The Rogue Mindset Report can be currently found exclusively on Informa’s FEI 2025 event app. It will debut on All Things Innovation on May 19, 2025, at the start of the FEI 2025 conference. To access the report, first register for FEI25 (see link further below) and then download Informa’s ConnectMe app from the Apple app store or Google Play store: https://www.connectmeinforma.com/download/
Defining the Rogue Mindset
The “Rogue Mindset” refers to a proactive and unconventional approach to problem-solving and innovation, characterized by a willingness to challenge the status quo, think outside traditional frameworks, and take bold, calculated risks to achieve breakthrough results.
The approach currently defines Rogue as:
R – Resilience and Adaptability
O – Openness to Unconventional Ideas
G – Grit and Determination
U – Unwavering Curiosity
E – Empowerment and Communication
Rogue Mindset Report Contributors
- “When there’s uncertainty, inertia or economic challenges, people tend to hunker down and play it very safe and not take any risks. Having a rogue mindset ensures that you are looking for fresh opportunities to innovate and be successful.” —Imran Afzal, Founder, Worth The Squeeze Ltd.
- “The first way to foster this is to get people comfortable with the ability to be unconventional. People need the ecosystem for being innovative, and the ability to also carve out that innovation.” —Arvind Balasundaram, Executive Director, Commercial Insights & Analytics, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals
- “The rogue mindset isn’t that I should just follow steps one, two, and three. The rogue mindset is more of a total shift in the way that you perceive things.” —Betsy Brunner, Director of External Affairs, The Nuclear Company
- “The rogue mindset isn’t about defiance. It’s not about going off-script or rejecting strategy. It’s about seeing what others don’t yet see, and acting on it—with purpose.” —Tammy Butterworth, Product Innovation Director, Welch’s
- “If you think of the innovation journey, and the rogue mindset as being the starting point, it helps everybody understand the openness that you need to start the journey.” —Kate Carruthers, Director, Info Sphere Education
- “The rogue mindset means being provocative and challenging, not just following convention or assumptions, but challenging yourself and your insights teams to be curious and creative, but also to be courageous.” —Jordan Cusner, Senior Director, Consumer Insights and Research, Inspire Brands
- “Supporting a rogue mindset is really powerful in this moment where there’s a lot of innovation going on with generative AI, which is also a new tool for brainstorming ideas and creative thinking.” —June Dershewitz, Co-Founder, InvestInData
- “You must make sure that you allow for the rogue element to manifest, but also to make sure you gain the sponsorship of leadership.” —Emil Georgiev, Vice President – Customer Experience Design, IKS Health
- “That human discernment of what’s culturally and socially appropriate is what the rogue mindset can bring to partnering with AI. You need to understand what’s valuable. The human rogue mindset can help with that.” —Leslie Grandy, Lead Executive in Residence, University of Washington – Michael G. Foster School of Business; author, Creative Velocity: Propelling Breakthrough Ideas in the Age of Generative AI
- “How do you find and nurture the rogue mindset? Should you build structure into it? There’s a balance between the two and you probably need a bit of both.” —Mike Hatrick, Vice President IP Strategy & Portfolio, Volvo Group
- “The rogue mindset sets the tone for what you must be as an innovator. Sometimes you have to go rogue and go against the grain, to push ideas through because we’ve all been told a million no’s within innovation.” —Miranda Helmer, Vice President, Product Development & Regulatory, Albertson’s
- “Given the accelerating pace of technological disruption, societal change, and market uncertainty, explicit ‘Future Readiness’ ensures the rogue mindset actively incorporates forward-looking strategies and anticipatory skills.” —Steven Fisher, Managing Director, Innovation and Chief Futurist, The Revolution Factory; Co-Author, Super Shifts
- “We cannot build this mindset in isolation. This means that we must bring our stakeholders into this process, from engineering, business, marketing, from all the different functions.” —Prapti Jha, Innovation Strategist, We Speak Innovation
- “It’s a great framework for people who are in the innovation journey and just to remind themselves that the journey will have ups and downs. What can you do to keep motivated?” —Su-Feng Kuo, Sr. Director, Global Clients Insights & Analytics, Visa
- “Look at the nervous system of the organization and ask, how do I flow the ideas through the bloodstream of an institution?” —Mohan Nair, Emerge Inc., CEO; Investor Fellow, Edmund Hillary Fellowship; Author, Strategic Business Transformation
- “It shows that if you’re not going to have a rogue mindset, if you’re not going to innovate, if you’re not going to adapt, you’re just going to be a dinosaur company—and eventually you will not survive.” —Dr. Pradip K. Shukla, The Shah Family Endowed Chair in Innovativeness, Argyros College of Business and Economics, Chapman University
Actioning the Rogue Mindset
The keynote presentation, “Actioning the Rogue Mindset: Aligning Innovation with Business Strategy,” aims to kick off FEI 2025 by examining how innovators and changemakers have been inspired and empowered to embrace the Rogue Mindset.
Join Tammy Butterworth, Product Innovation Director at Welch’s; Brigette Wolf, CMO at MyMochi; Craig Dubitsky, founder and CEO at happy; Liza Sanchez, Vice President, Research & Development at Procter & Gamble; and Scott Ehrlich, Chief Innovation Officer, Head of Corporate Strategy at Sinclair Broadcast Group, as they look at practical insights and tools for cultivating the Rogue Mindset; the fostering of a global dialogue on the importance of unconventional thinking; the building of a community of innovators who embody the Rogue Mindset; and the alignment of innovation with business strategy by turning ‘outside’ ideas into ‘inside’ strategy.
Setting the Rogue Mindset Roundtables
Following the keynote session, the innovation community at FEI 2025 will hold a series of moderated Rogue Mindset Roundtables. Under the theme, “Bringing Outside of the Box Thinking, Inside the Box,” the entire community will explore the concept as it applies to the innovation mindset and culture.
In a Chatham House Rules environment, these roundtables put the Rogue Mindset Approach to work. After reviewing the approach on the app in advance of the event, you and your interdisciplinary colleagues share thoughts, use cases and case studies of the current state of the applied Rogue Mindset.
