Gregg Fraley

Shout out to Black & Decker as they celebrate 100 years of innovation. What a marvelous achievement.  This is something American (and European for that matter) manufacturers should take a good close look at.  As we see jobs being shipped overseas and as we see the manufacturing base slowly ebbing away, Black & Decker is proof that American manufacturers can compete. And you compete by innovating. All…the…time. It’s a myth that American manufacturers can’t compete, and Black & Decker is proof.  So is Harley-Davidson. Making high quality, high value products, means good jobs — and sustaining of a way of life.  Black & Decker started as a small machine shop in Baltimore and now makes a broad range of hardware

Read More..

I try not to watch Fox News. First of all it’s not news, it’s entertainment.  And certainly not my kind of entertainment, so I avoid it.  I tuned back in recently and I’m here to report three new innovation lows at Fox. Fox is proof that doing the wrong thing sometimes gets ratings and money. Clearly, their new innovation initiatives are novel and useful to them, and — harmful to the industry, and harmful to viewers.  That’s crap innovation, sad to say. Readers, this is a political opinion blog piece. And I’m a Progressive/Liberal. However, even if you are on the right side of the political fence you should be concerned about Fox. A propagandized electorate behaves like a swinging

Read More..

I’m a fan of the work of Richard Florida. Florida has written several books about the “creative class”.  He examines why certain places seem to be hotbeds of creativity and innovation. Simply put, “creative” communities that are tolerant, and have an interesting arts scene, tend to also be communities that attract new business development. You don’t have to read Florida to intuitively know that some places just “feel” like better spots to start a business.  Silicon Valley, if you’ve ever been there, has that feel. Austin, Texas has that feel.  Apparently New Zealand and Singapore have that feel.  And, those areas are indeed hotbeds for entrepreneurial development. Florida did the studies that proved this out. I’m going to go a

Read More..

I’ve realized while reading Winners & Losers, Creators & Casualties of the Age of the Internet that the role of the storyteller in innovation is under respected. Author Kieran Levis has written a book that is chock full of real life business stories.  Reading these stories I’ve learned a great deal about why companies succeed or fail. Is there anything more valuable when it comes to preparing yourself for innovation?  Why fall on the same sword that, for instance, Webvan did?  Instead why not emulate the team that founded Sony just after WWII? If you want to catch up on your business reading, this book is essentially an MBA in a box. It’s fascinating. Levis uses real world business stories

Read More..

As promised here’s the official link to the TEDx NASA conference.  I was a featured speaker, and, there were a great many excellent people speaking and performing.  I suggest that you link through the TEDx NASA site — it provides some context and it has a nice list of all the speakers with direct video links. I’ve gotten an unprecedented number of unsolicited emails in the last couple weeks — people who’ve seen my video. It’s delightful to receive the feedback — keep those cards and letters coming. http://www.tedx-nasa.org/

Read More..

I’m still giddy over the University of Cincinnati Bearcats (UC) victory over the University of Pittsburgh Panthers yesterday. Don’t worry, this is not going to be a post about sports, it’s about what it takes to make a great success. Creating a winning major college football program at UC, while not some earth stopping innovation, is surely a story about creating a culture of excellence — and all innovators can learn from that. Let me take you back to the early 60’s for a moment. I was a young lad living near the UC campus in Cincinnati. I attended a few football games with my father and brother, and usually, UC got trounced. Sometimes they would eek out a narrow

Read More..

I watched and read with interest reports of yesterday’s Obama Job Summit. I’ve got a simple point to make here; one day brainstorming sessions are close to useless. Brainstorming gets a bad name because what is really a “discussion” (aka bullshitting) is often labeled as brainstorming. The meeting yesterday was not about serious idea generation.  It was a meeting to discuss things, which is not wrong, but it’s not going to generate breakthrough ideas. Real breakthroughs happen when people do idea generation over a longer period of time.  Getting to the “fresh snow” of truly new ideas, innovative ideas, means a lot of imaginative thinking. This means plowing through all the already-skied-down-to-ice “old snow” ideas. One day is Never enough

Read More..

I had the honor of speaking at the first TEDxNASA, which took place on November 20, 2009.  I was thrilled to be involved because of my respect for both TED and NASA — and also because I had the sense that this was the start of something big.  What’s started is more than just a TED offshoot.  What’s started is a new, diverse, creative community that blends the rocket science of NASA with the “ideas worth spreading” philosophy of TED. Unless I miss my guess TEDxNASA will emerge over the next few years as the premier TEDx event.  It will also, I predict, serve as a focal point for a new, and inspiring, deliberate creativity and innovation community. TEDx is

Read More..

“Giving back” is the phrase one often hears from celebrities who use some of their fame and fortune to help others.  Successful business people often give back as well, but we don’t usually hear about it. That’s why I was taken by the story of HUM Girlfriends (HUM is the Hindi/Urdu word for “We”). Innovators are made, not born, and it’s fascinating how support, encouragement, and cultural values make a big difference in success. HUM Girlfrirends is the moniker of seven remarkable women of Indian origin.  The seven met at a recent ESOMAR (market research industry) conference in Switzerland.  It dawned on Anumita Sharma (of the third eye Marketing Intelligence Research) as she watched six other women of Indian origin

Read More..

If you need some visual stimulus, check out these innovative billboards: http://10steps.sg/inspirations/artworks/50-extraordinary-and-attractive-billboards.

Read More..