Sandy Bates
Executive Director, Strategyn Center for Social Innovation
Locale: Austin, Texas
Biography: Sandy has completed more than 75 outcome-driven innovation initiatives for companies in dozens of industries. She is the former director and co-founder of the Strategyn Institute and has led hundred of executives through Outcome-Driven Innovation methodology training.
Sandy served as the lead consultant for Microsoft, conducting studies in the consumer area, software development and other new market areas. She works extensively in the health care field with companies such as Guidant, Medtronic, and California Healthcare Foundation. She also worked with the Kennedy School of Government’s study on health care delivery models in America. Other clients have included Morgan Stanley, Masco, Dell, AIG, State Farm, Hill’s Pet Nutrition, Cargill, J. R. Simplot Company and Hallmark. Sandy specializes in ideation, services innovation and messaging / positioning.
Prior to joining Strategyn, she was the president of Tandem Strategies and a principal of The Next Idea, a marketing innovation consulting firm. Her past experience in corporate marketing focused on strategy, market positioning, product development, services marketing, and primary research. She served as chief marketing officer and marketing director in the technology services and health care industries. Her experience includes the successful execution of an IPO, redefining a market space for a mid-size enterprise, and sustaining growth and brand presence through a major merger at a Fortune 500 company.
She graduated summa cum laude from Arizona State University with a bachelor of science in psychology and has pursued postgraduate studies in services marketing, competitive strategies, direct marketing strategies and product innovation.
Personal: Have three sons. I enjoy sailing, tennis, yoga and gardening. My newest hobby is martial arts – which I believe should be mandatory for mothers of boys.
My Clients Would Be Surprised by: My “Dog-at-Large” story. Sorry, but you’d have to be a really good client to hear it.
Personal Philosophy: We are all given certain abilities and talents. With that comes the responsibility of sharing them for the greater good.
About Innovation: Without innovation, we fail to move forward and we fail to achieve our human potential.
Favorite Food: I’m Italian. So it would have to be pasta.