Considering that some of their employees work from space, you’d think NASA would have remote work down to a science.
But there’s one element of office life even NASA can’t replicate, according to Lodestone Advisory Group CEO Amr El-Husseini.
“I was talking to somebody at NASA a couple of weeks ago about the last two years. They’re still working remotely, for the most part,” El-Husseini said. “I asked, ‘How does that effect productivity and innovation?’ They said, ‘Productivity is through the roof. Everybody is extremely more productive but innovation has declined.’ The reason for that was interesting, because productivity is in your own world. But innovation happens when you stumble upon somebody at the coffee machine or walking down the hallway. That interaction is never going to be not important. That’s why our vision for Nashville is we need to create an innovation district, where like-minded people mingle together.”
While an entire innovation district may sound like El-Husseini is shooting for the moon, his consulting firm is working to bring more innovation to Music City.
In the coming months, Lodestone is launching Lodestone Ventures, a venture capital fund that will focus on early stage startups working to change industries with technologies, such as blockchain and artificial intelligence, El-Husseini said. Portfolio companies will participate in a two-year growth program through the fund.
Lodestone is currently raising capital for the venture fund, said El-Husseini, who declined to disclose a target amount for the raise.
Founded in 2013, Lodestone provides consulting services to startups, multinational corporations, academic institutions and rural and suburban governments. Its focus is on entrepreneurship ecosystem development and innovation strategies. The firm was named to Forbes’ 2022 America’s Best Consulting Firms list in March.
Those services were put to the test during the pandemic, as many Lodestone clients were less concerned about growth and more concerned about keeping the lights on, El-Husseini said. Some businesses had to transform quickly to survive the crisis, while others where in a position to benefit.
El-Husseini said Lodestone was able to continue thriving because of its ability to keep others innovating, even while working remotely.
“Covid accelerated the cycle of innovation for a lot of industries,” El-Husseini said. “They are going to be at a crossroads sometime soon. It’s no longer going to be a world of how to improve operating margins for the next quarter. It’s going to be how to transform the whole model, where, for example, health care is no longer done in hospitals but it's done on wearables and devices, for the most part. … I think that will require a lot of discipline to figure out what to do in the future. That’s where we can help a lot.”
