classified a zone of risk) and calling to personal stories she finds interesting in the climate innovation space that resonate with people. While the data and facts are important, she says what every one wants is a story with hope at the end. And for that to be told by someone whose values are visible and relatable. Elena says public platforms of communication help to enable this - especially for young people, or people who want to be taken more seriously.
Elena also recounts how the idea for her start up, Earth Plus, an organization designed to clean the planet from pollutants using nature based solutions, began, inspired by tragically true research on forever chemicals in Belgium and their impact on people’s health. She says she has developed tremendous respect for people who run their own start ups as the expectation of progress and pace of innovation is at a level she hadn’t experienced in the big corporate world.
On the big corporates, Jo and Elena discuss the pointlessness of pointing fingers, particularly at people in big corporations, as these businesses are full of funding and resourcing needed to help collaborate to scale climate innovation. Elena also stresses these organizations are full of people who want to make a difference. The challenge, she highlights, is in creating a compelling case for investment with every stakeholder’s interest in mind. As she puts it, making climate investment ‘the candy everyone wants’.
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To look outside, Elena follows people in the climate space that she can learn from. She calls it a dynamic fast developing area and reminds herself not to be arrogant enough to not think she knows everything. She also reads books in different and unconnected areas and considers how to connect them into the climate space to enable unique ideas from contrasting topics.
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Elena Doms was born and raised in the Arctic. She spent 18 years there, surrounded by ice and boreal forests, witnessing climate change happen right in front of her.
Throughout her career Elena led an NGO, focusing on social impact. Worked as a Director at Mastercard, merging digital and sustainable transformations. Led teams up to 500 people and became a LinkedIn influencer with a video series “What’s new in Sustainability this week in 1 min”.
Seeing her childhood home melt away and becoming a mother inspired Elena to quit her corporate job in search for real impact. In partnership with C-biotech, she launched Earth Plus, a start-up with a crazy bold mission: To create the largest soil & CO2 cleanup in history with nature. Earth Plus team collaborates with scientists to clean soils from chemical pollution and capture CO2 with plants. These plants are then turned into local circular construction materials that help decarbonize our...

In this episode of Looking Outside, we’re exploring Culture and the role of brands leveraging or influencing it, with University of Michigan marketing professor and best selling author of For the Culture, Dr Marcus Collins.
Marcus has one foot in Academia and the other in marketing practice, having led strategy Wieden+Kennedy New York, which allowed him to go deep on the theory and science of culture, while helping brands to understand those systems of cultural norms to activate their marketing strategies in a more relevant and impactful way. To be able to balance the theory and practice, Marcus studied the social sciences, making his knowledge of culture less shallow and deeply nuanced.
On the show, Marcus explains how culture is shaped, defined and cultivated by people, to create uniformity and ‘normality’. Because culture is a curation process to find others like us and create synergy in commonalities, Marcus explains that the curation process evolves from the definitions of ‘how to behave’ that you’re born into (that are ascribed to you), through to the cultures to subscribe to once you’re older.
Jo and Marcus discuss the challenge for marketers to more deeply understanding human beings, their values and behaviors (which often do not match) in the effort to predict human responses and effectively persuade towards a favorite action for our brands. To achieve this, Marcus’ advice is to follow the path of least resistance; to seek out the ‘collective of the willing’ as he calls them, those people who are already leaning into the behaviors you’re looking to amplify. It’s a marketers job to spot those collectives and to reflect in their work things that make these people feel ‘seen’. This requires a certain level of intimacy with the customer that goes beyond easy segmentation by demographics or even psychographics.
In a world where brands are more intertwined with popular, social and sometimes political issues, it’s important to know what you stand for, your role to play and your right to play in responding to cultural movements (or not responding, purposefully). Marcus stresses that first and foremost brand owners must pay attention to changes in culture, because the mainstream, normal or ‘middle’ customer base is not necessarily representative of your future customer. After all, everything that started in the fringes, that was once small or weird, later became popular.
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To look outside, Marcus speaks to his nine year old daughter to get her transparent and unfiltered perspective. Her responses help Marcus poke a hole in the wall as she usually sees something that he does not see.
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Dr. Marcus Collins is an award-winning marketer and cultural translator with one foot in the world of practice—serving as the Chief Strategy Officer at Wieden+Kennedy New York—and one foot in the world of academia—as a marketing professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan. He has spent his career translating culture for brands and translating brands for culture, becoming the architect of some of the best-known advertising campaigns of our time. Marcus has championed strategies for blue chip brands such as McDonald’s, Apple, Google, State Farm, Target, Peloton, and Budweiser, and even ran digital strategy for Beyonce. His honors include being an AAF Advertising Hall of Achievement Inductee, 2022 Cannes Lions Jury Member, a member of the 2023 Thinkers50 Radar Class and one of the favorite professors of the University of Michigan MBA class of 2022. He is also the recipient of Advertising Age’s 40 Under 40 award and Crain’s Business’ 40 Under 40 award.
His much-anticipated book, “For the Culture: The Power Behind What We Buy, What We Do, and Who We Want to Be”, examines the influence of culture on consumption and unpacks how everyone from marketers to activists...

Today we’re talking about catapulting your career into unexpected places, driven by self-reflection, self-determinism, and a recognition of your own self-limitations, with change advocate, and Editor in Chief of Entrepreneur Magazine, Jason Feifer.
Speaking to a range of successful entrepreneurs is a part of Jason's day job, but he's also a bit of a start-up thinker himself. Aside from his role as editor, Jason is a podcast host, newsletter writer, speaker, start up advisor, book author … and perhaps most importantly, a reinventor, describing himself as an all purpose swiss army knife.
Rather than staying in the specialty field he had worked to define himself an expert in, Jason chose to rethink, and reconsider, who he was to people, to live up to the largest opportunity in front of him. Jason says a good starting point is to better understand yourself by creating a mission statement, not for what you do but what you’re skilled in and what you can uniquely create.
Jo and Jason also discuss working through trepidation that perhaps your success is a fleeting moment in time. That it may be a fluke, specific to the context, or unrepeatable. (A worry many successful people hold.) Jason advocates for sitting with the things you are good at and not discounting and offloading your strengths.
Jason also explores the role of nostalgia as a change barrier. The past provides comfort and predictability, but also the false belief that things from our past were better than what the future can bring. He says, “The problem isn’t changing but in defining yourself too narrowly" within the comfort of what was.
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To look outside, Jason leverages his trusted network who he can be vulnerable with. These are people who he can ‘think out loud’ with, who give him honest feedback on ideas, and help him get out of his own head.
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Jason Feifer is the editor in chief of Entrepreneur magazine, a podcast host, book author, keynote speaker, startup advisor, and nonstop optimism machine. His goal is to help you become more resilient and adaptable in a world of constant change — so you can seize new opportunity before anyone else does!
Find out more about Jason jasonfeifer.comSign up to Jason's newsletterBuy Jason's book, Build for Tomorrow on Amazon Listen to the Build for Tomorrow Podcast and the Help Wanted podcast Follow Jason on LinkedIn
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Looking Outside is a podcast dedicated to exploring fresh perspectives of familiar business topics. The show is hosted by its creator, Joanna Lepore, consumer goods innovator and futurist at McDonald's. Find out more at looking-outside.com.
Connect with Jo and join the Looking Outside community on LinkedIn.
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All views are that of the host and guests and don’t necessarily reflect those of their employers....

On this episode of Looking Outside we explore the reality and risk behind the hype of AI, with Executive Director of the Institute for Experiential AI at Northeastern University, Founder of Open Insights, Data Scientist and AI expert, Usama Fayyad.
Usama has been in the field of AI for three decades and has lived through three AI hype peaks followed by three winters. In this conversation he contextualizes how the current infatuation with the ‘eloquence’ of data-driven AI stacks up.
Usama first points to an important problem with AI - not with the algorithm but with the data sets that inform the outputs. As the first person to ever hold a Chief Data Officer title, Usama stresses how critical it is to scrutinize the data sets that are feeding the algorithm, as these large data sets are really the breakthrough in this wave of AI, he says, not the machine learning advancements, and the data is filled with errors.
Jo and Usama discuss the onus of the user in not over relying on the AI for our thinking, as the risk here is equally in erroneous output as it is in missing the ‘true contribution’ behind the source material. Usama puts this plainly to say AI has the potential to speed up banal tasks but can, for other tasks, be completely inappropriate – particularly when these require critical thinking and finding what’s between the lines. The algorithm is auto completing answers based on information fed into it: that information may be incorrectly summarized, incompletely inputted, biased, misrepresented or just plain incorrect.
Usama says the user must be aware and in control, because at the moment most generative AI tools are like black boxes that hold things nobody understands. And when the AI gets it wrong, it’s up to us to catch the mistakes, otherwise a world of hurt in the form of misinformation, misrepresentation and perpetuation of bias lies ahead.
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Jump to key points in the episode:
4:28 The true advancements of AI and the current hype cycle8:22 Data curation that leads to misinformation, bias and unpredictability 12:40 Impact on critical thinking with over-reliance on AI16:30 Irresponsible and inappropriate use of AI22:00 Dangerous versus safe application via new tools25:00 Deepfakes, misinformation and disinformation by bad actors
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To look outside Usama works to catch his own bias – bias built on his personal experience, training, and business objective. He does this by taking a situation and trying to see its effect on someone's live he wouldn't normally consider. This forces him to consider interesting aspects he wouldn't otherwise like social and ethical impacts that may arise. He marries this with talking to people, specifically in asking questions he knows the answer to, seeking to understand why a different answer may be given.
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Usama joined Northeastern University Khoury College of Computer Science as Professor of the Practice, and the Office of the Provost as the Inaugural Executive Director of the Institute for Experiential AI. He continues as Chairman of Open Insights, a company he founded as a technology and consulting firm in 2008 after leaving Yahoo! to enable enterprises to get value out of their data assets and optimize or create new business models based on the new evolving economy of interactions.
He was the first person to hold the Chief Data Officer title when Yahoo! acquired his second startup in 2004. At Yahoo! he built the Strategic Data Solutions group and founded Yahoo! Research Labs. He has held leadership roles at Microsoft and founded the Machine Learning Systems group at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Usama has published over 100 technical articles on data mining, data science, AI/ML, and databases. He holds...