Gregg Fraley

I’ve resisted writing this post. I have friends and family in Cincinnati and I don’t want them to think any less of me for criticizing my hometown. Still, I’m compelled to say how baffled and disappointed I am over the lack of support for the proposed Streetcar. Readers who come here for innovation stories, rest assured, this is all about innovation, or more precisely, the lack of it. Call it a sad and tearful tale of what might have been, an innovation not to be. I hope that my distance, and modest expertise in innovation will lend a perspective to my analysis here. Hasn’t anyone in Cincinnati read the work of Richard Florida? Don’t they know how vital it is to

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Aye, it’s St. Patrick’s Day, and on this day of saints, I cannot tell a lie. There is a pervasive and growing cliché in the innovation business, and it’s starting to drive me a bit nuts, ready? “Ideas are a  dime a dozen” and it’s usually coupled with the thought “it’s not about ideas, it’s about execution.” If you do a Google search on those phrases you’ll find many current links to blogs, business articles, and famous quotes pages. At a recent innovation conference in Berlin (FEI 2011) I heard this thinking echoed in several speakers presentations. Patrick Lefler, clearly a bottom line guy, wrote this recent piece, which was posted on the Blogging Innovation site, but there are many others

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My writing partner in sales literature is a wonderful and talented guy, Tim Dunne. We’ve been colleagues at the CREA Conference (coming up soon, April 13-17) and also CPSI — so we’re both bona fide creativity and innovation types. We share a common history of being bag carrying salesmen. We’ve both thought for ages that bringing applied creativity concepts to the sales world is needed — and we’re working on that.  In the meantime, check out his post today: The When, Why and How of Credibility. Well worth a quick read, and check back with Tim now and again for more thoughts on creative selling. The essence of his post is simply all about how to build enough credibility with

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It occurred to me that as a cultural trend spotter and scanner, I’ve not posted about current trends in my own field of Innovation.  No time like the present!  Like any industry or concept things fall in and out of fashion. This is just my view, but a fairly well informed one. So, here are my 10 thoughts about innovation trends, in no particular order: (see below for more thinking about each item) 10 Trends In Innovation (March 2011) 1. Creativity is getting more lip service but less action. 2. Risk Aversion is still very much part of the big company scene. 3. Lack of Resources is the number one excuse for not innovating. 4. Idea Management Systems and Product

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I’m busy these days writing a manual for my new company, Kiln.  Writing a technical document is a mixed blessing.  It feels like you’re doing something that will provide value, that feels good, and — it’s often slow going. The manual is for a new innovation process which we’re calling FuseTrail. More about that in future posts, but as part of that effort I had some fresh thoughts about factors that impact innovation. I had all the usual suspects down, things like, respect for ideas, supportive culture, persistence, and talented people. I paused while writing and thought about what was stopping some of the organizations I’ve worked with — and it came to me — the obvious, Courage. This will be

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I just finished reading a wonderful novel, The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga. It’s a brisk story told in first person by a young Indian entrepreneur.  I won’t say much more about the story, but it’s a good one, and deserving of the accolades and prizes its received. Perfect airplane reading, and, it has me thinking about how an entrepreneur gets started. Kudos to Adiga for writing a compelling, dark, fascinating examination of poverty, opportunity, and wealth. A White Tiger is a rare breed in the wild, and the metaphor was used in the novel to describe how challenging it is for a young Indian, mired in the mud of deep poverty, to move from virtual slavery to being an

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There is a memorable scene in Godfather III where Michael Corleone laments his inability to stay out of the mob game, he screams —  “Just when I thought I was out of it, they pull me back in.” This is something like my relationship with start-up companies. I’ve been involved with several, and whether they were successes or not, at the time, I always felt that this ‘was the last one.’ I don’t know why exactly. Perhaps because of the intensity of the work, or the roller coaster ride of high high’s and the low low’s. Maybe just because it’s a bit scary.  At times, back in the day, I was ambivalent about my own motives. That ambivalence is probably what

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Briefly noted: Inc. Magazine‘s July/August issue features a blueprint for revitalizing the American economy “Bring on the Entrepreneurs“.  Essentially the plan would have thousands of new companies and millions of new jobs created. Editor Jane Berenston organized a response to an op-ed column by Thomas L. Friedman in The New York Times that called for Obama to make job creation the centerpiece of his administration. I commented on that article last January in this blog. The Inc. article was written by Adam Bluestein and Amy Barrett. In it, they identify existing programs that could be expanded, address issues like immigration, education, government impediments to start-ups — bureaucracy, financing, incubators, student loans, taxes, and energy policy.  There’s more, 16 major points

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Off to London today to run an idea generation session with a start-up.  Yes! I’m as jazzed as Charlie Parker on a double expresso. My mind if filled with excitement and my heart is filled with Hope. It occurs to me that those intrepid folks who start new ventures, large and small, sophisticated and simple, all share one thing: Hope. It’s one of the three Christian virtues, along with faith and charity, but you don’t have to be Christian to have, or appreciate Hope. Hope is what sometimes makes life worth living.  Hope is what has the Chicago Cubs (those perennial also-rans) dream of  autumn World Series baseball glory.  Hope is what makes an entrepreneur get up in the morning.

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If you are a creativity and innovation freak, you probably have already seen the excellent Newsweek article titled “The Creativity Crisis.” It’s rapidly becoming one of the most shared FaceBook links I’ve seen. If you haven’t read it, by all means do, it’s the best piece I’ve seen in recent years related to creativity, education, and it’s impact on the American economy.  For those of us in the field, it’s somewhat old news, we’ve been screaming this for years, but nothing like a major news publication to get it on the radar. The recent research is a real eye opener, especially the part that says creativity scores are a better indicator of eventual success than IQ. Wow — that’s a

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