I'm thinking I will gear the global trek on the (working title) theme of "Faces of Innovation". Meet with the innovators, creators, builders, dreamers, the emerging "creative class" around the world and understand the underlying cultural, spiritual, and psychological beliefs that sustain, enrich and define these individuals and organizations.
There are various regions around the world that seem to be moving faster and growing more quickly than others. Enough so that even the U.S. is getting a bit paranoid about its competitive edge (or so you would think with the glut of attention on offshoring and more recently the EU fine against Microsoft signaling (not my words) a trade war against the U.S. information technology industry).
I know that at least in US -- and my hypotheis is that maybe it's universal -- one key component of creativity and innovation is a clear vision.
Among the four books I'm reading right now (I can only do this with non-fiction) most are centered on marketing or branding (BTW, highly recommend A New Brand World and also Emotional Branding) except Mentored by a Millionaire (these sort of titles usually simultaneously catch my eye and turn me off, but I flipped through it and was impressed enough to buy it). I'm deeply engrossed in it right now. Lots of stories about visionairies - Ray Kroc, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison.
And a few stories about visions thwarted (the old Xerox PARC and the personal computer and GUI, for instance).
"Henry Ford had a promising career as an engineer wht the Edison Electric Company. While working at Edison he became enamored with the new craze of the wealthy - horseless carriages. Encouraged by Thomas Edison's example and words, Ford built a prototype automobile in his humble garage. He became obsessed with the potential that he saw, and quit his job and went to work for the newly founded Detroit Automobile Company. While every auto manufacturer in the world was turning out cars that were only affordable to the very rich, Ford acquired a vision to create an automobile that would be affordable to everyone. His superiors at Detriot Automobile Company did not share his vision and insisted that he focus on designing cars for the proven market -- the very rich. Forced to set his vision aside, Ford went through the dying process that Solomon described ["Where there is no vision, the people perish", Proverbs 29:18]. He lost his motivation, his energy, his commitment, his creativity and productivity, and ultimately his job."
We all know the rest of the story. Ford lost a job, but started his own company the following year. By 1928, one out of every two cars in the world was a Ford. The changes went deeper than just a product; the face of capitalism was forever changed by the concept of mass production and a new managerial capitalism emerged.
I worked at Evans & Sutherland for a while and unless you are a real computer geek (and perhaps particularly a computer graphics geek), you probably haven't heard of this company. But you may have heard of some of their ex-employees. For instance, Jim Clark (co-founder of SGI and Netscape) and John Warnock (co-founder of Adobe). The kind of legends that would go around the halls then weren't exactly inspiring (at least if you were still in their employ). I still recall the one about how management didn't think much of Warnock's ideas, such as his Postscript invention. Flash-forward: Warnock relocates to California and starts Adobe.
In Pulitzer Prize-winning author Studs Terkel's classic Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do, interviewee Nora Watson says, “I think most of us are looking for a calling, not a job. Most of us, like the assembly line worker, have jobs that are too small for our spirit.”
Most companies are so risk-averse these days that innovation has been given short shrift. Not much dreaming big or hitting remarkable sales goals. Company goals and objectives feel restrained and "too small for our spirit." There is a sense of doubting and fear around whether the company can even pull its modest goals off. Mere survival is only so motivating. Using the baseball metaphor in Mentored by A Millionaire, we're now telling employees: "a walk is as good as a hit, just don't strike-out." From reading the quick bio of Babe Ruth in the book, that wasn't the kind of vision that motivated him. "Every single time he came to the plate, he made a choice. Every single trip to the plate he was going to do one thing. He was going to swing for the fence."
Lots of talk these days about offshoring and outsourcing as well as rising employee productivity gains being part of the reason for the "jobless recovery." But for the most part I find that people's geniuses go virtually untapped by their employers and these so-called productivity gains are really the tip of the iceberg in terms of human capital potential. But without the big vision, there is nothing for the potential to strive towards.
Where there is no vision, the people perish (Proverbs 29:18)
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