In this Passioneer Magazine podcast episode, host SPEAKER A interviews Dr. CJ Meadows, director of the Innovation Center at SP Jain School of Global Management and former Accenture consultant, CPA, and entrepreneur. The conversation begins with Dr. Meadows' personal passions, including co‑founding a Tiger Center in central India, eco‑resort development, coral reef and shark photography, and clean‑water advocacy. He discusses the paradox that mobile phone penetration exceeds access to clean water, emphasizing technology’s role in health and education. The dialogue moves to his global consulting experience, notably a South Korean banking outsourcing project, where cultural considerations shaped how efficiency gains affect workers. Dr. Meadows articulates a philosophy that business and government are merely collaborations among people, urging leaders to foster win‑win stakeholder outcomes. He describes the Innovation Center’s mission to “innovate how we innovate,” focusing on radical innovation, inclusion, and reversing declining innovation returns. A vivid example is shared about silk fibroin stabilizing vaccines, a discovery that could save billions in refrigeration costs and improve vaccine distribution. Throughout, he stresses the importance of interdisciplinary thinking, collaborative leadership, and proactive action in the AI era, concluding with contact details (email, LinkedIn, website).
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Welcome to Passioneer Magazine, the podcast, where you hear inspirational stories, encouraging news, and in-depth interviews with authors, influencers, CEOs, and thought leaders. Passioneer Magazine, the podcast. Bold ideas, brave pursuits. Boundless Inspiration. Hello, hello! Thank you so much for joining me today, Dr. Cj. I am so happy to have you on Passionaire Magazine, the podcast, today.
Thank you so much for having me.
Absolutely, absolutely. Now, I know that I may be introducing you to some new listeners, to some new viewers out there, so first question for tell us a little bit about yourself. What makes you, you?
Oh, super. I'm the director of an innovation center at SP Jain School of Global Management, also a professor and head of our consulting area. But I've spent a great deal of my career as a consultant for Accenture in IT and strategy, also as a former CPA, CMA, and an entrepreneur for about 20 years, as well as a Uh, co-founder and chairman of the Tiger Center in Central India. We work with tigers, environment, and people.
I love it, I love it. Now before we get into the all that you do with IT and all of that, I have to start— tigers! I know that perked up someone else's ears as well, so let's start there. Have you always had a love for the tiger, or how did you get involved with that project?
It actually came through my brother, who's a brother by raksha bandhan. So a girl in India can adopt a brother if she doesn't have one. And he got the opportunity to buy land, and we— brother, family, community— all decided that, yeah, land is not really worth very much unless you do something with it. So we're working on an eco-resort project and a not-for-profit to help tigers, environment, and people. Um, my additional love that's personal is photographing coral reefs and especially sharks.
Yeah. Oh my goodness, I love that. I— you never know the intricate little pieces of a person unless you ask.
And you never know what kind of a weirdo you're talking to, right?
Well, well, if that's the case, then you're talking to one, right? Yeah, because there are the, the tiniest of things that I think sometimes people find out about you when they're genuinely interested in you as a person. I love what I do because we get to to get together and discover all of these wonderful people in the world and all that they are doing. So my personal thing that really gets me fired up is clean water. That's, that's my lane. So the fact that you just said, you know, the coral reefs and the sharks, oh my heavens, I definitely and completely That's why I giggled and said, fellow weirdo, right? That there are things that you just don't know again unless you ask. So thank you so much for telling me. You never know how someone may say, hey, I need to check her out more because I'm right there too.
And you know, more people have access to a mobile phone than clean water. Yes.
And that is frightening.
Yes, so we need to address both. We've got to use new technologies via the mobile phone to address healthcare and education, and we need to fix the water problem.
Yeah, absolutely. Oh my goodness. Well, Dr. Cj, you have just inadvertently talked yourself into being one of my clean water awareness warriors for 2020. 7. We have already done it for 2026, but do not worry, I'm definitely going to have, uh, you give us some of your input and, and let us know about the all that you are doing and those that you work with, that you partner with, are doing as well. We all need to get together. Like I said, I, I love that. Now speaking of the all that we do, your career spans education, technology, strategy, entrepreneurship across multiple continents, not just states. How has it been working globally, not limiting yourself to just where you are, but having those global conversations?
Whoa. You remind me actually of a project I worked on in South Korea. I was sent over there. I was working for Accenture. And I went to head up a project for a global bank, actually big bank in Korea. And it was all about outsourcing. The government told them to take some of their $100 million a year budget and outsource some of it. All right, well, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. This is in the context of a society that has lifelong employment. So, whoa, what does that mean? And so we started to work on this. So I and some Accenture people and the bank people and all this sort of stuff. And then one day after we'd gotten started, the project manager on their side came to me and said, so I know why you're really here. I'm like, uh, for what? Well, to outsource, uh, and fire people and destroy our way of life. Ah, okay, okay. So let's, let's get into the conference room with some tea, you and your project supervisor mate, and let's talk about this. And, you know, we talked about how, you know, not just the economics and how it's not just the economics that matters. But also, when you make a change, how might we make, how might we make things better for the people who are shifting and changing? And as an organization, and this is especially relevant to all our listeners in the age of AI, okay, if you're freeing up people because everything's more efficient, 'Well, okay, what are we going to do with the people?' So in a Western context, you let them go and you're like, 'Yeah, free resource, and now you will find your way into something.' In that cultural context, it's not okay, and I'm not sure that it's okay in a Western context. So we went through, here's all the ways that we can transition and with greater efficiency, grow the business and do a lot of things that's more than just firing and outsourcing. So that's the big deal. You know, you don't do things in a vacuum. We adopt technology quickly. We adapt slowly. Okay, work with the quick and slow.
I love how you are tapping into that mindful community work that a lot of my guests talk about, that piece that says business dictates that we need to do X, Y, and Z, but how does that affect the employee, the community, those that are directly connected. It may be this neighborhood, it may be this city, it may even be this, this part of the state or the commonwealth or the, the territory, the private, whatever name needs to go there. There's always this ripple effect, and it's good to hear someone mention that we need to think about it from the moment we touch it until its last ripple, not just the moment that we touch it.
And if I could hop in here, I think the big message is business doesn't exist. Government doesn't exist. It's people collaborating. That's all it is. I like that. So the big question is for leaders, how can we collaborate better? How can we collaborate for win-wins to everyone, every stakeholder.
Now, you're also doing work on the future of work and education, and boy, do we need to pay attention to that lane. Don't want to get preachy, but we need to pay attention to that lane. What problem do you see that has made creating a center that is not just relevant but necessary, that's not just ticking off a box but really caring about community?
No, at the center that I co-founded and run, basically what we do is we innovate how we innovate. All right, what is the future of innovation and how are people included? And it looks like a very different landscape for that. The people that we serve at my organization, they want access to mentors and learning and all that kind of stuff because they're going to go out and do it. Radical Innovation, I mean, the reason we started it was that innovation returns are going down, but we need to get the radical up and figure out how organizations can do that and how individuals also can do that. And how do we collaborate to make a radically better future? And we've found a lot of results and give a lot of guidance.
I think people get caught up in what to them sounds like fluffy words, the innovation of innovation. They don't really grasp that that has a meaning. I'm a words person, I love it. I've always enjoyed language and reading, so when someone says something like that, for me it's, oh, Let me pay attention. What are we talking about? I want to hear more about what we think is a futuristic conversation, but the future starts right now, here in this moment. How can I participate? How can I learn about what you're doing? Maybe it's ultimately not my lane, but how can I give voice to someone who's trying to Make sure that that lane is opened, that it is developed, that it is available for those who can be about the positive change. Now, that leads me to my next question for you. You have worked, and you mentioned it earlier, you've worked as a CPA, a CMA, and strategy consultant before moving into innovation and leadership. Do you feel that your financial background in any way has helped you in this new lane, in this new industry? Or was it more so just a different way to express the same passion?
So basically, there are a few questions here. Number 1, you're a mess. You didn't say that, but I am the first to say that. The answer to that is nothing you do or learn is ever wasted. And, you know, big advances are made at the cusps of industries, fields, discipline, you know, everything. It's outside the regular spaces. So you gotta find the slightly outside space. And, you know, what— there's an example from my research on Fusion, which wound up being about world-leading innovators as individuals. And then I followed that up with organizations, but it's harder for organizations. So, for example, there was this guy who did a failed project in Cambodia for the silk industry, and he felt bad about that. United Nations puts money in and we couldn't lift up the industry, but he was still interested in silk. He discovered a professor from Tufts via a TED Talk, and the professor said, look, we had kind of an accident in the lab with, you know, experimenting with blood and biomatter and silk fibroin solution, and we discovered that something that should have spoiled in the back of a drawer did not spoil. They made more investigation and found that if you inject a silk fibrin solution into a vaccine, it becomes shelf stable. Now, that's a $20 million industry, 80% of which is refrigeration, and vaccines spoil before they get to people And nobody knows. So number one, how do we save millions of people who didn't know that was a bad vaccine? Number two, how do we save $16 billion a year that we could spend on healthcare otherwise? So these are the kinds of examples that people need to know about. And that's what I like to bring to light so that people can be A, inspired, and B, No, how did this happen and how might we make more?
Oh, I love that you challenge people to think outside of the box. Yes, I don't understand fully and completely why so many find comfort in the box. The box is crowded.
Oh, come on, come on. It's comforting to stay inside your space. You know what you're doing.
I like to be able to wiggle my toes just a little. I love it. That's not knocking anyone because we all— we are all comfortable where we are comfortable. That, that I have to agree on. And some people it's in the box, some people it's outside the box.
But you're, you're an explorer, you're an innovator, and that's one of the core things from all these people. You want to get out there. Yeah. And, and that, that is a talent, that is a skill, and you can build it. So you've done well.
Well, thank you, I appreciate that. Yeah, and I'm always ready, anyone who wants to grab my hand and come along. Yeah, let's go on a journey. Let's see what's out there. And this is how, in my humble opinion, we end up having great conversations with people like you, Dr. Cj Meadows, that are not just talking about building the future, but you are doing proactive things to make it happen. I am so glad that you were able to spend some time with me today. Now I know that someone wants to know more about you, all that you are doing, and stay in contact with you. Of course, it's available here on the screen, but for those that are listening, if they want to reach out to you, what is the best way to do that?
Ah, um, email, LinkedIn, website. I'm available anywhere, anytime.
I love it. I love it. Thank you again, Dr. Cj Meadows, for spending some time with me here today.
Thank you.
Absolutely. Thank you for listening to Passionnere Magazine, the podcast.
