The Fundamental Principles of Disruption feat. T. Canady Barton ’10

Owl Have You Know

Looking at T. Canady Barton’s resume, she has some of the biggest company names on the list. After a few years doing chemical engineering, oil and gas, T. pivoted to consulting, tech and entrepreneurship for the bulk of her career.

In 2014, she moved to the U.K., where she was the vice president of portfolio management, digital strategy and transformation for Garner. From 2006-2018, she was a founding member and CEO of ThinkPower, Inc., a boutique consultancy focused on driving positive disruption and game-changing results via strategic execution and operational excellence.

She joined Google in 2020 as the customer experience and innovation leader for Google Cloud Consulting and was previously head of strategy and operations for YouTube marketing. Now, she’s following her own entrepreneurial path with BlackBoxx, redefining care packages and gift-giving!

Host Scott Gale sits down with T. to chat all about prioritizing joy and passion in her career, the satisfaction of entrepreneurship, and shifting focus to what her personal and professional legacies will be.

Episode Guide:

00:28 Journey from Engineer to Entrepreneur

01:07 Choosing Chemical Engineering

02:40 First Job and Early Career

03:58 Transition to ExxonMobil

05:33 Exploring Entrepreneurship

10:33 Fundamental Principles of Disruption

12:46 Rice MBA Experience

15:04 Entrepreneurial Journey

27:56 Building a Legacy

29:07 Final Thoughts and Advice

Owl Have You Know is a production of Rice Business and is produced by University FM.

Episode Quotes:

It's all about the people, not the formula

10:31: [Scott Gale] What are some of the fundamental principles of disruption, in your view, from your learnings? Just curious around the commonalities in that—things to look out for when you're trying to disrupt a big incumbent.

10:43: [T. Canady Braton] Well, I'll say loud and clear that nobody has it figured out. Nobody has to figure that there's not some magic wand. There's not some special formula. Everybody's trying to figure it out in their own way. And the common thread that people get to or should get to is that we're still in the people business, no matter what business you're in—the people business. And if it doesn't matter how great your idea is, it doesn't matter how much money you're going to make. If people can't understand it, and people don't buy into it, and they don't understand how to use it, it doesn't matter. So our job as technologists, our job as business leaders, is to make it easy to understand, to simplify the process, to make it easy for them to explain to their team so it trickles down. If we don't do that, it really doesn't matter. It's not going to go very far.

11:48: Your idea can be brilliant, but implementation matters. Adoption matters. And how do you get that, right? It's not just talking to the C-suite. Of course, you need their buy-in. You need them to validate and adopt it themselves. But you have to get to the heart of the people in any organization. You got to go to every single level of that organization and make sure people are clear that they're bought in. They understand it. And you're moving whatever roadblocks you have to do it. You have to stay scrappy. You have to have grit; if you really want to make it happen, you have to show passion.

T's view of entrepreneurship shaped her as an entrepreneur

15:14: I saw entrepreneurship around me. It wasn't necessarily successful entrepreneurship, but I did see entrepreneurship, and I saw the reward of building something your own, even if it didn't always net the result you were hoping for, even if it didn't lead to insane riches. I saw the satisfaction of building something with your own hands, right? Whether it was a lawn service, a dealership, or a retail store. And that fire is just something special.

Why T is driven by significance in doing something big

08:09: I think my biggest driver was just to do something big. Like, you need to do something. And I've said before that my only fear in life has ever been really mediocrity. And I just knew that whatever I did, it needed to be significant. I don't show up to hold space and just take up space and not do anything with it. And so that was my motivator.

Show Links:

• Transcript

Guest Profile:

• T. Canady Barton - LinkedIn
• BlackBoxx Unlimited, Inc.
• TD Jakes Foundation