Blog
The Innovator Behind “A Christmas Carol”
The story of Ebenezer Scrooge and the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley has withstood the test of time since 1843. The classic novella written by Charles Dickens, cuts to the heart of even the most jaded, and brings a ray of hope that the Christmas...
Does Your Company Have an Innovation Plan?
The innovation industry, like any other industry, is full of buzz words. People like to latch on to the latest academic sounding terms and have lengthy discussions about them. This all sounds impressive, but the bottom line is "what is your company doing about it?"...
Conceptual Thinking and Creative Note Taking
Anyone who has seen my office and the piles of hand-written notes on legal pads, in the backs of books, on scraps of paper and napkins, and on various Post-it notes stuck to the wall would probably label me a bit kooky. So, I'm glad to hear that a recent study at the...
Disruptive Innovation Creates Opportunity
Disruptive innovation is innovation that disrupts an existing market and creates a new one. All industries are subject to change. And people will hang on to the status quo as long as possible. Society in general often feels threatened by the disruption of the status...
Mothers of Invention Grants
They say that necessity is the mother of invention, even though fewer than 15% of all patent holders in the world to this day are women. But Toyota is doing its part to help draw attention to women innovators and women inventors at the fourth annual Women in the World...
Woman Inventor – Josephine Cochran
If you're like most people, washing dishes is a chore. Okay, maybe it's just me. But back in 1886 a woman inventor named Josephine Cochran thought the same thing. Technically Joel Houghton patented a dish washing machine, but it was a wooden machine that just splashed...
How Creative Entrepreneurs Can Be More Productive
Since creative entrepreneurs don't punch a time clock or have a boss standing behind them making them work, they have to be their own boss and learn to be more productive on their own. Here are some ways creative entrepreneurs can be more productive: ...
Women Inventors – Tabitha Babbitt
I've heard too many times that women inventors tend to invent "girlie" things. Sometimes that might be true, but not always. Take the case of the shy and quiet inventor Tabitha Babbitt, who invented the circular saw, which is certainly far from being a girlie...
Inventors Spotlight – Woman Inventor – Ruth Handler
Ruth Handler's claim to fame as a woman inventor and woman innovator is that she invented the Barbie Doll. But Ruth's resume was much bigger than that. She started off in 1945 as the co-founder of the toy company Mattel, which made toy furniture, music boxes, plastic...