True story!
Bob Eckert of New & Improved told me that he overheard someone say "The iPhone was my idea!" http://www.innovationblogsite.typepad.com/
And they meant it! The iPhone, or at least the need for the iPhone, was the idea of millions of people . Steve Jobs of Apple spotted that need and filled it. He took action - the right action. And he forever changed the way we live, work and play. http://www.apple.com/
How about you? Have you ever watched a commercial and seen something selling like mad - then find yourself screaming out loud "hey, that was my idea!"
Well, epiphanies never occur to couch potatoes. It takes action.
Two bicycle shop owners from Ohio solved a problem that no one else, from DaVinci to Galileo ever could. They certainly weren't the first to have the idea. But they took action - the "wright" action, and they forever changed the way we live, work and play.
http://www.aero-web.org/history/wright/first.htm
So what epiphany have you had? (remember, it's probably not just your idea) But you can be the one to take action and forever change the way we live, work and play.
Need some inspiration? Start here: http://bit.ly/czgNh
Monday, November 16, 2009
Sunday, November 8, 2009
On Changing The World In Remarkable Ways
As posted on MassChallenge on November 5th, 2009 http://www.masschallenge.org/
At the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame’s Lifetime Achievement Awards Gala in California I was a proud guest of one of the recipient’s Dr John Atalla who invented “PIN” (what we use to access our debit and credit cards) http://is.gd/3pS5a
But I was also proud to claim that I am from, educated in and now my own company is based right here in Massachusetts.
Do you know how many of these Lifetime Achievement Award Winners were either born in, educated in, built their companies in or discovered their inventions in Massachusetts? Over 50!
To Change The World in Remarkable Ways
Every one of them came to Massachusetts for the same reason - to change the world in remarkable ways. And every one of them did:
• By revolutionizing entire industries:
Rachel Fuller Brown, born in Springfield, MA invented Nystatin invaluable for controlling secondary infections from anti-biotics and donated all of her royalties to science. Charles Sumner Tainter, born in Watertown, shaped the future of the recording industry.
• By improving our quality of life and saving millions of lives:
John Sheehan, having taught for 31 years at MIT, synthesized penicillin. William P. Murphy, Jr born in Boston, built the first physiologic cardiac pacemaker. Forest Bird from Stoughton, MA introduced the world’s first mass produced pediatric ventilator.
• By raising the standard of living around the world:
Lewis Latimer, born in Chelsea, MA brought innovation to the process of manufacturing carbons which allowed incandescent lighting to become affordable for all consumers. Robert Rines of Boston, MA designed innovative technologies that enabled noninvasive medical imaging and now he fuels the same spark of innovation in children at the Academy of Applied Sciences that he founded.
• By forever changing, for the better, how we live our lives:
Vannevar Bush, born in Everett, MA and educated in Massachusetts schools was best known for his essay “As we may think” that pre-figured development of hypertext and other elements of the World Wide Web. Edward Calahan the Boston-born created the stock ticker used at both the New York and the Boston Stock Exchange.
• By growing the Massachusetts economy and creating millions of jobs:
From Charles Draper of Draper Labs to William Stanley of Pittsfield, MA who founded Stanley Electric now part of GE, to Milton Bradley with his namesake company that was headquartered in Springfield, MA to Amar Bose whose multibillion dollar company, Bose Corporation is right off the Massachusetts Turnpike.
A Culture of Sustainable Innovation
Massachusetts seeded a culture of sustainable innovation, centuries ago and it’s what continues to feed the global economy today. It’s where research meets capital. It’s where any one with a revolutionary idea has access to the right resources to support it. It’s where ingenious teams have always, and fearlessly, tackled those really big problems.
We had Robert Goddard, born in Worcester and educated at Worcester Polytech (WPI), who pioneered rocketry and space flight. And now we have Helen Greiner CEO of Droidworks and her iRobot Co-Founder Colin Angle. www.droidworks.com http://www.irobot.com/
We had Charles Page of Salem, MA and his induction coil that became a standard component in the automobile industry. And now now we have Desh Deshpande Chairman of A123 systems and a serial Massachusetts entrepreneur. http://www.a123systems.com/
We had Luis Walter Alvarez an MIT staff member who won a Nobel Prize in Physics for his research that resulted in a major revision of nuclear theories. And now we have William Swanson, CEO of Raytheon. http://www.raytheon.com/
We had Claude Shannon who came to MA for his Masters degree, stayed to earn his Ph.D., and created what experts call “a blueprint for the digital age”. And now we have Bill Warner, Founder of Avid and Wildfire Communications. http://www.avid.com/
We had Richard Fessenden who successfully transmitted the first wireless radio broadcast from Brant Rock, MA. And now we have Leo Beranek, CEO of BBN http://www.bbn.com/
Drawing On Brilliance
So after a year of researching a collection of 140 original patent lithographs rescued from destruction when the US Patent Office went digital, the pattern of innovation success was clear. I co-authored the book Drawing On Brilliance, with Randy Rabin to capture the process of innovation and to see how the masters took on those really big problems in an economy equally as challenging.
And to show how Tesla, Carrier, Westinghouse, Heddy Lamar and all of those great Massachusetts entrepreneurs shared the same challenges and successes that today’s entrepreneurs do.
What we found was that innovation creates millions of jobs, thousands of new companies, entire new industries and it can reignite a global economy. But sustainable innovation success means that a repeatable process exists, that there is a strategic plan in place with a mission behind it that matters to everyone.
And it means that these entrepreneurs have a readily available ecosystem of human resources they can draw on; people who are willing to share their own brilliance because like Greiner, Deshpande, Warner and all of the entrepreneurs out there today we don’t ever plan to stop - changing the world in remarkable ways.
Note: The Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation in Waltham launches an exhibit around the theme of this book on Dec 15. http://www.crmi.org/
Jackie Bassett is founder and CEO of BT Industrials Inc., a strategic management and technology consultancy where she helps CEOs of global 500 companies design and execute on their innovation strategies. She was one of the first 100 employees at Netscreen Technologies; which started in 1997; successfully IPO’d in 2001, and then was acquired by Juniper Networks in 2004 for $4Billion. Her background is in investment banking having worked at State Street International. Her innovation strategy work has been in a variety of industries from Telecom, to HealthCare, to Clean Tech, to Digital Entertainment, to Biotech. She holds an MBA from Babson College and a private pilot’s license.
http://www.drawingonbrilliance.net/
At the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame’s Lifetime Achievement Awards Gala in California I was a proud guest of one of the recipient’s Dr John Atalla who invented “PIN” (what we use to access our debit and credit cards) http://is.gd/3pS5a
But I was also proud to claim that I am from, educated in and now my own company is based right here in Massachusetts.
Do you know how many of these Lifetime Achievement Award Winners were either born in, educated in, built their companies in or discovered their inventions in Massachusetts? Over 50!
To Change The World in Remarkable Ways
Every one of them came to Massachusetts for the same reason - to change the world in remarkable ways. And every one of them did:
• By revolutionizing entire industries:
Rachel Fuller Brown, born in Springfield, MA invented Nystatin invaluable for controlling secondary infections from anti-biotics and donated all of her royalties to science. Charles Sumner Tainter, born in Watertown, shaped the future of the recording industry.
• By improving our quality of life and saving millions of lives:
John Sheehan, having taught for 31 years at MIT, synthesized penicillin. William P. Murphy, Jr born in Boston, built the first physiologic cardiac pacemaker. Forest Bird from Stoughton, MA introduced the world’s first mass produced pediatric ventilator.
• By raising the standard of living around the world:
Lewis Latimer, born in Chelsea, MA brought innovation to the process of manufacturing carbons which allowed incandescent lighting to become affordable for all consumers. Robert Rines of Boston, MA designed innovative technologies that enabled noninvasive medical imaging and now he fuels the same spark of innovation in children at the Academy of Applied Sciences that he founded.
• By forever changing, for the better, how we live our lives:
Vannevar Bush, born in Everett, MA and educated in Massachusetts schools was best known for his essay “As we may think” that pre-figured development of hypertext and other elements of the World Wide Web. Edward Calahan the Boston-born created the stock ticker used at both the New York and the Boston Stock Exchange.
• By growing the Massachusetts economy and creating millions of jobs:
From Charles Draper of Draper Labs to William Stanley of Pittsfield, MA who founded Stanley Electric now part of GE, to Milton Bradley with his namesake company that was headquartered in Springfield, MA to Amar Bose whose multibillion dollar company, Bose Corporation is right off the Massachusetts Turnpike.
A Culture of Sustainable Innovation
Massachusetts seeded a culture of sustainable innovation, centuries ago and it’s what continues to feed the global economy today. It’s where research meets capital. It’s where any one with a revolutionary idea has access to the right resources to support it. It’s where ingenious teams have always, and fearlessly, tackled those really big problems.
We had Robert Goddard, born in Worcester and educated at Worcester Polytech (WPI), who pioneered rocketry and space flight. And now we have Helen Greiner CEO of Droidworks and her iRobot Co-Founder Colin Angle. www.droidworks.com http://www.irobot.com/
We had Charles Page of Salem, MA and his induction coil that became a standard component in the automobile industry. And now now we have Desh Deshpande Chairman of A123 systems and a serial Massachusetts entrepreneur. http://www.a123systems.com/
We had Luis Walter Alvarez an MIT staff member who won a Nobel Prize in Physics for his research that resulted in a major revision of nuclear theories. And now we have William Swanson, CEO of Raytheon. http://www.raytheon.com/
We had Claude Shannon who came to MA for his Masters degree, stayed to earn his Ph.D., and created what experts call “a blueprint for the digital age”. And now we have Bill Warner, Founder of Avid and Wildfire Communications. http://www.avid.com/
We had Richard Fessenden who successfully transmitted the first wireless radio broadcast from Brant Rock, MA. And now we have Leo Beranek, CEO of BBN http://www.bbn.com/
Drawing On Brilliance
So after a year of researching a collection of 140 original patent lithographs rescued from destruction when the US Patent Office went digital, the pattern of innovation success was clear. I co-authored the book Drawing On Brilliance, with Randy Rabin to capture the process of innovation and to see how the masters took on those really big problems in an economy equally as challenging.
And to show how Tesla, Carrier, Westinghouse, Heddy Lamar and all of those great Massachusetts entrepreneurs shared the same challenges and successes that today’s entrepreneurs do.
What we found was that innovation creates millions of jobs, thousands of new companies, entire new industries and it can reignite a global economy. But sustainable innovation success means that a repeatable process exists, that there is a strategic plan in place with a mission behind it that matters to everyone.
And it means that these entrepreneurs have a readily available ecosystem of human resources they can draw on; people who are willing to share their own brilliance because like Greiner, Deshpande, Warner and all of the entrepreneurs out there today we don’t ever plan to stop - changing the world in remarkable ways.
Note: The Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation in Waltham launches an exhibit around the theme of this book on Dec 15. http://www.crmi.org/
Jackie Bassett is founder and CEO of BT Industrials Inc., a strategic management and technology consultancy where she helps CEOs of global 500 companies design and execute on their innovation strategies. She was one of the first 100 employees at Netscreen Technologies; which started in 1997; successfully IPO’d in 2001, and then was acquired by Juniper Networks in 2004 for $4Billion. Her background is in investment banking having worked at State Street International. Her innovation strategy work has been in a variety of industries from Telecom, to HealthCare, to Clean Tech, to Digital Entertainment, to Biotech. She holds an MBA from Babson College and a private pilot’s license.
http://www.drawingonbrilliance.net/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)