Inventing the Future, Edison Style

by: Sarah Miller Caldicott

Can we learn to be innovative? What factors allow us to establish a vibrant relationship with the future?

Thomas Edison was the most outstanding figure in an era marked by an extraordinary confluence of American innovation – including the work of Alexander Graham Bell, Henry Ford, George Eastman, Harvey Firestone, John D. Rockefeller, George Westinghouse, and Andrew Carnegie – that accelerated America’s leadership in global business.Edison understood that innovation is much more than invention. Through the establishment of his two extraordinary laboratories at Menlo Park and West Orange, NJ, Edison drove innovation on many levels, including strategic technological, product/service, process, and design innovations.

How did Edison excel in so many different kinds of innovation?

Thomas Edison’s great grand niece, Sarah Miller Caldicott, will retrace her famous relative’s footsteps and explore his timeless methods to innovation success in a talk that will inspire and inform. Her approach is based on Edison’s Five Competencies of Innovation.

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Inventing the Future, Edison Style

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sarah Miller Caldicott

Sarah Miller Caldicott

A great grandniece of Thomas Edison, Sarah Miller Caldicott has been engaged in creativity and innovation throughout her life. Inspired by a family lineage of inventors dating back five generations, Sarah spent the first 15 years of her 25-year career as an executive with Global 500 firms including Quaker Oats/Pepsi and the Helene Curtis subsidiary of Unilever. Working with global teams, Sarah spearheaded major innovation initiatives in North America, Europe, and Asia. Concerned that America risks losing its innovation edge, Sarah spent three years researching Edison’s innovation methods with experts at Rutgers University. She co-authored the first book ever written on the subject of Thomas Edison’s world-changing innovation methods. Entitled Innovate Like Edison: The Five Step System for Breakthrough Business Success, Sarah’s book has been translated into 5 languages and is used as an innovation textbook in graduate and undergraduate programs across the US. Sarah's newest book, Midnight Lunch: The 4 Phases of Team Collaboration Success, has just been released from Wiley publishing. Midnight Lunch reveals how to develop collaboration as a backbone for innovation success in the digital era.

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comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you for this information. I'm going to use this article to improve my work with the Lord.
 
— Abel Singbeh
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comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you Ed for sharing your insights into the Church Growth Movement. I have my reservations with Church Growth models because it has done more damage than good in the Body of Christ. Over the years, western churches are more focused on results, formulas and processes with little or no emphasis on membership and church discipline. Pastors and vocational leaders are burnt out because they're overworked. I do believe that the Church Growth model is a catalyst to two destructive groups: The New Apostolic Reformation and the Emerging Church. Both groups overlap and have a very loose definition. They're both focus on contemporary worship, expansion of church brand (franchising), and mobilizing volunteering members as 'leaders' to grow their ministry. Little focus on biblical study, apologetics and genuine missional work with no agenda besides preaching of the gospel.
 
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comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you for sharing such a good article. It is a great lesson I learned from this article. I am one of the leaders in Emmanuel united church of Ethiopia (A denomination with more-than 780 local churches through out the country). I am preparing a presentation on succession planning for local church leaders. It will help me for preparation If you send me more resources and recommend me books to read on the topic. I hope we may collaborate in advancing leadership capacity of our church. God Bless You and Your Ministry.
 
— Argaw Alemu
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