Today's post has an assignment . . . with a prize! Many of you have joined me on a journey to imagine with missional innovation looks like. We have highlighted people, talked about new ministry/outreach and shared about the challenges and blessings of innovation.
So this group should be pretty qualified to do some analysis and synthesis about innovation. In our test, the subjects we will study are the top 10 creative people as selected by Fast Company Magazine. They actually named 100 top most creative people, but we are going to focus on what FC believes are the cream of the crop.
Here is our test: Can you look at this list, read each bio and see the common thing that each of them did which enabled them to change their industries? There are many things, but one stands out - at least to me :).
Here is the prize: I will send two copies of our book "Innovation in Mission" to the first person to submit the right answer as a comment to this blog posting. Why two? One for you and one for you to share with a fellow innovator that you are connected with.
Click on this link to visit the list of the 100 Most Creative People
Here is the top 10 list with links to the individuals:
Jonathan Ive: Apple Designer
"There's an applied style of being minimal and simple, and then there's real simplicity. This looks simple, because it really is."- Design According to Ive, Wired
Melinda Gates: Co-Founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
"We literally go down the chart of the greatest inequities and give where we can effect the greatest change."- Melinda Gates goes public , Source
Shai Agassi: CEO of Better Place
Reed Hastings: CEO of Netflix
"There is a revolution happening, and within two years I think that Wi-Fi and Netflix will be built into all the televisions." - On the possibility of Netflix being built into televisions, New York Times Blog Jan 2009
Rich Ross: President, Disney Channels Worldwide
“Kids on the street can tell you what my priorities are,” Mr. Ross said. “I’m a wild optimist. You see that thread through anything we do. There are hard times, and there are not-so-hard times, but at the end it is an O.K. world.”- Oh, Grow Up, Mr. Ross, NY Times
Sandy Bodecker: VP of global design, Nike
"Like Nike, I believe in the power of human potential to do amazing things whether it's on the playing field of life or sport."Fast Company interview, Fast Company
Tero Ojanpera: Executive VP at Nokia
"What was formerly known as the cell phone is democratizing innovation,"
Michelle Ganeless: President, Comedy Central
The goal is "to make sure our content is everywhere our viewers are. We want everything to be accessible, sortable, and sharable."
Jon Rubinstein: Executive chairman, Palm
James Schamus: CEO, Focus Features
6 comments:
They all saw a need and embraced that need using technology.
They are all positive, have hope, see something better "out there" and they go after it.
They take risks and are not afraid to make mistakes.
Zach
Great idea, Jon, to draw attention to the accomplishments of these creative people. I see much to learn from them. One observation is that each of these innovative leaders did something unexpected, combining multiple disciplines to create a product that is remarkable, worth talking about.
Friends, we will give people another day or so and then I will let you know who got closest to the winning answer.
I took a great amount of time thinking this through so I think I have the closest answer. The common denominator between all these creative people was that they were creative.....and innovative. I know, it is brilliant.
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