Who is Larry Parrott, and why should I care what he thinks?
You shouldn’t care – at least not yet.
So then, what qualifies Larry Parrott to write about innovation? Well, it’s on my business card for one. It says right there that I am the Vice President of Innovation here at a major tech company called Compuware. I’m reminded of that movie Oh, God! In the title role, George Burns proves his identity by handing out business cards that read simply: God.
So that’s my card. It says I’m innovative. What more do you need to know? (If I didn’t abhor smiley faces, I’d put one here – because I wouldn’t seriously be convinced by this argument. Would you?)
When I was hired here about six months ago, I learned there are a lot of amazing people here – some of the most creative, the most innovative folks with whom I’ve ever worked. My goal is to help coalesce their creativity … channel it … find creative synergies … and drive innovation into places it’s never been before. Is this how to help make this 7,000-employee company – with 75 offices in 40 countries around the world – more innovative? We shall see. In upcoming posts, I’ll share some of what I’m trying. I’ll tell you what’s working and what’s falling flat.
For the past 35 years, I’ve worked as a successful “creative.” I’ve been a writer, an agency creative director and even a Chief Creative Officer. I was a founder of my own creative shop – a live event company called Clear!Blue – that had a very successful 8-year run. I think I’ve earned a pretty solid reputation as an “idea guy.” But I think that my most important qualification – by far – is that over the course of my career I have helped a lot of other people be more creative.
Some would call this role “creative mentor.” I call it something else. Creative Nose Tackle. My job is to block downfield, to clear lanes and make it safe for others to run with ideas. For the record, I promise that will be the last sports metaphor I’ll use in one of these postings. If you catch me “hitting creative home runs” or “doing a creative end run” or, God forbid, “slam-dunking a big idea,” you have the choice of shooting me or having me buy you a beer.
My challenge with this blog is to earn your trust and your readership and ultimately cause you to care just a little bit about what I have to say about this thing called innovation. My goal here is to be interesting and relevant … to avoid plowing the same subject matter fields that have been farmed to death over the years … and frankly to entertain myself. I figure that if I can do that, then what I write stands a fighting chance of being a pleasant, thought-provoking diversion for you. And if it is, you might return for another read and perhaps even forward the link to friends and co-workers. Most important – my goal is to provoke a reaction. I hope to cause you to smile and nod in agreement. Or maybe to occasionally piss you off. I hope to motivate you to comment on what I write.
I had a client tell me once that the goal of a great automotive design is to polarize people. He told me that he knew he had a good design when about 80 percent of the people who saw it liked the design … and the other 20 percent despised it. The only flavor everyone likes, he told me, is vanilla.
As the title implies, this blog is about innovation matters – things that have something to do with innovation. The title also proclaims that innovation matters – that it’s important; that it has a purpose.
Before we go any further, I want to say that this blog really isn’t about me. In the world of innovation where I live, the only pronouns allowed are we and our. Innovation is about teamwork. Want to spread innovation and creativity throughout your organization? Share the credit. Don’t hog the spotlight. Make heroes out of others.
So here we go. My editorial mission is to never bore you and to make what I write worth a few minutes of your time. And I won’t be the only person to author this blog. This is where the “and Friends” comes in. As this thing gets rolling, I will be sharing the writing with a variety of smart, talented people – from this company and from the outside world, as well – who have something to say on the subject of innovation. I think you’ll enjoy meeting them!
This blog is shaping up to be quite a journey. I honestly don’t know exactly where we’re going, but I’m going to try to make the ride as interesting and entertaining as possible! So, strap in.
Until next time …
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