Business Innovation Factory

BIF Speak

Join us for an update on BIF's Nursing Home of the Future

When the Business Innovation Factory set out to create a real-world laboratory for developing and testing new solutions for improving elderly care, we knew it would be an exciting and challenging endeavor. What we didn't know was how deeply personal and inspiring the process of building the Nursing Home of the Future (NHoF) would be.

I invite you to join us on Wednesday, September 10, 3pm-5pm for a special community update on the NHoF initiative. The update will be held at BIF’s offices in the American Locomotive Works Development on Valley Street in Providence (directions below).

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Posted September 04, 2008 by Chris Flanagan | Permalink | Comments (0)

David Rockwell Joins BIF-4 Lineup

The greatest innovators never rest on what they know – instead, they’re driven by what they don’t know. David Rockwell is more than just an architect extraordinaire – he’s a rich composer of dramatic, high-impact spectacles that get people to connect. From the elegant interiors of Nobu and the W Hotels to the culturally textured Mohegan Sun Casino, from a children’s hospital in the Bronx to the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles, from the sets for the Broadway musical Hairspray to the viewing platform overlooking Ground Zero in New York, each of Rockwell’s diverse compositions shine a light on the power of shared human experiences.

Join us at the BIF--4 Summit on October 15th and 16th when David Rockwell takes the stage with co-host Bruce Nussbaum for a conversation about design, architecture and opening windows that connect people in real time and real space.

Posted by Chris Flanagan | Permalink | Comments (0)

Masco Corporation Becomes BIF Partner

Masco Corporation, one of the world's largest manufacturers of brand-name consumer products for the home improvement and new home construction markets, has become a partner of the Business Innovation Factory. Masco, which has approximately 6,300 shareholders and 52,000 employees, was drawn to BIF by the power of its Experience Labs and the role the labs might play in Masco's own innovation program.

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Posted September 03, 2008 by Melissa Withers | Permalink | Comments (0)

Meet MIT Tech Review's Innovator of the Year: David Berry

I first met BIF-4 storyteller David Berry last fall during a ‘Green Design’ symposium at the offices of Continuum in Boston. David is a principle at Flagship Ventures, a company well known for funding clean and environmentally sound technologies and he shared some mind boggling possibilities for the future. His firm is looking at everything from carbon nanotubes to solar quantum dots to synthetic biology. David is more than just a venture capitalist – he’s also an innovator with 44 patents under his belt. His talk highlighted some of the many untapped possibilities in the future of living green.

He’s one of the brightest guys I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know. BIF sat down recently with David and here’s his game-changer story…

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Posted August 19, 2008 by Chris Flanagan | Permalink | Comments (0)

Don't Delay! Early Registration for the BIF-4 Collaborative Innovation Summit Ends Friday

Early registration for the Business Innovation Factory’s BIF-4 Collaborative Innovation Summit on October 15-16 ends this Friday, August 15th.

Join BusinessWeek editor Bruce Nussbaum and bestselling author Bill Taylor for two days of conversation with two dozen innovators from across the country who bucked the system and found their own way to create change.

Tickets are selling fast! So don't delay...all the details, including the full line-up are here.

RELATED - Get to know some of our BIF-4 storytellers
Kathy Cloninger: Changing Business Models: Courage, Confidence, and Cloninger
Tony Hsieh: Back to basics: For a good time, call Zappos.com
Marc Ecko: Fashion icon turned business mogul (with heart)
Dr. Richard Satava: A pioneer in surgical robotics and telemedicine
Debi Brooks: Medical Research Change Agent
Jacqueline Novogratz: Congratulations to BIF-4 Storyteller Jacqueline Novogratz

Posted August 13, 2008 by Chris Flanagan | Permalink | Comments (0)

Changing Business Models: Courage, Confidence, and Cloninger

Kathy Cloninger is an ENFP. In Myers-Briggs terminology, that makes her an “Idealist Champion” personality who values personal authenticity, is a keen and probing observer of others, and is always on the lookout for what’s possible. By her own account, she loves to be in a room full of people, developing relationships, collaborating, or as she explained during a recent BIF interview, being “constantly surrounded by the voices of the organization” she heads. Only 5% to 10% of all CEOs have this personality type, which perfectly suits the special group of customers she aims to please: the Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA). In fact, Cloninger epitomizes the Girl Scout mission statement: Courage, Confidence, and Character.

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Posted August 07, 2008 by Chris Flanagan | Permalink | Comments (0)

Back to basics: For a good time, call Zappos.com

Four million pairs of shoes of all shapes, sizes, colors and trends currently reside in a warehouse in Kentucky. Twenty-four hours a day the shoes are being shipped out to consumers all across the country to the comfort of their own homes. Don't like the pair once they arrive? No problem. You can ship them back, free-of-charge. That's the allure of online retailer Zappos.com.

Tony Hsieh is Zappos.com's rising star CEO and he'll be sharing his story at the BIF-4 summit in October. His back-to-basics approach to company building has propelled Zappos to the near billion dollar mark in revenue sales.

How did he do it?

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Posted July 29, 2008 by Chris Flanagan | Permalink | Comments (0)

Meet BIF-4 Storyteller Marc Ecko: Fashion icon turned business mogul (with heart)

I first met Marc Ecko last year during a symposium I attended in Providence on vocational and technical education. You might think it a strange place to be for a billion dollar fashion empire mogul but quite refreshingly, Ecko was low-key, down-to-earth, and really passionate about the youth development program he created called Sweat Equity Enterprises.

This fall, Ecko will take the BIF-4 stage to share his personal story of innovation: Although it may not be the case that everything Marc Ecko touches turns to gold, it sure does seem that way.

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Posted July 16, 2008 by Chris Flanagan | Permalink | Comments (0)

Meet a pioneer in surgical robotics and telemedicine: Dr. Richard Satava

I spent the holiday weekend with a close friend from Minnesota who is a physician. I happen to have a BIF-4 flyer lying around (ha-ha) and mentioned to my friend that Dr. Richard Satava was going to be one of our storytellers at the summit in the fall. Initially, the name didn't mean anything to her. Then I said he co-developed the first surgical robot. That's when her eyes lit up: "that's a serious game-changing surgical technology," she said.

I've profiled many storytellers over the years. Satava is prone to neither hyperbole nor rhetoric - but honestly, it's hard to tame down his story.

He's done many things in his life – from deciding which cutting-edge medical technologies the U.S. military will pursue, to saving lives as a surgeon in the heat of battle, to teaching surgery at Yale and the University of Washington, to serving on the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy – yet he would have you believe that all his accomplishments stem from one thing: failure.

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Posted July 09, 2008 by Chris Flanagan | Permalink | Comments (0)

New Book by BIF-3 Storyteller Dave Balter: The Word of Mouth Manual, Volume II

As consumers, we are all word-of-mouth marketers. We buy a product, love it and share our opinion with a couple of our friends. Conversely, if we hate the product, well we don’t keep that view to ourselves either. Either way, what we say can have a dramatic impact on a company’s bottom line.

Of course the difficulty for marketers is creating the right kind of buzz with enough momentum to carry it over the tipping point. Dave Balter, founder and CEO of BzzAgent and his network of 450,000 volunteer “agents” believe they’ve figured out a way to crack that code.

We first met Dave last year when he spoke at the BIF-3 summit last fall. He brought his artist-in-residence, Seth Minkin in tow. Dave has just published a new e-book called The Word of Mouth Manual, Volume II.

If you saw Dave at the summit, then you know he's an open and transparent kind of guy. Which explains why he's opted for a different sort of publishing route by offering his book for free download through several thought leader sites. (Thanks to Dave for considering BIFSpeak one of them - you can download your free copy here.)

BzzAgent CEO Dave Balter presenting at the BIF-3 summit while artist-in-residence Seth Minkin paints. The bee is an older painting.