Posted by Doreen Lorenzo - December 12, 2008
So much has been written about the big three auto makers and the mess they’re in. It is a travesty that they lost sight of what made them great in the past: innovation.
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Posted by Doreen Lorenzo - November 12, 2008
I was in China when the election was held. I live in a state that allowed early voting, so I voted a week earlier and took off to visit our Shanghai studio and Chinese clients.
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Posted by Doreen Lorenzo - October 29, 2008
The IDEA Conference starts tomorrow in New York City. It features an excellent line up of a dozen men. Only men.
I have been running a global innovation firm for the past 12 years and I regularly attend a variety of conferences that bring people from divergent fields together. This past fall I attended Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit, and for a minute when I encountered this roster, I thought that perhaps it was intentional—that I was about to find a provocative supporting statement having a conference comprised solely of men—but no. The main statement is this:
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Posted by Doreen Lorenzo - October 10, 2008
The financial crisis has everyone consumed. The picture is not a pretty one, and clearly it will take us some time to climb out of the mess. However, there is an overwhelming consensus that we will climb out. The question is: How long will it take? People are frightened and consumed by fear. Fear causes people to make poor decisions.
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Posted by Doreen Lorenzo - October 7, 2008
This week I attended Fortune’s Most Powerful Women’s Summit, which brings together a group of 300+ C-level executive women. I’ve attended for the past three years, and each year it gets better.
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Posted by Doreen Lorenzo - July 25, 2008
I just spent a few days at the FORTUNE Brainstorm: TECH in Half Moon Bay. In my typical fashion, the night before the event I begin to think about all the pressing issues on my plate. I rationalize that I really cannot give up that much time and convince myself not to go. The next morning I wake up and realize that I really should go. Mark Rolston our Chief Creative Officer is speaking. I want to support him. There are many interesting panels I want to attend and of course, Half Moon Bay is a beautiful place.
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Posted by Doreen Lorenzo - July 18, 2008
BusinessWeek today announced the winners of the IDEA awards and our frogware LED light bulb concept won Gold.
Check out the online version:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/toc/08_30/B4093idea_best_product_design_awards.htm
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Posted by Doreen Lorenzo - July 17, 2008
This week is the debut issue of our design mind magazine. A 60+ page magazine packed with interesting articles written by frogs around the world. It is a great way for our team to have an additional forum to express their ideas.
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Posted by Doreen Lorenzo - May 2, 2008
In the past two weeks, I had the opportunity to attend two very interesting conferences. The first one was Fortune’s Brainstorm Green, followed by the Milken Institute’s Global Conference. Both of these conferences attract the who’s who in the financial and business world. What struck me at both events was the rallying cry that innovation is key in solving many of the world’s problems. I continued to hear that change is needed for people to think and behave differently.
The Fortune conference featured the usual suspects who have championed the environment long before it became a cause célèbre. One surprise twist was the number of investors in attendance. I met more financiers who had funds to invest in sustainability-related areas than I thought possible. There were also a large number of CEOs in attendance. Their interest in sustainability largely stemmed from the pressures they felt from their employees and customers. Will there finally be new green products and services that will meet the increasing demand? Will they be adopted by a larger segment of the population? It’s clear that there is enough money ready to be spent and corporations ready to commit to finally make a significant impact in green innovation.
From a personal perspective, the best part of the conference was a short speech delivered by a 16-year-old high school sophomore, Avery Hairston. Avery has started a foundation called ReLightNY that raises money from individuals and corporate sponsors. He uses the money to buy low wattage CFL light bulbs that he then distributes to those in need. Everyone is a winner. People use less power and it also saves them money. A double whammy winning strategy. The closing line of Avery’s speech was poignant: “Most of you probably will not be here in 2060, but I will, and I need to do something now.” Young people like Avery will not let complacency and comfort get in the way of solving problems.
At the Milken conference, the message calling for innovative ideas to solve problems was much the same. Panel topics were diverse and covered the fate of the newspaper and music industries, the environment, world hunger, poverty, mobility and healthcare to name a few. It seems that a conference such as this one, filled with so many powerful people in the financial and business world, would easily embrace and fund innovation as a means of helping to solve many of the issues that were so hotly debated. I talked with several “idea” people and heard consistently that although there was no lack of enthusiasm for great ideas, it had been difficult to move forward and secure commitments.
This lack of definite progress is likely due to one familiar symptom related to innovation: it usually makes people sick to their stomachs. It is unfamiliar, unknown and untested. It is a risk. This thought was echoed in what I felt was the most enjoyable panel of the conference which featured the 2006 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Muhammad Yunus, currently Managing Director of Grameen bank based in Bangladesh. He is recognized worldwide for his successful application for the concept of microcredit, the extension of small loans to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. His hard work has lifted millions of families out of poverty. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for efforts to create economic and social development from below.” His idea was so simple and so humble, yet when people initially heard it, they told him that it would never work. Muhammad used $27 of his own money to fund the first loan. Clearly the naysayers were wrong and his success has changed an entire country. My take-away from his speech was that innovation takes courage.
I hope that a year from now, I can return to both of these conferences and see how the changes that were proposed have been implemented. We need to give innovation a chance to be nurtured and to flourish. To make this happen, we all need to get over our fears and follow our heart.
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Posted by Doreen Lorenzo - April 18, 2008
Innovation is hot. If you search the word on Google, there are 102,000,000 entries. You can buy books, take classes, attend workshops and conferences. There is no shortage of innovation information. I just hope that the concept of innovation is here to stay and does not go the route of the pet rock; a trend that does not last. It shouldn't -- we need innovation to drive our economy, solve world problems, and find solutions to medical problems. But why as adults are we trying to recapture something that came so naturally to us as children?
I believe that the emphasis on this frantic search for innovation is a result of our inability to foster this concept starting at the elementary school level. Shouldn't we all be innovators? Part of what makes us human is our ability to think and reason. With that in mind, innovation should be part of our fiber. Why can't children maintain their creative innovation past the 2nd grade? At some point the concept of innovation is ripped out of their souls. They are told to follow the rules, prepare for the standardized tests and think about getting a good job that pays well.
I recently heard of a well intentioned teacher who wrote a comment on a 6th grader's paper saying the child was "too creative." How can you be too creative? What does that really mean? I have also heard parents telling their kids that entering into a "creative" profession would mean that they will be poor for the rest of your lives. Now there is a great message to send to aspiring innovators. I travel a great deal and can honestly say this is not just a problem the United States is facing. It is in fact a problem I have seen in many of the countries I have visited.
Finding great creative talent continues to be the biggest issue in our world where in reality it should be the easy part. However, since schools begin to dismiss the notion of creativity once a child leaves kindergarten, the pool of applicants gets very small by the time they actually enter the workforce. How can we shift the focus to allow kids to explore, think bigger, reward their drive and ambition as not just an anomaly but a must-have in today's world? Instead, creative kids are often labeled "creative," which means "different." And different is too often not a good word for a child.
Isn't there creativity in every person? We will always have the handful of extremely creative people, but that is not enough. Great changes will not happen if we continue to make everyone the same.
We need to embrace creative thinking as something that is a must have not an elective.
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