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"Innovation is the specific tool of entrepreneurs, the means by which they exploit change as an opportunity for a different business or a different service."

Peter F. Drucker

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Vise Grips...

For most of my life I have had a fascination with tools. It started with a simple pair of vise grip pliers in my dad's woodworking workshop, I could craft just about anything from a length of coat hanger wire. This interest continued to grow and expand without bound across all aspects of my life:

Mechanical Engineering

I worked for one of this first companies in Ontario (Racal Filter Technologies Ltd.) to implement Pro/Engineer 3D CAD modeling software in their product/manufacturing development group. Although a crude tool at the time it changed the landscape in unforeseen ways. Most important it shifted the bottleneck in the development process from nuts and bolts design issues to communications and innovation management.

I have subsequently used Pro/E and other advanced design tools in the medical device, health care and automotive fields.

Communications

Communication between various groups or interests is a very common problem in the development of anything.
Even with the simplest project this can rear its ugly head. The increased complexity of products today requiring communication between diverse groups that historically have not communicated for example mechanical engineering and biologists in the field of biomimicry. While communication tools have improved, they have not kept pace with the increased complexity of the products and the short development timelines.
I developed and fine tuned my communication skills through the Toastmasters International and Christopher Leadership programs. I have given presentations at two international conferences on advanced innovation management methods.

Innovation Management

The haphazard development path of a product from concept to customer led me to an interest in tools and techniques to develop products more effectively. Innovation, often misunderstood is best defined as "the translation of knowledge into money (or more broadly prosperity)". I have developed a series of tools based on this definition that I have utilized in the medical device field.

Parenting

When I became a parent I quickly realized the most important task of my life was raising my children. Yet the common tools of the trade at the time just didn't cut it for me. I had two key issues, the experts advice was constantly shifting and was based on lab research. Secondly there was no sense that I had any inherent knowledge, I was simply a dummy that needed to be told what to do. What spun out of my experience in raising my kids was a set of tools and approach based on simple natural principles.

Summary

My fascination with tools has enabled me to develop a simple and common approach across all areas:

1. Develops a fundamental understanding of the task at hand, a.k.a. begin with the end in mind.
2. Selects the right tool or toolset to complete the job.
3. With a deep understanding of a tool, I am able to stretch the limits and coax out capabilities not originally intended.
4. If the tool doesn't exist I will beg, borrow or steal it from another craft/discipline or simple create a new one from scratch.

It is curious how patterns come full circle. A master craftsman, for example a cabinetmaker 100 years ago would apply much the same approach to his or her work.