Remember my post last month about one of my inventor clients, Mick Gordon?  He is back in the news again, and I couldn’t be more pleased! Mick is a very prolific innovator–he is passionate about his inventions.

We’ve been helping him in the development of KlenzPod™ which recently won the inaugural Innovation Award at the annual World of Wipes (WOW 2008) Conference. Mick was honored for his innovative approach and elegant solution to the lack of efficient wet wipe disposal facilities on the market.

The KlenzPod system was developed for offices and public buildings to provide employees and customers easy access to single wet wipes. Mick’s invention was inspired by his experience with his dying father in a British hospital where he saw poor hygiene being practiced, and realized that medical staff really needed some easily-available wipes to keep their hands clean.

It has taken years of development. Mick refined the invention based on feedback from other experts and corporations, but numerous innovations have now come together to provide a really useful, economical, and aesthetically-pleasing solution that can be used almost anywhere.

Way to go, Mick!

I coach a number of inventors whose ideas are cutting edge and exciting. One of the analogies I often share with them about getting an invention to the market place successfully is the idea of connecting an electrical circuit. All of the multiple components need to be in place and in the right order for the circuit to function and the energy to flow and do useful work.

As with an electrical circuit, all of the different innovation pieces have to be synchronized and working with one another to develop the end result. True innovation-driven growth can be delivered if you develop a roadmap that aligns the leadership team on key priorities and capabilities.

The energy of innovation requires what I’ve coined, “Completing the Circuit of Innovation™,” by plugging in a holistic intellectual asset strategy that goes beyond simply getting a patent. (To learn more about this, I recommend taking a listen to my Incite Innovation podcast about Completing the Circuit of Innovation. Click here and scroll down to #004.)

So in the spirit of “Top Ten” lists, here are the essentials for entrepreneurial success:

1. Start right! Have a clear definition of your idea or invention.
2. Find a coach or mentor to help you through the process and increase your chance of succeeding.
3. Keep searching. Conduct additional research of the art to better define the competitive landscape.
4. Develop Intellectual assets to strengthen your competitive advantage.
5. Define your territory. Learn what potentially can be owned by you or your competitors, and develop a vision for a pipeline of offerings and inventions.
6. Do your diligence. Due diligence and a defined market entry strategy will help exploit channels and potential targets.
7. Identify potential strategic partners and companies for your business proposition pitch.
8. Target the decision-makers. These often are the marketing people or innovation leaders with expansive networks who will open the doors and pave your way.
9. Develop partner relationships (and development licenses) with end users, equipment manufacturers and packaging raw material producers.
10. Find a coach with the expertise to help you establish reasonable royalty rates and a pricing structure as well as assist with commercial negotiations.

If you can check these off, you are well on your way to connecting the Circuit for innovation success!

Here’s a fantastic article on one of my clients! Innovationedge has been working with an inventors Gene Gordon and his son Peter Gordon of Germgard Lighting, LLC. They’ve invented a product called Glovegard, a medical exam glove sterilization device that efficiently kills bacteria. It works by exposing a gloved hand to Ultraviolet C light to kill pathogens on the glove. In only three seconds, the gloves are sterilized with safety and speed.

The idea came about in the fall of 2005 after Gene reflected back on an infection he had contracted during a hospital stay for a back operation. His ultimate goal was to prevent others from going through the ordeal he experienced, and I’m excited that he is achieving that dream.

Check out the video here.

Fathers Day is coming up soon, and I’m always on the lookout for innovative and practical gifts for dads who are “techies.”

My own kids are well-past the baby stage, but I thought I’d pass this on to those of you who know a new or expecting dad this month: A cordless video-enabled baby monitor. There are a few on the market now, including the Guardian Angel, a high-tech baby monitor that can inform everything about your kid even when you are not nearby.

From within 300 feet, the baby monitor from Swann fits well in a pocket or can be hooked into your belt. The package comes with a camera and a receiver. The ultra sensitive microphone hooked to the camera picks up even the slightest murmur of your child. The infra-red LEDs even provide night vision capability. The LCD color screen makes the video visible with ultimate clarity, and costs about $150.

For $20 more, there’s the Edge 12-inch digital photo frame with built-in MP3 player. The high-resolution screen has a sharp image display , and you can program it for an automatic slide show with multiple transition effects and display times.

To get your pictures rolling, you just insert your memory card or USB flash drive in the back of the Digital Photo Frame.

Or for half the price, the Space Monitor will help dads get a grasp on the universe. The hand-held star-locator computer works by entering the time and location in the Northern Hemisphere on the keypad.

The navigator shows them exactly where to find 66 of the brightest stars, 56 constellations and four visible planets. It can also track thousands of astronomical events through the year 2020.

The device includes 20 star charts, measures about 10 inches, and requires three AAA batteries.

This month we’ve welcomed two new members to our team, and I encourage you to click on these links to Dave Labno and Julie Gerstle to read more about how they’re already jumping in with both feet to contribute to create innovative solutions for our clients! Both of these fearless champions of innovation are passionate about what they do, and bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to our team.

With the addition of these members we’ll be able to offer a wider portfolio of offerings to help clients define their strategy, develop capabilities, design a winning organizational structure and deliver breakthrough innovations.

This year I’m teaming up again with Breakthrough Management Group for two Chief Innovation Officer seminars!

The first is coming up June 2nd and 3rd, and the next opportunity is October 6 & 7th. Both events will be held in Denver, and I highly recommend you come if you haven’t done it before. This two day executive education program is for business leaders who are leading the charge for growth and innovation inside their organizations or who are poised to take on that role.

Many companies are taking that bold step of putting a Cheif Innovation Officer in place, but how are they making this emerging role a success? The curriculum we have developed will dive deep into how to establish this role and incorporate best practices of innovation. We’ll also cover topics like Open Innovation, how to protect your intellectual property (IP), portfolio management, structured processes and tools, and sustainable growth. The seminars are packed full of case studies from cutting-edge global corporations and useful “how-to” information you can incorporate into your business strategy right now.

Whether you are already a CIO or are about to become one, I will lead you through a program specifically designed for your unique company to give you the knowledge, insight and tools you need to excel at one of the most exciting new corporate positions created in decades! To register or for more information, click on BMGI’s Website.

I’ve had a great time meeting with packaging industry leaders this week at the 2008 Packaging Strategies Summit in Bonneventure, Florida, where I was one of the featured speakers. With so many innovative developments in packaging design, I am fascinated by how these leaders are continually coming up with great new ideas that deliver differentiation and disrupt the store aisle!

One of the challenges I often hear about is how to maintain this growth while meeting the needs of what I call the Innovation Ecosystem (which I tell my clients is a top-priority!). Today I shared with conference attendees the main elements they must focus on as they design their own packaging innovation ecosystem. Environmental, economic and social considerations are the three main forces involved in sustainable innovation.

Of course, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all ecosystem, so each company must create its own based on its unique offerings and capabilities. To build an innovation ecosystem, you need to have an open-ended sustainable outcome by looking across the design, delivery of product, how it is used and how it is disposed of. These ecosystems involve complex relationships between many players: vendors, customers, regulators, influencers, shoppers, decision makers, management, innovators, brokers, competitors and others, where simple linear chains of events are not applicable.

The business objectives should focus on how to decrease the environmental footprint, improve the financial bottom line and operate the organization ethically to improve your relationships with employees and the communities where they live and work.

We also talked about the need for developing partnerships and alliances that complete their ecosystem and deliver sustainable, innovation-driven growth. Bottom line: It’s important to choose the right partners who have the eco-friendly designs and the disposability that you don’t have within your own brick and mortar walls.

My congrats to Kimberly-Clark for winning the coveted 2008 Visionary Award for SpaSensials, a fantastic innovative product!

SpaSensials was one of six finalists at the VISION 2008 Consumer Products Conference, organized by INDA, Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry. I was honored to champion this innovation while I worked at Kimberly-Clark, and am proud of the entire SpaSensials team for its great work!

If you’re not familiar with SpaSensials, click here to learn more about this amazing at-home spa treatment consisting of intensive moisturizing and conditioning socks and gloves.

It’s a product geared toward women who love the softness of a spa manicure and pedicure, without the salon prices. Advanced technology helps the intensive conditioning formula in SpaSensials products to quickly and effectively absorb into the skin. The nonwoven material keeps moisturizers on the inside, next to the skin.

Kimberly-Clark had some tough competition, and there were some great new innovative consumer products in the contest. The other five finalists were:

1. Curity Brand Nursing Pad, Covidien
(formerly Tyco Healthcare Retail Group) redesigned its nursing pad into a three-dimensional lemon shape that provides a more discreet fit.

It has a thinner fluff pulp/SAP core for improved dryness and comfort as well as a tissue layer on the top and bottom to better contain the core.

2. Do-Rite Disposable Dog Diapers, Do-Rites
Do-Rites are nonwoven disposable diaper/garments that are fashionable and also provide the protection of a disposable diaper, without looking like one.

3. PowerTex Glass Cleaner, Ecolab
With applications in both consumer and institutional products, this system offers an environmentally responsible spray bottle cleaning system that uses a chemically impregnated nonwoven “sleeve,” a trigger sprayer with a specially designed dip tube system and a bottle.

4. OMop Dry Sweeper Cloths, Method Products
The OMop Dry Sweeper Cloths are disposable dry sweeper cloths made from 100% PLA (Poly-Lactic Acid), a plastic derived from corn, and are designed to be used on a custom sweeping tool.

5. Consumer Shopping Bags, Reliance Industries (India)
These reusable shopping bags are made of reverse printed and laminated BOPP film on a polypropylene nonwoven and are designed to replace conventional paper bags and cotton cloth bags in the grocery and retail market.

Did you know that innovator Henry Ford designed cars to run on biofuels?

This week, a biofuel first for the airline industry: A Virgin Atlantic jumbo jet flew between London’s Heathrow and Amsterdam using fuel derived from a mixture of Brazilian babassu nuts and coconuts!

Biofuels are any fuels made from living things, and we often think of crops like corn as the main source. Earlier this month, Airbus tested another alternative fuel - a synthetic mix of gas-to-liquid.

The babassu tree, native to Brazil, and the coconuts did not compete with staple food sources and came from existing mature plantations. Both products are commonly used in cosmetics and household paper products.

Virgin’s Boeing 747 had one of its four engines connected to an independent biofuel tank that it said could provide 20 percent of the engine’s power. The three other engines were capable of powering the plane on conventional fuel had there been a problem.

This flight marks a vital breakthrough for the entire airline industry. But it will take some time and research before your next commercial flight goes biofuel green.

The technology is still being developed by companies GE and Boeing, but Virgin believes airlines could routinely be flying on plant power within 10 years.

There’s no doubt you’ll be hearing me talk a lot about the Green Revolution in 2008. The stage has been set, and vendors and customers alike have invested plenty of resources in making their products and practices more energy efficient, less wasteful, and eco-friendlier. This includes designing products with the entire lifecycle in mind. In addition to energy use, companies will be more vigilant in implementing plans for disposal, reuse, and recycling.

Green strategy in 2008 will become an argument for saving money with more energy-efficient products. But is this sustainable trend a mere green fad? Absolutely not! The flourishing world of green is driven by true need, and business leaders, politicians, and consumers alike are becoming increasingly concerned about their impact on the environment.

I’ve recently completed the book, Green to Gold: How Smart Companies use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage. The authors stress that leaders need the right mind-set, not just a check-book, in order to get this right.

The message I heard loud and clear is that as innovation leaders, we must do the right thing; that morality DOES pay. Halfway through this book is a chapter on Inspiring and “Eco-Advantage” Culture, and I found the authors’ toolkit to be particularly inspiring. I’ve recently updated my book recommendations, and you can find Green to Gold on my Books on the Edge link.