Unlocking the Power of Good Problems for Innovators — Lorraine Marchand
Lorraine Marchand, a visionary catalyst, possesses unparalleled expertise in cultivating an innovation mindset that fuels remarkable strategic growth. Throughout her illustrious career, she has seamlessly orchestrated Research and Development and Commercial endeavors for esteemed private enterprises and publicly held life sciences corporations. Lorraine’s entrepreneurial spirit has driven her to establish not one, but two thriving start-ups.
However, Lorraine’s true superpower lies in her ability to empower and guide entrepreneurs. Her influence has served as a guiding light, illuminating the path for countless aspiring visionaries to effectively market their revolutionary technologies.
Lorraine published her book “The Innovation Mindset” and was invited to talk about it at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy. Lorraine focused on unlocking the power of good problems for innovators and described the key characteristics of a good problem.
“I do like to talk about the importance of solving a problem. I get a lot of feedback from early-stage innovators who believe they are very good at describing a problem, but not at deconstructing it to determine the parts they need to work on; what part of the problem should the solution be addressed to? It’s a great question.
There are specific characteristics of a good problem. Firstly, it should be observable. Secondly, it cannot be a one-off but has evidence of repeating itself. Thirdly, its impact has to be significant. Fourthly, it has to be specific and defined. Lastly, and most importantly, it has to be solvable. We have to have the competencies and capabilities to solve it. Just wanting to grab onto some big, intractable problem like world hunger, is not quite good enough. We would really have to figure out the part of the world hunger where we think we can make an impact.”
Lorraine Marchand is a business innovation and strategic growth advisor with the ability to break down complex business problems and develop creative solutions that are strategically aligned with a company’s financial goals and address the needs of multiple stakeholders. She is a passionate business leader, advisor, and innovator. Her teaching, consulting, and business endeavors focus on designing and developing new products and services and the business and marketing models that enable their successful adoption. Lorraine has three decades of experience in new product development, innovation commercialization, data and AI, and digital transformation. She has held leadership positions at IBM, Bristol Myers Squibb, LabCorp, Cognizant, and IQVIA, and has co-founded four companies.
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