Gregg Fraley

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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Readers of this blog know that I advocated for the passage of  the JOBS Act (Jumpstart Our Business Startups) in the USA. This is H.R. 3606. The good news is that the bill has passed the US Senate. It was amended to provide a bit more disclosure and safety for investors, but it’s done, and this is a very good thing. Here’s a nice summary of what’s happened from the New York Times. It still needs signed by President Obama, but he will, he was behind this effort. Can the right please refrain now from calling him a socialist? This is possibly the most “free market” law in recent memory. This is a very pro-business bill and it shows Obama

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Andy Warhol’s famous quote from 1968, that everybody will be world famous for 15 minutes has come true hasn’t it? I just watched a YouTube of a 12 year old dancing to the Maverick’s “Dance the Night Away” — 38,000 views and counting (authentic if nothing else). The democratization of the media has happened, for better or worse. However, if you’ve not quite gotten your 15 minutes yet, I wouldn’t worry so much about it. A secret wish for fame may mask some other need. Peel back that onion before you attempt to break the world’s record for eating ostrich omelettes. Because… Creativity does not require fame. Innovation does not require fame. Full self-expression, in any of its many forms,

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I had an interesting conversation recently about innovation culture. Comparing notes of various organizations with a friend, one of us remarked about organization X — “they never say yes, they never say no, it’s always…maybe.” We both concluded that maybe is a bad place to be as a culture looking to innovate. I wrote in a blog post last year about the one question survey to assess innovation culture — Are you having fun?” If I had to ask a second question, it would now be, “Is your organization a Yes, a No, or a Maybe?” The answer is telling. A Yes organization likes to try new things, is open to ideas and possibilities, and holds back from saying No. Ideas

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CEO Peter Voser of Royal dutch Shell admits his own industry has trouble thinking out of the box. He’s looking for big advances in electrical storage, among other things. Read the article, but the bottom line is innovation cycles of 30 years, which are typical in the energy sector, just aren’t fast enough. We agree at KILN. We have some ideas on how to get a faster front end of innovation. Essentially, a different and more frequent approach needs  to be taken in order to develop better questions for idea generation. Simply put, better questions = better answers. Peter, give us a call.  

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Words of wisdom can echo through time. Words of positive creativity creates virtuous circles that can spiral for many years. I’m writing today of the words others have given me, and also, my own words. I occasionally hear from somebody who has read my business novel, Jack’s Notebook. The notes are generally positive. Some have been — inspirational. It’s a profoundly fulfilling thing to hear about the positive impact your words have on others. I’m grateful for the audience, and grateful for the words of empowerment others have given me. Yesterday a reader of Jack’s Notebook, Aaron Eden, posted an interesting blog piece about his journey into the world of creativity and innovation. In Butterflies to Hurricanes – How Innovation and Creative

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It’s time to innovate how start-ups raise capital. Everything is in place to do so — crowdfunding is a revolutionary change that levels the playing field. But currently, the technique is hamstrung by government regulations. This is a USA focused post, but there are similar challenges in the EU. Dave Knox (@daveknox) tweeted a link taking me to a page to sign to support the Jobs Act (aka Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act H.R. 3606).  Americans reading my post here — I urge you to click through and Sign The Letter. Did you know that start-up companies in the USA are forbidden to: Publicly discuss that they are raising money Raise money through crowdfunding Receive services like standard docs from incubators

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Apologize in advance for the mis-leading title of this post, but I have a motive, and a point (and an ego). On a lark I decided to Google “the most creative man in the world”. Here is the somewhat surprising result. Juan Carlos Solon may not be the most creative man in the world (he’s a damn good illustrator) but he deserves credit for a good blog post title. I’d give the real title to Sir Jony Ive. — but that’s just me. Then, to be fair, went over to the fair sex and Googled “the most creative woman in the world.” Here is the rather silly top entry. The second listing was a bit better, if dated to 2010, a

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Ran across a facsinating article this morning in Mail Online India. It features three inventors who each have responded directly to some market need with a new device or product. The actual products are interesting, but what strikes me about this at a different level is that India might be a hotbed for new innovation. This is an emerging trend. Why? India has a goodly number of educated people with deep interests in engineering and math. It’s a free country, so people can pursue their interests. They have a grass roots innovation program that helps find and fund inventors and entrepreneurs. Think micro loans and such. And most importantly there is desire, a deep motivation to create something new. The

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This mornings Independent brings the story that Britanica is publishing its last set of encyclopaedias — after 244 years of continuous editions. The story strikes a chord. My family invested in those glorious leatherette tomes when I was a boy and I spent many hours delving into those books. This was of course before the Internet — which, by the way, is going to be big. It’s a story of a lack of innovative courage. A hesitancy to ask themselves big, bold, brave, questions (see KILN for how). Britanica is going the way of Kodak. They are being bypassed by a world that is simply doing things differently. A world that is no longer using film to make memories, and

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