From Creative Genius to Real World Innovation

The late Annette Moser-Wellman, founder of Firemark,  was our friend and partner, and an expert in creativity.  She created The Five Faces of Genius; we worked together for more than fifteen years to help people better live their creative lives.  She asked us to shepherd her life's work.  Here is what she said about us:

"In today’s competitive global market, the new currency is ideas.  More than ever large companies are brought to their knees by start-ups.  Turnover of brands in cultural consciousness is happening more frequently than at any other time in history.  New media create fragmented audiences and target segments we’ve never dreamed possible.

Larger firms are forced to reconsider the definition of a “niche business.”  Innovation can no longer be a quarterly exercise or a planned “off-site."  Innovation has to live in the warf and woof of everyday business.  The core competency of every organization. 

Managers need to be as facile with their imagination as they are with an Excel spreadsheet.  To be able to find ways to innovate, to break down barriers within our organizations as well as our personal, internal biases that prevent us from maximizing our own creative energy.  The next manager is one part strategist, one part tactician and one part genius. 

Working with Strategic Innovations Groups is just that kind of experience.  The ability to get things done undergirds the creative, on-target ideas and solutions they recommend.  We call Jane Melvin “brain energy” for her facile and imaginative brain.  Never far from an actionable idea, she is quick to understand the task, focus the options and provide a recommendation that works.  She lives at the intersection of Creative Genius and Real World Innovation.

New leaders are being born in the economy of ideas, people who care less about stasis and more about risk-taking and the possibility of genesis.  Someone who values creative thinking wherever they can find it.  An ambassador of ideas who rallies organizations to be comfortable with the permanent whitewater of today’s business climate.  Jane Melvin is that kind of leader and she can help you and your company lead in the same way."