Edison and Innovation Blog

A few weeks ago, we asked if ketchup could be innovative. Now we are going to ask if a vegetable can be innovative. Why not?

Several months ago one of my children asked me where baby carrots came from. While this is a much easier question than where actual babies come from, it was a question I couldn’t answer. Recently I ran across the answer and I was truly amazed.

In the mid 1980’s a California carrot farmer named Mike Yurosek was frustrated with the number of carrots he couldn’t take to market. A large percentage of carrots do not grow in the proper shape, the one we see Bugs Bunny nibbling on. These carrots are deformed or “ugly carrots.” Industry estimates are that one-third of carrots are not pretty enough to sell in stores. But, like many people, while they are not attractive on the outside, they are still great on the inside.

Yurosek searched for a way to sell the “ugly carrots.” He knew he needed to change their looks. At first he worked by hand. Soon he combined an industrial green bean cutter with an industrial potato peeler and created a small peeled product which he named baby carrots. He sold them to some stores and the baby carrots became an immediate hit. It is now estimated that baby carrots are a 400 million dollar a year product. To succeed, Yurosek left the path that everyone else followed and was clearly rewarded.

So yes, a carrot can be innovative. Yurosek used what was considered waste and with the help of a new process he created a new product that he took to market. Not as flashy as innovating in the high tech area, but still incredibly innovative. So, the question we should ask ourselves is what do we have sitting around or are throwing away that could become the great new innovation?

This blog was originally posted April 19, 2011

In this blog and in our innovation programs we don’t emphasize leadership.  But leadership and innovation are tied closely together.  Steve Jobs stated that “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”   In fact, all successful innovators are leaders.  In addition, innovation is a key for a company to be a leader in the marketplace. 

That innovation leads to market leadership is easy to see.  The iPad is the best current example of how innovation can create a market leader.  The iPad was able to get into the tablet market first and everyone else is still trying to catch up. 

Innovation creates leaders.  For the most part, the study of innovators is the study of leaders.  To take your invention to market you will almost always need a team, and teams need leaders.  Edison is thought of as an innovator, rather than a leader.  But, he led everything from small research teams to multinational corporations.

So as you take time to improve your ability to innovate, look at yourself, your company or your team.  Are you prepared to lead innovation?  Improving your leadership may be the part of innovation that you are missing and the key to your success.

A couple of weeks ago we looked at Edison’s encouragement of Henry Ford. We can learn a lot from Ford. He was an innovator, but he was very different than Edison.

Edison invented new products like the light bulb and the phonograph. Edison built several companies, but his focus was on the inventions and how to make them more effective.

Ford was not an inventor but he was an innovator. He did not invent the internal combustion engine, or the automobile but he did make improvements. Edison was speaking about some of these improvements when he told Ford to “keep at it.” Henry Ford did not invent the assembly line, but he created it on a scale that had not been seen before. He did not just focus on his product, but on the entire process of creating a vehicle and taking it to the mass market. He did not invent any of these steps, but he clearly innovated them.

Like Edison, Ford was also widely quoted and they were both celebrities of their day. They left us some gems of insight. A few of my favorite Henry Ford quotes:

“Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few engage in it.”

“A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large.”

“It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages.”

“I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can’t be done.”

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”

If you would like to learn more about Henry Ford, here is a primer on what he did with the Model-T. It is truly innovative.

This blog was originlly posted January 25, 2011

In 2005, Steve Jobs gave the commencement address at Stanford University.  It has since become a widely quoted speech and can be found on many internet sites. 

He told his audience that at the age of 17 he read a quote that went something like, “If you live everyday as if it were your last, some day you’ll be right.”  He went on to explain that for the next 33 years he looked in the mirror every morning and asked himself, “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?  If the answer is ‘NO’ too many times in a row, I know I need to change something.”

What is the value of this routine?  He explained, “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.”

Steve Jobs had a reason for including these thoughts about death in his address.  In 2004, a year earlier, at the young age of 49, he stepped to the edge of that precipice for the first time.  He was diagnosed with a type of pancreatic cancer that was most likely incurable.  The doctors told him he probably had only three to six months to live.  Fortunately, it turned out to be a rare form of pancreatic cancer that could be cured by surgery.  He had the surgery and thought he was fine at the time he spoke at Stanford.  Having had some time for reflection, he told his audience, “This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades.”

Seven years have passed since Steve Jobs gave this stirring address.  By now, we know that his life has indeed come to an end.  He left a legacy of innovation matched by few others.  In the poignant sentences that concluded his remarks, he reached out with sage advice that should be tacked to the door of all those who are and aspire to be innovators:

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Thomas Edison surrounded himself with great thinkers and was friends with some of the most successful people of his day. I think he would have valued many of the ideas suggested below, some very similar to his own and others are in contrast to his thinking.

On the importance of a fearless attitude toward change which is the foundation of innovation

Eleanor Roosevelt and Helen Keller

“Do one thing every day that scares you.”—Eleanor Roosevelt

“We may not be interested in chaos but chaos is interested in us.”—Robert Cooper, The Breaking of Nations: Order and Chaos in the Twenty-first Century

“If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.”—General Eric Shinseki

On your individual role in innovation:

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”—Gandhi

“You are the storyteller of your own life, and you can create your own legend or not.”—Isabel Allende

“A year from now you may wish you had started today.” —Karen Lamb

On the human side of innovation:

“We can do no great things, only small things with great love.” Mother Teresa

“The two most powerful things in existence: a kind word and a thoughtful gesture.”—Ken Langone, founder, Home Depot

“The deepest human need is the need to be appreciated.”—William James

This blog was originally published August 5, 2010

With the loss of Steve Jobs, we thought it would be fitting to re-post a blog we posted last year titled, “From One World-Class Innovator to Another.”  Both Edison and Jobs give us great examples to emulate in our quest to become more innovative.

From One World-Class Innovator to Another

Originally posted June 16, 2010

Steve Jobs is the co-founder, inventor and chief executive officer of Apple. He also previously served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios and is now a member of the board of The Walt Disney Company. He has a lot in common with Thomas Edison as these quotes illustrate.

1. Steve Jobs said: “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”

I have on my bookshelf dozens of biographies of leaders I respect: They include, Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Churchill, Schwarzkopf, Gorbachev, Gandhi, Joshua Chamberlain of Gettysburg, Thomas Edison, the Watson’s of IBM, etc. These men were innovative geniuses and great leaders. It might even be said that innovation demands leadership, or leaders. Without leaders, innovation would be reduced to only an unfulfilled idea or ambition. It seems that great leaders arise when critical needs are met with innovative solutions. And so I wonder, what is happening around you that requires an innovative solution. If you seize the opportunity, then you are or will become a leader.

2. Steve Jobs said: “We think basically you watch television to turn your brain off, and you work on your computer when you want to turn your brain on.”

At a recent Edison Event, several people challenged themselves to take steps to ensure they have personal time. Turn off the phone for a time, don’t accept calls for an hour or two, no emails for a set time, listen to good music, frequently shut off the TV in the evening, were among many recommend actions to keep the brain more active and creative. Sometimes the computer can become a distraction as well. It takes effort to ensure that you have some peace and quiet, but it can be done.

3. Steve Jobs said: “There’s a phrase in Buddhism, ‘Beginner’s mind.’ It’s wonderful to have a beginner’s mind.”

Another way to say “beginner” is “child-like.” One of the challenges of a maturing adult is to maintain a “beginners mind.” What are threats to a “beginners mind”? There are many.  Some very common threats include:  1. Successful patterns of behavior; 2. The certainty that comes from experience; 3.  Routine familiarity with our surroundings; and 4. A bureaucratic culture.  Edison said it this way, “You cannot put a price on the knowledge gained by children when they are allowed to see something with their own eyes, such as a cocoon breaking open and a butterfly emerging.” Fostering a “beginners mind” is a important step toward continuous innovation.

Last year, we chose four National Geographic 2010 Explorers as subjects for two of our blogs.  As you may remember, each year the National Geographic Emerging Explorers Program selects rising talents who push the boundaries of discovery, adventure, and global problem solving. They are the new visionaries leading the efforts to educate and inspire people to care about the planet using natural, technical and people resources to accomplish their efforts.

Today, we introduce two more of these outstanding individuals this time from the 2011 class. They are much like Edison in their chosen fields. They are on the cutting edge of service or technology. If you click on the links, you will find interesting details about their work.

The first is Hayat Sindi, a native of Saudi Arabia, and a real citizen of the world.  How she came to change lives around the globe using a piece of paper about the size of a postage stamp is a story that is both remarkable and inspiring.  No obstacle was too large.  No challenge went unmet.  Relentlessly, she pushed forward with a determination common to many successful innovators.  We hope you have time to read both of these stories, if not, this is a good one.

To read Hayat’s story Click Here  

The second of the 2011 National Geographic Explorers is Juan Martinez.  He is identified as an environmentalist on the National Geographic 2011 list of Emerging Explorers.   He is an environmentalist to be sure, but he is also a social innovator who is making a real difference.  What does this social innovator do?  He affects change in children among the poor in our society by the sheer magnitude of his will.  Once again, his is a remarkable story filled with inspiration.  A chance moment, like many innovations, brought dynamic change into his world.   This time chance came packaged in a failing grade in the class of a great teacher.  This seemingly random moment and the teacher’s caring changed everything for Jose.  In time, it led him to impose his will on his difficult circumstances and today he does the same on the challenging problems of young people.  His unusual approach is why we chose this story.  If you have time, we think it will be well spent getting acquainted with Jose.

To read more about Jose Click Here

A few weeks ago, we asked if ketchup could be innovative. Now we are going to ask if a vegetable can be innovative. Why not?

Several months ago one of my children asked me where baby carrots came from. While this is a much easier question than where actual babies come from, it was a question I couldn’t answer.  Recently I ran across the answer and I was truly amazed.

In the mid 1980’s a California carrot farmer named Mike Yurosek was frustrated with the number of carrots he couldn’t take to market. A large percentage of carrots do not grow in the proper shape, the one we see Bugs Bunny nibbling on. These carrots are deformed or “ugly carrots.” Industry estimates are that one-third of carrots are not pretty enough to sell in stores. But, like many people, while they are not attractive on the outside, they are still great on the inside.

Yurosek searched for a way to sell the “ugly carrots.” He knew he needed to change their looks.  At first he worked by hand.  Soon he combined an industrial green bean cutter with an industrial potato peeler and created a small peeled product which he named baby carrots. He sold them to some stores and the baby carrots became an immediate hit. It is now estimated that baby carrots are a 400 million dollar a year product. To succeed, Yurosek left the path that everyone else followed and was clearly rewarded.

So yes, a carrot can be innovative. Yurosek used what was considered waste and with the help of a new process he created a new product that he took to market.  Not as flashy as innovating in the high tech area, but still incredibly innovative. So, the question we should ask ourselves is what do we have sitting around or are throwing away that could become the great new innovation?

We all know that Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. This was an opening step in the communications revolution that continues today. Before Bell’s invention, long-distance communication was by telegraph using Morse Code. With the telephone, conversations were actually possible with another person hundreds of miles away.  An interesting fact you may not know is that it took an invention from Thomas Edison to make this invention commercially viable.  (To learn more about Edison’s contribution to the phone click here) 

I thought about Alexander Bell the other day while attending a sporting event. At half time, I looked around the arena.  At least twenty people in my section alone were on their smart phones texting, twittering, taking pictures.  One man was even talking on his phone. I was impressed not only with the phones, but also with the invisible network that allows thousands of people to be connected to it in a relatively small place. I wondered what Bell would think of this.

We have come a long way from his relatively simple invention. I think that Bell would have liked how his invention has evolved and all that has come of it. He once stated, “Leave the beaten track behind occasionally and dive into the woods. Every time you do you will be certain to find something that you have never seen before. Follow it up, explore all around it, and before you know it, you will have something worth thinking about to occupy your mind.”  Bell followed his own advice and had many, many more inventions than the telephone.

His words remind us that we often have to leave the familiar path to innovate. While this may seem obvious, it is easier said than done. Sometimes we may think we have left the path when we have just stepped away from our comfort zone. While we may be taking a risk personally, if we’re not careful, we will leave one path only to join a well-worn path forged by others. 

So when should we leave our path?  I have two suggestions for you to consider.

1. Leave the path when you are looking for new solutions
If we keep reading the same books, magazines, and blogs in our own industry we are going to stay on the same path. Don’t be afraid to look to other sources of information that may not seem relevant for your answers. It may lead you to a place that no one has been before.

2. Leave the path when you are applying solutions
Sometimes new innovative direction comes from doing something familiar in a new way. By looking at approaches outside our industry, for example, we learn how others are doing something and  discover it could work for us.

So next time that you look down and see that your trail is turning into a rut, it’s probably time to get off the path. You may find something you have never seen before and didn’t even realize you were looking for it.

Twelve months ago we began blogging about Thomas Edison and Innovation.  In this time we have really seen a lot of growth in the number of those following our blog.  Thank you for your continued interest and support.

We thought that today we would focus on three areas that we have covered in the last year, creativity, learning from the past and enjoying life and innovation.  Each area has a quote, video or link to a post that covered part of this subject. 

Importance of Creativity

Inventors must be poets so that they may have imagination. –  Thomas Edison

Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things. 
                                                                                     - Theodore Levitt

5 Activities to Help Others Become More Creative and Innovative

How Harry Potter Has Helped Me at Work

We can learn from innovators of the past

Edison Quotes That Make an Impact

What can we learn about Innovation from Henry Ford?

Enjoying Life and Innovation

It’s kind of fun to do the impossible. – Walt Disney

Whistle While You Work

 This video about innovation always makes us smile.