Wendy Mahoney is a global authority on business innovation and transformation, dedicated to helping organizations thrive in the Exponential Age. With a distinguished corporate career that includes leadership roles at European Times, CNBC Africa, Forbes Africa, and Trudon South Africa, Wendy brings a wealth of experience in driving business growth across diverse industries. Today, as Executive Director of Newmella Holdings (Pty) Ltd, she leads an international consultancy that empowers companies to innovate faster, enhance profitability, and stay ahead in a rapidly shifting marketplace.
Her keynote sessions demystify the often misunderstood concept of business innovation. Wendy shows leaders and teams how to reframe value beyond products and services, instead cultivating agile systems and mindsets that unlock exponential growth. She is known for blending deep strategic insight with practical frameworks that double productivity and inspire organizations to become unstoppable.
Wendy Mahoney corporate positions include; Executive Director European Times, Director Sales and Marketing CNBC and Forbes Africa, General Manager Sales Trudon South Africa and Director Trudon Namibia.
Wendy now heads Newmella Holdings (Pty) Ltd, a Global Business Innovation Consultancy focused on growing the profit of companies by enabling and inspiring them to innovate at a faster rate.
In the Exponential Age things are only going to get exponentially faster – the time to change is now. When a company or individual understands their value is not their product or service that is when they become unstoppable in this new age.
As a seminal expert on the topic of Business Innovation Wendy Mahoney unpacks the theory behind what Business Innovation actually is that few know and how to double productivity by realigning people and processes for optimum Innovation.
What truly sets Wendy Mahoney delivery apart is that she combines Business Theory with Neuro Science, as an Internationally Accredited Trainer of Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Lecturer on Business Innovation. With resilience, adaptability and flexibility, any company and individual can, not only survive but prosper in the Exponential Age.
In the Exponential Age it is not the strongest that will survive, it is the one most adaptable to change (Darwin). Adapt or Die.
Innovation is change that unlocks new value. It refers to changing processes or creating more effective processes, products and ideas. For businesses, this could mean implementing new ideas, creating dynamic products or improving your existing services.
Some of the benefits will include
Innovation is key. Only those who have the agility to change with the market and innovate quickly will survive in a rapidly changing economic environment.
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In this keynote, Wendy Mahoney explores the future of innovation, technology, and human potential in the Exponential Age. Drawing on futurist predictions, she highlights how education, robotics, space travel, and AI are reshaping industries and global competition. Yet she stresses that technology itself is not innovation.
Instead, innovation is a human-centric process of transforming ideas into solutions that alleviate real marketplace pain. It is about empathy, authenticity, and connection—one human being understanding another’s need and responding with value. Technology may enable this process, but it does not define it.
Wendy introduces her framework “V = V,” which emphasizes aligning personal values with customer and market values. Innovation, she explains, emerges from this alignment, supported by empathy and genuine human connection. Disruptive innovation may change industries, but at its core, innovation is creativity applied to deliver meaningful impact.
She further explains that innovation drives profit, but only when organizations first transform mindsets. Diversity becomes a catalyst because it enriches perspectives and expands the pool of creative ideas. Echoing Warren Buffett, she underscores that wealth creation comes from either finding or creating value.
Ultimately, Wendy calls on leaders to shift focus from chasing success to becoming people of value—those who give and receive meaningfully in the marketplace. By doing so, individuals and businesses alike unlock innovation, transformation, and sustainable impact.
00:10 – Futurist predictions on education, robotics, and exponential technologies
01:20 – SpaceX, global competition, and the impact of borderless business
02:10 – Robots achieving professional milestones and the rise of AI citizenship
03:00 – Distinguishing innovation from technology
04:10 – Innovation as a human-centered process of value exchange
05:15 – The “V = V” formula: aligning personal, customer, and market values
06:20 – Role of empathy and authenticity in innovation
07:30 – Creativity, disruptive innovation, and solving real market pains
08:30 – Linking value creation to business models and profitability
09:10 – Warren Buffett’s perspective on wealth creation through value
10:00 – Innovation as transformation of mindset and the power of diversity
11:00 – Becoming a person of value vs. chasing success
In her TEDx talk, Wendy Mahoney explains why innovation, disruption, and technology are not interchangeable concepts. She begins by highlighting the exponential pace of global change, from AI robots with citizenship to autonomous flying taxis and the potential of space travel. These examples illustrate disruption and technological advancement, but she stresses they do not equate to innovation.
Wendy defines innovation as the human-centered process of transforming ideas into valuable products or services. She introduces the three phases of design thinking—inspiration, ideation, and implementation—and explains that most organizations focus too heavily on product or process improvements, neglecting the essential first phase of inspiration. True innovation, she argues, begins with deep empathy, connection, and understanding customer needs.
She distinguishes disruption as a subset of innovation that displaces industries or markets, but emphasizes that most innovation is incremental and often unnoticed. Technology may enable innovation, but it is not innovation itself.
Wendy underscores that innovation requires shifting paradigms, breaking habits, and expanding perspectives. With limited cognitive capacity, humans perceive only fragments of reality, shaped by beliefs and biases. Successful innovators expand beyond these limits, think differently, and create outside existing paradigms.
She presents the formula “V = V,” stressing that businesses must align their delivery with what the market truly values. The future of innovation, Wendy concludes, is not about digitizing everything, but about reconnecting with human skills—critical thinking, empathy, creativity, and value creation. Ultimately, she challenges the audience to stop striving for success and instead focus on becoming people of value.
00:15 – The vision: enabling global transformation through innovation and profit
01:00 – Rapid change, the Exponential Age, and examples of global disruption
03:00 – Why companies must adapt or risk extinction
04:00 – Defining innovation: a human-centered process of value creation
05:00 – The three phases of design thinking: inspiration, ideation, implementation
06:30 – Why businesses over-focus on products and ideas instead of empathy
08:00 – Technology as an enabler, not the definition, of innovation
09:00 – Different types of innovation, with disruption as a small subset
10:30 – Changing behavior and thinking to drive true innovation
11:30 – The “V = V” formula and aligning with market needs
12:30 – Shifting paradigms and embracing human skills for future success
A: Business innovation, exponential growth, organizational transformation, and productivity realignment.
Q: Does Wendy offer workshops in addition to keynotes?
A: Yes, Wendy facilitates interactive workshops and consultancy sessions tailored to leadership teams.
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