Happy President's Day!
Jasper Johns, White Flag 1955, Image in the collection of the artist.
In keeping with the eccentric OpenInvo spirit, we have decided to celebrate President's Day. Instead of hustling out shopping to take advantage of the sales that are most commonly associated with this US holiday, we are revisiting some ideas of the former presidents. At the top of our list is George Washington, since it's his birthday that the holiday was first created to honor. Washington, a visionary leader, knew that the biggest part of great leadership is in empowering others around you. He saw the value of the ideas of others and came up with the concept of the Presidential Cabinet. Abraham Lincoln, the other US President whose birthday is celebrated on this holiday, is best know for his ideas about equality. And his actions around these ideas had a tremendous influence on the future of world. Lincoln himself was skeptical that there would ever be racial equality, but he held fast to his convictions. It was 200 years after his birth that the US elected an African American president into office. On this President's Day, we've been thinking of these visionaries. Ideas to aspire to indeed. We may not all be in presidential positions, or have ideas to change the world in such monumental ways, but we are not without power. We create the world with the choices we make. One thing that's been floating around the office here these days, is the thought that the "social value" of an idea is something that we often forget when it comes to consumer product innovation. The following question spontaneously popped out in conversation just the other day, "if you produce that thing, and it exists, is that the world you want to live in?"
(this post is reblogged from the Invo - www.theinvo.com)
