Author Archives: cochrancreates

Ideas Are Everywhere

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SignI had just left a meeting and stopped for a coffee at a little privately owned café. My first stop, however, was the restroom.

As I was washing up, I noticed the sign. It caught me by surprise and caused me to stop and remind myself of this: Ideas Are Everywhere.

In fact, some of the best ideas turn up in the most unlikely places. Or, they are shared via the most unlikely member of your team. Good ideas can result from combining several crazy ideas.

This little sign hanging in an unlikely venue reminded me to get out into the world each and every day to allow ideas to appear.

The best ideas probably won’t happen at my desk.

Where do you find your best ideas?

by Rebecca Cochran

Disruptive Bread

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Poilane

I just read an interesting article on bread — French bread.

The story dates back to 1932 when Parisian baker, Pierre Poilâne decided to open his first bread shop on the busy rue du Cherche-Midi. The block was rife with other boulangeries. Whatever was M. Poilâne thinking?

Fast-forward to 2014 and any bread lover (such as myself) visiting that stretch of road in Paris’ toney Saint-Germain-des-Prés district will note that Poilâne is the only bread bakery left, some 80 years later. It turns out that M. Poilâne disrupted the bread industry.

Unlike his competitors, from the start, he did not bake the traditional French baguette. Instead, he concentrated on baking large sourdough loaves. His descendants still bake them today in his original antique ovens. Parisian families stop in regularly to purchase just enough slices for the day ahead. These lucky families enjoy the benefit of great-tasting, fresh bread and, probably, very little waste.

I tend to think of disruptive innovation as a modern concept, but this struck me as a great early example. I’ve visited this original Poilâne location and can happily attest to the quality of his longstanding product.

What other early examples of disruptive innovation can you share?

by Rebecca Cochran

My Fabulous Fab Lab Tour

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FabLab.PHCCFor several years now, I’ve been reading and hearing news reports on how the use of 3-D printers is bound to change the world as we know it. 3-D printing is not only changing manufacturing, but it’s also changing and speeding up the innovation process. Here’s a link to a heart-warming story I heard on NPR just last week: With 3-D Printing, Affordable Prosthetics Are In Reach.

It’s stories like this one that caused me to jump at the chance to tour the Fab Lab, or digital fabrication laboratory, in uptown Martinsville, Virginia last week. The original Fab Lab idea was the brainchild of professor and director of MIT‘s Center for Bits and Atoms, Neil Gershenfeld. Watch his 2006 Ted talk, “Unleash Your Creativity in a Fab Lab,” here.

Opened last summer, the Fab Lab in Martinsville is a collaborative project of Patrick Henry Community College, New College Institute and the Martinsville – Henry County Economic Development Corporation. Located in the Southern Virginia Artisan Center, the Fab Lab provides training and equipment to students, businesses and entrepreneurs.

My tour guide was Fab Lab Coordinator and Instructor, Matthew Wade. “To qualify as a true Fab Lab,” Matthew explained, “the facility has to be accessible to the public.” According to the MIT charter, a Fab Lab has to be open to the public for free or in-kind/barter at least part of the time each week. Read more about who/what qualifies as a Fab Lab here.

Most impressively, Matthew assembled the Fab Lab himself. He installed 10 Dell workstations surrounded by whiteboards. Other hardware includes a mid-range 3-D printer, laser engraver, vinyl cutter, CNC plasma cutter, mini-mill, vacuum former, injection molder and welder. Matthew is particularly proud of the two additional MakerBot 3-D printers that were donated to his Fab Lab.

Matthew Wade and his donated MakerBots

Fab Lab Coordinator, Matthew Wade and his donated MakerBots

As fascinating as the physical tour was, I was especially inspired by the ideas and attitudes of both Matthew and colleague, Katie Croft, Coordinator of Experiential Learning at the New College Foundation. Along with many others, they are working in a myriad of ways to create opportunities for area students to thrive and get hired after graduation.

The Fab Lab is providing a platform for learning and innovation for students and adults throughout southern Virginia. The combination of hardware, open source software and Matthew’s experienced guidance, allows his students to rapidly prototype their ideas, a critical step in the innovation process. Or, as Matthew so succinctly put it, “The Fab Lab is enabling them to be digital artisans.”

by Rebecca Cochran