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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Today’s post features Random Notes. Bits and pieces not quite full blog post worthy, but worth telling (hopefully). Random Note #1a. — Scott Anthony is at it again. The Innosight innovation maven has just released The Little Black Book of Innovation, how it works, how to do it. This is not a review — I’ve only gotten to page 53 — but I’m liking the tone. This is good stuff, and I’ll have more to say on this later, but am particularly looking forward to reading about the 28 day program he’s suggesting. Anthony wrote another innovation book that I reviewed awhile back The Innovator’s Guide to Growth. This new book would appear to be less academic and more practically oriented.

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The world is at least one third introverts. Some would say half the population. The people you work with, your family, your spouse, many of these people do not want to have to shout you down to be heard. Creativity has a lot to do with self-expression. If that is not happening with one third of a team there won’t be much productive work or innovation. Collaborative work means people need to be self-expressed in groups with a mix of introverts and extroverts (and as noted earlier this wee, with different creative styles). As Susan Cain has pointed out in Quiet, introverts are often drowned out. Secret Wish #11 is a wish for air time. This is a person, Julia,

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My last blog post, by far, was the most viral piece I’ve written in four years of blogging. Provocative titles and edgy content seem to win readers. And it would appear that creative style is a hot topic. If Steve Jobs Worked For You, You’d Probably Fire Him, is about a concept called Creative Style. Creative style can be measured, there are a couple of great assessments available. One is the KAI (Kirton Adaptor-Innovator Inventory) and the other is FourSight. Creative style is about how you think, how you solve problems. Steve Jobs was probably a high Innovator on the KAI. Innovator’s think “different”, while Adaptors think “better.” And listen carefully —both are creative. Edison was thought to be a

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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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