The CX Iconoclast
If you’re exhausted by traditional approaches to CX, impatient with the stunning lack of progress in the field, and done re-hashing the “best practices” that don’t change anything, you’ve found your podcast. Here’s what we know: Companies gain competitive advantage through exceptional customer experience, and customer insights are the best decision-making tool there is. But traditional CX approaches have run their course and it’s time for the next revolution in CX. Tune in every two weeks as Richard Owen, co-founder of OCX Cognition, hosts conversations and interviews with business leaders, academics, and thinkers whose ideas can guide the CX profession to think in new ways about what success looks like. Most of them aren’t CX professionals, but all of them have something to teach us about CX. We’ll take a clear-eyed look at the problems that have hampered the discipline and explore the compelling ideas behind a re-engineering CX for a modern world. Come disgruntled, leave inspired. Find us at www.ocxcognition.com
Episodes
In this episode of the CX Iconoclast podcast, Richard Owen speaks with Tey Bannerman, a McKinsey partner focused on deploying AI in large enterprises to improve customer retention and growth. Bannerman emphasizes that AI should solve real human and business problems rather than just serve as a technological novelty. He critiques the reflexive use of AI for cost-cutting and job elimination, urging companies to instead prioritize lon...
What if your KPIs could talk back—and guide your business forward? In this episode, Richard Owen and Brian Curry of OCX Cognition, and MIT’s Michael Schrage explore how AI is transforming not just customer experience metrics, but the very nature of leadership and organizational capability. They suggest why so many companies stick with legacy KPIs despite major shifts in tech, and how conversational AI and “chat-modified” metrics ar...
What happens when leading-edge academic research meets real-world customer dynamics? In this episode, OCX Cognition CEO Richard Owen welcomes Chris Forman, Professor of Strategy, Innovation, and Technology at Cornell’s Dyson School, to discuss how technology adoption, data integration, and organizational readiness shape B2B outcomes. Together, they clarify the critical differences between collecting data and using it—and why even s...
In this episode of CX Iconoclast, OCX Cognition CEO Richard Owen sits down with Murli Buluswar, Head of Analytics at Citi’s U.S. Personal Bank, to explore how AI is reshaping customer insight and experience at enterprise scale. Murli shares his journey from early interest in behavioral science and analytics to leading cutting-edge initiatives that bring such innovation to life. From sharing intelligence across teams to improving op...
In this episode of CX Iconoclast, Richard Owen sits down with Dean Eckles, MIT professor and former Facebook data scientist, to explore the real-world dynamics of misinformation—and what actually works to stop it. Eckles shares insights from his landmark research showing that correcting false content on social media doesn’t always reduce misinformation. In fact, it can sometimes make things worse, prompting users to double down and...
In this CX Iconoclast episode, Richard Owen speaks with Bruce Temkin, a pioneering figure in customer experience, about his new initiative: Humanity at Scale. Temkin explains that despite decades of progress in CX and EX, many leaders still perceive a trade-off between focusing on people and achieving business results. His goal is to eliminate this false dichotomy by helping leaders understand that truly human-centric organizations...
If you have never heard of the Department of Disruptive Capabilities, this is the place to be! In this episode, OCX Cognition CEO Richard Owen sits down with MIT Senior Lecturer and renowned efficiency expert Steve Spear to explore what makes the world’s most innovative organizations tick. Drawing on his experience with Toyota, the U.S. Navy, and Fortune 500 leaders, Steve unpacks the mechanics of high-velocity learning—why relentl...
In this episode of CX Iconoclast, Richard Owen sits down with Professor Moira Clark, Director of the Henley Centre for Customer Management at Henley Business School. Moira brings sharp insight from two decades of research into what drives customer loyalty, profitability, and organizational performance. Together, they discuss the evolving role of AI in customer experience—from hyper-personalization to smarter service automation—and ...
In this episode, Richard Owen is joined by Felipe Bayón, newly-appointed CEO of GeoPark and former CEO of Ecopetrol, as well as Mauricio Duarte, a leading CX strategist in Latin America, to explore the evolving role of customer experience in the region. Felipe shares firsthand insights into navigating uncertainty, resilience, and digital transformation in Latin America’s complex business landscape. Mauricio highlights how companies...
Richard Owen hosts a conversation on the future of the telecommunications industry with Marc Anné, Chair of the World Communication Awards judging panel, and Harry Baldock, Editor of Total Telecom. The discussion covers key industry trends, including the rise of 5G, the growing dominance of hyperscalers, and the challenge of telcos transforming into technology companies.
They address the persistent revenue struggles of telecom opera...
In this podcast, Richard Owen and Brian Curry tackle the provocative question, “Is NPS dead?” While acknowledging the clickbait nature of the question, they argue that the traditional Net Promoter Score (NPS) program has become outdated—not because the metric itself is useless, but because the way companies implement it has failed to evolve. Surveys, once the backbone of customer experience (CX) programs, are increasingly unreliabl...
OCX Cognition founder Richard Owen hosts Simon Lyons in this latest conversion. Simon has had a long and varied career working in marketing, brand management, and strategic development across a variety of industries, including power generation, drinks, and even the Scottish Football Association. Richard and Simon discuss the challenges and opportunities in modern marketing, particularly as organizations shift from strategic princip...
In this first of a series of two podcasts, Mauricio Duarte, CEO of Opinat, interviews Richard Owen, CEO of OCX Cognition, about the evolution of customer experience (CX) and the future of AI as a way of improving customer retention and growth. Richard shares his own CX journey, starting at Dell Computer, where he recognized customer experience as a key differentiator. He later joined Satmetrix as CEO, where he and his team were top...
In the second podcast of this two-part series, Mauricio Duarte and Richard Owen go deeper into the transformative role of AI in customer experience (CX). Richard highlights AI as a generational shift, resembling the advent of the internet in its ability to transform our work, and discusses its potential to revolutionize CX measurement and personalization. He emphasizes that while AI can enhance contact center operations and hyper-p...
In this episode, Richard Owen speaks with Joe Pine and Dr. Louis-Etienne Dubois about Starbucks’ journey of rediscovering its core identity as a "third place" — a welcoming environment between work and home. They explore how Starbucks' focus on retail efficiency and loss of employee-customer connection led to its decline, while highlighting the brand’s unique strengths that competitors haven’t been able to replicate....
In this special 8-minute episode, Richard Owen, CEO of OCX Cognition, shares highlights from 2024's CX Iconoclast podcast series, showcasing how top companies are embracing customer-centric transformation to drive retention and loyalty.
Featured Guests:
Simon Paris (Finastra): Explores how open finance shifts focus from products to personalized customer journeys.
Chris Bishop (Conga): Explains how em...
In this 7-minute highlight reel, Richard Owen, CEO of OCX Cognition, explores how AI and predictive analytics are transforming B2B customer experience by providing actionable insights, improving operational efficiency, and personalizing customer engagement.
Featured Guests:
- Chris Bishop (Conga): Shares how predictive analytics moves businesses from reactive problem-solving to proactive growth.
- Sean Albertson (Call center expert ...
2024 was a great year for the CX iconoclast due to the amazing guests we had. In this recap, we look at the topic of operational resilience and flexibility, especially in supply chains.
Discover how leading experts Chris Gopal and Kevin O'Meara are reshaping supply chain strategies to prioritize resilience and flexibility in response to today's complex challenges. From balancing risk and agility to leveraging sup...
2024 was a great year for the CX Iconoclast, thanks to the amazing guests we had. One of the topics that came up was the nature of technology-driven CX enhancements. As you might imagine, technology, especially automation and AI driven support tools, has enabled companies to offer streamlined, consistent, and highly proactive customer experience.
In this 'Best of' episode of The CX Iconoclast, Richard Owen highli...
2024 was a great year for the CX Iconoclast, thanks to the amazing guests we were able to host. It may be no surprise to you that one of the topics that came up repeatedly was the value of long term customer relationships. Long term CLV and customer retention are now vital metrics in B2B success, focusing on relationship management beyond the immediate sale.
What makes long-term customer relationships so crucial in the B2B space? In...
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