I founded the Grass Roots Innovation Program (GRIP) in 2009 with a view to bringing together leaders and innovators from different points of view to EMC and the Silicon Valley community.  GRIP going into its 4th year has grown into a Bay Area series of seminars, lectures and panel discussions featuring well-respected leaders & innovators from a diverse set of industries and careers. Speakers discuss their leadership styles, personal visions, and strategies for success while reflecting on their views around leadership and innovation. GRIP is sponsored by EMC, but attendance at GRIP events is open to anyone regardless of employment status or company affiliation. As luck would have it, EMC’s Merissa Hamilton and Whitney Mullin are the new co-directors, as their passion for innovation has grown along with their commitment to the community at large.

Many of the speakers have come to the program via connections with Bill Daul Founder of NextNow Network and Nosostros Salon. These groups of visionaries were selected to meet regularly to explore and transcend creative and intellectual boundaries — from the past…to the here…to the next now. Then there is our friend Jeff Chow a member of the governance board of Global Women’s Leadership Network (GLWN) and serial social entrepreneur.  He and his wife Shirley Chen, PHD work with many other organizations, including the Salvation Army, One World Children’s Fund, the Big Turtle Fund (sea turtle research and environmental education), and numerous organizations working in Africa.

GRIP is one example of community coming together to form new alliances.  I am still amazed by the power of our microcosm of Silicon Valley,  where competitors regularly become allies, when their passion is fed by a vision of what the new world can be through partnership and collaboration.

In mid-2012, I took a new role at EMC working in the Office of the Chief Technology Office (OCTO).  In addition to a number of  other assignments I also worked on University Programs with Rhonda Baldwin, PhD. and OCTO University Research Manager. New to this function I invited Dr. James (Jim) Spohrer, Director IBM University Programs to our GRIP.  At this program, “The Future of Innovation”, Jim discussed the role of universities as knowledge engines.

Join me as Rhonda Baldwin asks Jim a few interesting questions on innovation like:

• Is there a dark side of innovation?
• Is there a cap on innovation?
• Where do you get together with the greatest innovative minds?

More About Dr. James (Jim) Spohrer

Dr. James (Jim) C. Spohrer is IBM Innovation Champion and Director of IBM University Programs worldwide (IBM UP), Jim works to align IBM and universities in regional innovation ecosystems globally.   Previously, Jim helped found IBM’s first Service Research group, the global Service Science community, and was founding CTO of IBM’s Venture Capital Relations Group in Silicon Valley.  During the 1990’s while at Apple Computer, he was awarded Apple’s Distinguished Engineer Scientist and Technology title for his work on next generation learning platforms.  Jim has a PhD in Computer Science/Artificial Intelligence from Yale, and BS in Physics from MIT.  His current research priorities include applying service science to create smarter (less waste and more capabilities) universities and cities, also known as tightly-coupled holistic service systems that provide whole service to the people within them.  He has more than ninety publications, been awarded nine patents, and is a Fellow of the SRII (Service Research and Innovation Institute).

I recently introduced the ENTOVATION^® Network, lead by Debra Amidon, which is an international network of theorists and practitioners, dedicated to developing a sustainable future through knowledge and innovation. Within that network,  E100 is a group of over 200 leaders and innovators representing different perspectives, and 69 nations.  See Global Knowledge Leadership Map.

Let’s drill down and meet some of these amazing leaders starting with, William A. Ghormley SVP Marketing Xconomy.  Xconomy is the exponential economy mashed together to get one word out of it (smart).  Xconomy is focused on providing business and technology leaders timely, insightful, close-to-the-scene information about the local personalities, companies, and technological trends that best exemplify today’s high-tech economy.  Their team many of who have an authoritative voice on the exponential economy, the realm of business and innovation characterized by exponential technological growth and are responsible for an increasing share of productivity and overall economic growth.

I had a chance to interview WIlliam (Bill) Ghormley to better understand his role and some of the issues his organization is focused on including these key questions:

1. What are the technologies that innovation clusters are going to need in the future?
2. Where are they going to come from?
3. How are they going to be funded?
4. How are entrepreneurs going to be trained and supported and enabled to support new technologies?

Bill went onto talk about innovation clusters, represented as a geographic concentration of interconnected businesses, suppliers, and associated institutions in a particular field. Accordingly there are 6 clusters in the US, Boston, Detroit, New York, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle.

Join me as learn more about Bill Ghormley and Xconomy.

Committed to building a shared community of innovators, Debra Amidon, Founder and Chief Strategist, ENTOVATION® International, invited me to join a new community, Entovation 100.  Debra is a visionary leader and is the architect of the knowledge economy and a collector of fellow thinkers.  The ENTOVATION network (Debra’s collection) is made up of people from a variety of disciplines with a wide range of functional roles and responsibilities representing over 69 countries.   Joined together through Debra we share a common vision and desire to play a strategic role in shaping the global economy.

Debra Amidon (CEO Entovation International) & Joel Schwartz (EMC SVP)

Debra passionately believes in a virtual community of collaborators working for the common good and that, as a result, a new economic world will form, one based upon knowledge. She believes this will result in profitable growth for the enterprise, the vitality of their respective national economies, and the advancement of society – both industrialized and developing nations alike.  I was inspired when I heard Debra state:  “A multi-faceted conception of a world knowledge commonwealth replacing the world of nations is proposed, as a means of going beyond the one-dimensional, zero-sum game of economics and interest driven money. The knowledge commonwealth, which includes what we now classify as social and moral issues, could not be controlled, or even led, by a single entity, although it might be balanced. In this New Eden, the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life grow together into one tree, as thinking about knowledge becomes less abstract and more conscious, more concerned with diversity and wisdom, than the struggle between right and wrong.”

Calvin Smith Lead Anchor EMC TV interviewed Debra at the World Summit on Innovation & Entrepreneurship (WSIE) on September 26^th.   

Officially in the “E100”, now 201 strong, I met the 14 new inductees at a reception.  Welcome New Members E100.  These inspirational leaders opened a new view into the world of knowledge management.  Impressed with them all, I had a chance to build a strategic connection with Edna Pasher, Founder and President of Edna Pasher Associates, a knowledge management consulting firm specializing in knowledge management.   Capturing the beginning of our journey which started in Boston and continued to Israel the following month,  I interviewed Edna at the WSIE conference.

New beginnings founded on a common vision of innovation and collaboration, I am looking forward to growing my partnership with Debra, Edna and the E100 Community of leaders.

Edna Pasher & Sheryl Chamberlain