One cold winter morning with a fresh blanket of snow everywhere, Michael & I went flying along the New England coastline in a retractable gear Arrow. As the blinding sun poured into the cockpit we didn’t care how cold it was outside. It looked like time had frozen as the trees for miles remained bent at the angle of last night's winds. At first it was meditative, then it was almost hypnotic.
Risk Is a Reality
As we headed back towards the airport, our pre-landing check jolted us back to reality. Despite our best efforts, our landing gear wouldn’t come down. We walked thru emergency landing procedure protocols, planning our “options”, envisioning how hard landing on the frozen stiff ground would be and remembering that foaming the runway is just to put out fuel fires.(it’s not a “pillow”)
Our eyes quickly turned to the only place that wasn’t frozen – the glistening, white-capped ocean. Michael asked me, as co-pilot, what I wanted to do. I said ‘let’s just keep flying’. He thought that was a curiously crazy idea. Afterall, gear-up landings are also called plane crashes. How could I be so calm in the face of such great risk?
Situational Awareness Is Amazing....
I told him, the plane flew fine. We were warm, happy to be flying, enjoying the view and had plenty of fuel which we needed to burn anyway if we were to have a gear-up landing. At that moment, I didn’t see any imminent risk. Better still, if my life was about to be totally disrupted, I was going to enjoy this ride.
If at all possible, that amazing view became ten times more amazing. Then something even more amazing happened. We stopped worrying. We had calculated our risk, set a good plan that we would commit to executing and accept that that’s all we could control.
With our minds in a good place, new ideas started flowing. We thought we had tried everything to fix the problem but in our jolt we clearly had not. We reached under the cockpit and jiggled a wire – the gear came down.
There's Always an Answer
These are the words I hear at MIT all the time. "There's always an answer" and there's no shortage of world-changing brilliance that has come out of that University.
It's also the one singular difference between success and failure. The only real failure is quitting. Everything else is just a result that is in direct correlation to our willingness to learn from it.
It's amazing what we find when we take an accurate assessment of a "risky" situation. Risk is a reality but focusing on it won't give you the answers you need to get out of it.
So commit 100% to that curiously crazy idea of yours, the idea you are the most passionate about and remember, there's always an answer!
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Creating Products That Will Change The World
Deep in a dumpster lay two hundred years of patent lithographs that the US Patent Office discarded when they went digital. Out went the handwritten examiner notes and fine ink drawings on patents by Tesla, Edison, Bell, Goddard, Farnsworth and Carlton - masters of innovation who lived in far more challenging economic times.
We have shared with the world 140 of these original hand drawn lithographs in a book Drawing On Brilliance. Most have never been seen by the public before. Each holds the secret to innovation success - how to build products that will change the world.
Accelerating Innovation With Search
Think about this. There have been a mere 360 years between Galileo's discovery of the sun's turning on its axis and the first moon landing. Then less than 100 years between a time when the world's roads were made of dirt and the invention of the Internet. We are on a steep trajectory of success in solving global problems.
So drawing on the brilliance of the innovators who brought us this far,we can accelerate the rate at which we successfully build products that change the world. We see a great example of this when we study the success of controlled flight - success that eluded the likes of Galileo, DaVinci and hundreds who followed them. So what was it that two bicycle shop repairmen from Ohio named Wright did differently that would then serve to raise the standard of living around the globe? What approach did they take that centuries of geniuses before them did not?
Search! With no engineering degrees and limited financial resources they began a profoundly systematic search, (and without the benefit of the internet).
Dear Sirs (letter to The Smithsonian):
I am about to begin a systematic study of the subject in preparation for practical work which I expect to devote what time I can spare from regular business. I wish to obtain such papers as Smithsonian Institution has published on this subject, and if possible a list of other works in print in the English language. I am an enthusiast, but not a crank in the sense that I have some pet theories as to the proper construction of a flying machine.
I wish to avail myself of all that is already known and then if possible add my mite to help on the future worker who will attain success. I do not know the terms on which you send out your publications but if you will inform me of the cost I will remit the price.
Yours truly,
Wilbur Wright
Before building a single model they looked at centuries of prior art, dissecting the patterns of failure as carefully as the patterns of success as far back as Leonardo DaVinci. They used mapping, visualization, and had completed a painstaking analysis of as much available scientific information and technical intelligence as they could find.
How does starting with search ensure product success. By identifying the right problem to be solved, first! The problem with controlled flight was not weight and balance, like so many others had focused on. It was a pitch and yaw problem, something bicycle repairmen are experts at understanding.
Right Product, Wrong Customer?
A state of the art search is critical before any company enters into a new technology area. Results can provide a basis for making critical market decisions based on competitive intelligence. They will become a powerful navigation framework for any innovative product or process design and will keep development focused on the right customer.
When Chester Carlton, the inventor of the photocopy machine, spent years trying to sell his invention to large companies, but to no avail. But two small companies, the Batelle Memorial Institute and the Haloid Corporation (later to become the Xerox Corporation) eventually agreed to license the technology and manufacture the copier.
It then took Xerox 15 years before the first viable, user friendly model hit the market. And their challenges continued when the Arthur D. Little Consulting company report done for IBM advised that the Model 914 "had no future in the office copy market"
Yet in its first six months the Model 914 exceeded sales projections for the entire lifetime of the machine. The A.D. Little Report consultants had only done their research on mailroom managers and not the secretaries who became the primary customers.
Optimize and Monetize
Visionaries are by definition too early and with each passing, great idea they seem to only get more visionary. Most of Nikola Tesla's inventions were too early to be commercially successful in his lifetime. Yet many of them now form the basis of entire new industries and have helped create millions of jobs.
Is there a "Tesla" in your collection of innovations? Have you built a great product that is too early to be commercially viable? The true litmus test for commercial viability is when customers will actually buy the product and in some cases - even prepay for it.
Effective archiving allows a company to monetize that product development risk by legally safeguarding the IP until the market is ready to buy.
Or is there a brilliant process your company has perfected for your current industry that has an even more world changing impact when applied to another industry? Remember, Henry Ford repurposed a process from the meat-packing industry that allowed mass production of cars. And Yo-Yo Ma's cello bow measurement technique is now used to design every child's car seat in the world. Capturing this IP can foster even more of the cross-pollinating breakthroughs that have been the hallmark of product success.
Today's sophisticated workflows and collaborative environments make it imperative that creative work be legally safeguarded yet remain accessible to as a private archive. This will also serve to optimize the value of your R&D budget, potentially increasing your company's balance sheet and adding measurable asset value to any future M & A.
We are on the cusp of a third industrial revolution that will raise the global standard of living yet again. Today we have access to an unprecedented amount of resources and we're collaborating like never before. And yet there is no shortage of global problems that need to be solved.
So go build that product that will change the world, by drawing on brilliance.
We have shared with the world 140 of these original hand drawn lithographs in a book Drawing On Brilliance. Most have never been seen by the public before. Each holds the secret to innovation success - how to build products that will change the world.
Accelerating Innovation With Search
Think about this. There have been a mere 360 years between Galileo's discovery of the sun's turning on its axis and the first moon landing. Then less than 100 years between a time when the world's roads were made of dirt and the invention of the Internet. We are on a steep trajectory of success in solving global problems.
So drawing on the brilliance of the innovators who brought us this far,we can accelerate the rate at which we successfully build products that change the world. We see a great example of this when we study the success of controlled flight - success that eluded the likes of Galileo, DaVinci and hundreds who followed them. So what was it that two bicycle shop repairmen from Ohio named Wright did differently that would then serve to raise the standard of living around the globe? What approach did they take that centuries of geniuses before them did not?
Search! With no engineering degrees and limited financial resources they began a profoundly systematic search, (and without the benefit of the internet).
Dear Sirs (letter to The Smithsonian):
I am about to begin a systematic study of the subject in preparation for practical work which I expect to devote what time I can spare from regular business. I wish to obtain such papers as Smithsonian Institution has published on this subject, and if possible a list of other works in print in the English language. I am an enthusiast, but not a crank in the sense that I have some pet theories as to the proper construction of a flying machine.
I wish to avail myself of all that is already known and then if possible add my mite to help on the future worker who will attain success. I do not know the terms on which you send out your publications but if you will inform me of the cost I will remit the price.
Yours truly,
Wilbur Wright
Before building a single model they looked at centuries of prior art, dissecting the patterns of failure as carefully as the patterns of success as far back as Leonardo DaVinci. They used mapping, visualization, and had completed a painstaking analysis of as much available scientific information and technical intelligence as they could find.
How does starting with search ensure product success. By identifying the right problem to be solved, first! The problem with controlled flight was not weight and balance, like so many others had focused on. It was a pitch and yaw problem, something bicycle repairmen are experts at understanding.
Right Product, Wrong Customer?
A state of the art search is critical before any company enters into a new technology area. Results can provide a basis for making critical market decisions based on competitive intelligence. They will become a powerful navigation framework for any innovative product or process design and will keep development focused on the right customer.
When Chester Carlton, the inventor of the photocopy machine, spent years trying to sell his invention to large companies, but to no avail. But two small companies, the Batelle Memorial Institute and the Haloid Corporation (later to become the Xerox Corporation) eventually agreed to license the technology and manufacture the copier.
It then took Xerox 15 years before the first viable, user friendly model hit the market. And their challenges continued when the Arthur D. Little Consulting company report done for IBM advised that the Model 914 "had no future in the office copy market"
Yet in its first six months the Model 914 exceeded sales projections for the entire lifetime of the machine. The A.D. Little Report consultants had only done their research on mailroom managers and not the secretaries who became the primary customers.
Optimize and Monetize
Visionaries are by definition too early and with each passing, great idea they seem to only get more visionary. Most of Nikola Tesla's inventions were too early to be commercially successful in his lifetime. Yet many of them now form the basis of entire new industries and have helped create millions of jobs.
Is there a "Tesla" in your collection of innovations? Have you built a great product that is too early to be commercially viable? The true litmus test for commercial viability is when customers will actually buy the product and in some cases - even prepay for it.
Effective archiving allows a company to monetize that product development risk by legally safeguarding the IP until the market is ready to buy.
Or is there a brilliant process your company has perfected for your current industry that has an even more world changing impact when applied to another industry? Remember, Henry Ford repurposed a process from the meat-packing industry that allowed mass production of cars. And Yo-Yo Ma's cello bow measurement technique is now used to design every child's car seat in the world. Capturing this IP can foster even more of the cross-pollinating breakthroughs that have been the hallmark of product success.
Today's sophisticated workflows and collaborative environments make it imperative that creative work be legally safeguarded yet remain accessible to as a private archive. This will also serve to optimize the value of your R&D budget, potentially increasing your company's balance sheet and adding measurable asset value to any future M & A.
We are on the cusp of a third industrial revolution that will raise the global standard of living yet again. Today we have access to an unprecedented amount of resources and we're collaborating like never before. And yet there is no shortage of global problems that need to be solved.
So go build that product that will change the world, by drawing on brilliance.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
That Curiously Crazy Idea of Yours....
On a day just like this morning with a fresh blanket of snow everywhere, Michael & I went flying along the New England coastline in a retractable gear Arrow. As the blinding sun poured into the cockpit we didn’t care how cold it was outside. It looked like time had frozen as the trees for miles remained bent at the angle of last nights winds. At first it was meditative, then it was almost hypnotic.
Risk Is a Reality
As we headed back towards the airport, our pre-landing check jolted us back to reality. Despite our best efforts, our landing gear wouldn’t come down. We walked thru emergency landing procedure protocols, planning our “options”, envisioning how hard landing on the frozen stiff ground would be and remembering that foaming the runway is just to put out fuel fires.(it’s not a “pillow”)
Our eyes quickly turned to the only place that wasn’t frozen – the glistening, white-capped ocean. Michael asked me, as co-pilot, what I wanted to do. I said ‘let’s just keep flying’. He thought that was a curiously crazy idea. Afterall, gear-up landings are also called plane crashes. How could I be so calm in the face of such great risk?
Situational Awareness Is Amazing....
I told him, the plane flew fine. We were warm, happy to be flying, enjoying the view, had plenty of fuel which we needed to burn anyway if we were to have a gear-up landing. At that moment, I didn’t see any imminent risk. Better still, if my life was about to be totally disrupted, I was going to enjoy this ride.
If at all possible, that amazing view became ten times more amazing. Then something even more amazing happened. We stopped worrying. We had calculated our risk, set a good plan that we would commit to executing and accept that that’s all we could control.
With our minds in a good place, new ideas started flowing. We thought we had tried everything to fix the problem but in our jolt we clearly had not. We reached under the cockpit and jiggled a wire – the gear came down.
There's Always an Answer
These are the words I hear at MIT all the time. "There's always an answer" and there's no shortage of world-changing brilliance that has come out of that University.
It's also the one singular difference between success and failure. The only real failure is quitting. Everything else is just a result that is in direct correlation to our willingness to learn from it.
It's amazing what we find when we take an accurate assessment of a "risky" situation. Risk is a reality but focusing on it won't give you the answers you need to get out of it.
So commit 100% to that curiously crazy idea of yours, the idea you are the most passionate about and remember, there's always an answer!
Risk Is a Reality
As we headed back towards the airport, our pre-landing check jolted us back to reality. Despite our best efforts, our landing gear wouldn’t come down. We walked thru emergency landing procedure protocols, planning our “options”, envisioning how hard landing on the frozen stiff ground would be and remembering that foaming the runway is just to put out fuel fires.(it’s not a “pillow”)
Our eyes quickly turned to the only place that wasn’t frozen – the glistening, white-capped ocean. Michael asked me, as co-pilot, what I wanted to do. I said ‘let’s just keep flying’. He thought that was a curiously crazy idea. Afterall, gear-up landings are also called plane crashes. How could I be so calm in the face of such great risk?
Situational Awareness Is Amazing....
I told him, the plane flew fine. We were warm, happy to be flying, enjoying the view, had plenty of fuel which we needed to burn anyway if we were to have a gear-up landing. At that moment, I didn’t see any imminent risk. Better still, if my life was about to be totally disrupted, I was going to enjoy this ride.
If at all possible, that amazing view became ten times more amazing. Then something even more amazing happened. We stopped worrying. We had calculated our risk, set a good plan that we would commit to executing and accept that that’s all we could control.
With our minds in a good place, new ideas started flowing. We thought we had tried everything to fix the problem but in our jolt we clearly had not. We reached under the cockpit and jiggled a wire – the gear came down.
There's Always an Answer
These are the words I hear at MIT all the time. "There's always an answer" and there's no shortage of world-changing brilliance that has come out of that University.
It's also the one singular difference between success and failure. The only real failure is quitting. Everything else is just a result that is in direct correlation to our willingness to learn from it.
It's amazing what we find when we take an accurate assessment of a "risky" situation. Risk is a reality but focusing on it won't give you the answers you need to get out of it.
So commit 100% to that curiously crazy idea of yours, the idea you are the most passionate about and remember, there's always an answer!
Sunday, January 10, 2010
The Future is Now!...just not for everybody
When we think of all the innovation that has happened just this past decade, and all of the innovation that is happening right now - the pattern of innovation success is clear.
If the people in your social networks aren't ready for the tsunami of change that innovation is bringing, you need to find new networks. For the future is Now!
The innovation success that is happening right now is changing the world in amazing ways. And it won't slow down for those who aren't ready, nor should it.
Think about this. There were only 360 years between Galileo's discovery of the sun's turning on its axis and the first moon landing. Then less than 100 years between a time when the world's roads were made of dirt and the invention of the Internet.
We are on a steep trajectory of solving world problems that we can't afford to miss. http://bit.ly/2x3Lbk
Here's the pattern of success I watch for. People will say:
1) "That's a crazy idea."
Lots of ideas are crazy, that's exactly where real game changers come from. Look inside that pool of crazy ideas and zoom in on the 'curiously crazy' ones. The ones where you say to yourself "that's so crazy I can't even understand it". The real game changers are right there!
2) "There's no way that will ever work"
My dear friend Dr John Atalla lived his entire life in the future of today. He invented "PIN" (what makes your ATM work) back when everyone said "there's no way that will ever work." and now ATMs are everywhere. http://is.gd/3pS5a
3) "Hey. That was my idea"
Was the iPhone your idea? Did your social networks tell you "That's a crazy idea."? http://bit.ly/3AU3zM Find new networks! (and invite me to join you http://bit.ly/7AQqtY)
The future is Now!....just not for everybody
Make 2010 the year you change the world in amazing ways!
If the people in your social networks aren't ready for the tsunami of change that innovation is bringing, you need to find new networks. For the future is Now!
The innovation success that is happening right now is changing the world in amazing ways. And it won't slow down for those who aren't ready, nor should it.
Think about this. There were only 360 years between Galileo's discovery of the sun's turning on its axis and the first moon landing. Then less than 100 years between a time when the world's roads were made of dirt and the invention of the Internet.
We are on a steep trajectory of solving world problems that we can't afford to miss. http://bit.ly/2x3Lbk
Here's the pattern of success I watch for. People will say:
1) "That's a crazy idea."
Lots of ideas are crazy, that's exactly where real game changers come from. Look inside that pool of crazy ideas and zoom in on the 'curiously crazy' ones. The ones where you say to yourself "that's so crazy I can't even understand it". The real game changers are right there!
2) "There's no way that will ever work"
My dear friend Dr John Atalla lived his entire life in the future of today. He invented "PIN" (what makes your ATM work) back when everyone said "there's no way that will ever work." and now ATMs are everywhere. http://is.gd/3pS5a
3) "Hey. That was my idea"
Was the iPhone your idea? Did your social networks tell you "That's a crazy idea."? http://bit.ly/3AU3zM Find new networks! (and invite me to join you http://bit.ly/7AQqtY)
The future is Now!....just not for everybody
Make 2010 the year you change the world in amazing ways!
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
For The Geek Who Has Everything.....
Direct from Richard Branson himself, for the geek who has everything...
Five minutes of uninterrupted suborbital flight!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1233987/Virgin-Atlantic-unveils-SpaceShipTwo-worlds-commercial-passenger-spaceship.html
Sure, it's in a hangar in the Mojave. And it's hard to wrap and definitely tough to "surprise" with but your favorite geek won't complain. Total project costs are $450Million so you may want
to search for a coupon first http://www.coupon.com/
Actually, the hard core geeks will want to build their own anyway.
So save your money & buy a copy of Drawing On Brilliance: ($30)
Most of these pics have never been seen before by the public!
http://theoccasionalceo.blogspot.com/2009/11/drawing-on-brilliance.html
In fact, reference this blog and we'll send you a personalized autograph that you can attach to your first edition copy!
But I caution you, the geek who has everything will spend hours and hours in quiet contemplation of the possibilities these pages will inspire.
Happy Holidays to you and your family!
Five minutes of uninterrupted suborbital flight!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1233987/Virgin-Atlantic-unveils-SpaceShipTwo-worlds-commercial-passenger-spaceship.html
Sure, it's in a hangar in the Mojave. And it's hard to wrap and definitely tough to "surprise" with but your favorite geek won't complain. Total project costs are $450Million so you may want
to search for a coupon first http://www.coupon.com/
Actually, the hard core geeks will want to build their own anyway.
So save your money & buy a copy of Drawing On Brilliance: ($30)
Most of these pics have never been seen before by the public!
http://theoccasionalceo.blogspot.com/2009/11/drawing-on-brilliance.html
In fact, reference this blog and we'll send you a personalized autograph that you can attach to your first edition copy!
But I caution you, the geek who has everything will spend hours and hours in quiet contemplation of the possibilities these pages will inspire.
Happy Holidays to you and your family!
Monday, November 16, 2009
" The iPhone was MY idea!"
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
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
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/
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