Author Archives: Deborah Mills-Scofield
I’m mentoring Oberlin College students applying for a fellowship to start their business after graduation in May. Many of these kids were in my recent Business Model Innovation class. For some reason, the stakes seem higher to me than in mentoring ‘adults’. For these kids’ their first entrepreneur experience will shape their view of entrepreneurship, innovation, success and failure. Continue reading
We think about networking as a very modern notion, with our accumulation of virtual “friends,” “followers” and people-who-might-be-useful-to-us-someday. To me, it is just an extension of what my people, my family have been doing since 70 AD – making critical connections that enable both our survival. The tools may have changed, but our reliance on the network has not. In fact, without the network, I literally wouldn’t be alive. Continue reading
Using collaboration to innovate innovation – why not? Continue reading
We think of Innovation and Status Quo as polar opposites…but are they really? Continue reading
Have you ever known anyone who explicitly says that innovation is important? No! So listen carefully for the magic word – BUT. Some of you know how much I love to challenge the status quo so here’s my theory… Continue reading
Everything matters. The culture of innovation fostered by Louis, the passion of every employee doing what they know how to do and an organization that is connected with a shared mission is our formula. Will it work? We believe it will but if you don’t, ask me again in 13 months and 13 days. Continue reading
How do you approach innovation? How do you solve system-level problems? Well, you can’t start with ‘broken’! Business Innovation Factory’s 7th annual conference, BIF-7, was rich with the art of the possible. Continue reading
