Gregg Fraley

Elizabethtown, Kentucky — Friday May 11, 2012, Gonzeaux #5. I’m sworn to secrecy. As I sit here in Ruby Tuesday’s enjoying a petite sirloin and free wifi, I contemplate the secretive nature of innovation. Open innovation is all the rage isn’t it? You hear all the time how much it makes sense to have a generous attitude about ideas. The paradox is, some innovations need to be kept secret, or, the innovator loses advantage. Or worse, loses freedom. Do you think Pixar is sharing early rushes of their latest movies with just anybody? Or is Apple giving us any sense of their new strategy? No, it will be a surprise when they announce something really cool. Pixar has never had

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Visiting with Mike Bott, General Manager at The Brandery accelerator in downtown Cincinnati, you actually see what the “Front End of Innovation” looks like — two or three people, over-caffeinated and urgent, clustered around a couple of basic desks working out the details of a business plan, or creating a brand new product. Due to the training they’ve been given at the accelerator, they know a bit about innovation process, branding and fund raising — and the focus is still entirely on the doing. It’s small, it’s uncomplicated, it’s informal, and yet, wow, things are happening. In the spirit of expanding the FEI 2012 conversation, I asked Mike what question he would like to pose to the group which will

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Cincinnati, Ohio — Wednesday May 9, Gonzeaux #3 After one of the prettiest drives you can imagine through southern Indiana east into Ohio, I find myself this morning in the very urban, once blighted, “Over-The-Rhine” neighbourhood of Cincinnati. This is clearly an Ohio innovation success story, in more ways than one. I would not have predicted it. I nearly lost my life here. Flashback 1974: I’m driving my beater 1960 Dodge Valiant through this neighbourhood with my dog Peaches sleeping in the back seat. It’s early evening, and stopped at a red light, the Valiant stalls. It won’t start back up. I manage to push the car over to the curb. Before I can blink I’m surrounded by 5 guys.

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Bloomington, Indiana, Tuesday May 8, Gonzeaux #2 Indiana is the state of Nick Tippmann. Who’s Nick Tippmann? The future of Indiana Innovation that’s who (and not Bobby Knight). More on Nick and Bobby below, but first, Observations: Indiana is very flat. Driving south on I-65 — farms in all directions as far as the eye can see. Farms are small business, in a way, the first small businesses, that tradition lives here. Driving through small towns with the Dairy Queen’s, feed stores, beauty shops and all the other specialties you can imagine…more small business. People work hard here, long and hard. At the hotel I’m staying at I’ve been served by two people who were clearly over 70, doing the

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Three Oaks, Michigan, Monday May 7 — Gonzeau Tour Begins I’ve spent a frantic weekend preparing for the Gonzeaux Tour trip to Florida to attend the FEI 2012 Conference*. Two requests for proposal came over the transom on Friday and they required weekend work, and a lot of it. I had hoped for a bit of peace and thoughtful packing prior to what might be a week of cheap hotels, crashing with friends and family, but it was not to be. So, the first leg begins in an hour and I haven’t even packed a bag yet. I do have piles of stuff to take: KILN IdeaKeg boxes, large mural paper, Post-it’s, iPad, iPod, Garmin, pocket knives, sunflower seeds, water,

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I’ve decided to take the battle of Doing Innovation to the streets. Literally. Okay, it’s not a battle, it’s a conversation, but it’s definitely a road trip, and definitely about the Doing. I’m heading down to Orlando, FL to attend the Front End of Innovation Conference (FEI) taking place May 15, 16, and 17. Instead of doing the boring (and convenient) thing of taking a cheap flight from Chicago to Disneytown, I’m opting to drive through the heartland and a bit of the south — I’m going Gonzeaux (“GAWN zoe”) on my way to FEI. FEI is an amazing event, and, wouldn’t it be great if that innovation “conversation” was happening all over? And online? As I Go Gonzeaux I’m going

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While ordering a grande Americano with room at Starbucks the other day, I noticed a counter display. It had a stack of cards with the title “Let’s Create Jobs for USA” across the top and then below it a red, white, and blue wristband. It’s elastic and not the usual plastic you see in these things, and, it has a coupler made of metal with the word “invincible” engraved on it. They requested a $5 donation.  I read the cards and bought one on the spot. I’m proud to wear it. The answer to my question of whether a wristband can create USA jobs is an emphatic Yes. There are already innovation success stories. I’m a wristband-come-lately — this has been

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I’m in Cincinnati next week to help pitch a recycling business concept to investors. It’s an exciting idea — taking waste plastic and transforming it into high value-add products. This is not a social innovation business, it’s a for-profit venture that just happens to be clean, green, and job creating. The newco is called Integrated Green Technologies (IGT) and the good news is the business plan couldn’t be more clear or exciting. This business could make a great deal of money and in a fairly predictable, not-so-long time frame. In theory, it’s an investors dream, relatively low risk, high return, a chance for explosive growth (this is my opinion, investors get in touch with me — gregg@greggfraley.com — to see

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There is a great deal being said and written about the late, great, Steve Jobs. He was a complex personality — and a remarkable leader. Folks often overlook the personality piece and focus on the leadership. After reading another article about his leadership style, it got me thinking, What if Steve Jobs Worked for you? Imagine if you will a young Steve Jobs, fresh out of not graduating from college, twenty something, energetic, but not expert. You might hire him because he’d probably interview well. Once onboard your company you give young Steve something lower-level to do. You might not see he works long hours because you’re not there at the same time he is. You might get upset that

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It comes like clockwork, once a week, an HTML email letting me know about the latest edition of Innovation Tools.  As I was thinking about what to post today related to innovation and reading Innovation Tools at the same time, I got one of those lovely “aha” moments (or maybe it was just an obvious but good idea hitting me over the head with a sledge hammer). Everyone should know about Innovation Tools. It’s probably the largest ezine/portal related to business innovation. Just as important, it’s a site you can trust has no hidden agenda. If you haven’t checked it out yet, and you are at all in the creativity and innovation space, either as a supplier or on the

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