Meet Zsa Zsa, the Mad Cow of Innovation. I found Zsa Zsa (pictured above on the floor of the yet unfinished IBM Extreme Blue incubator lab in Austin, Texas in 2002) on a trip to Phoenix. She was described by Texas-based sculptor Donna Lane Vadala as a French Moodle…a pink French poodle mated with a cow in a freak accident of creativity.
I gave this to the lab’s amazing assistant, who had a penchant for wearing nutty glasses like Zsa Zsa’s, and she put it on the front desk.
For me, Zsa Zsa reminded me every day I walked into our lab that not every creative combination actually works. (That said, Zsa Zsa does work quite well, doesn’t she?)
Innosanity is about how the common corporate approach to innovation has become insane, and how we must achieve a new level of innovation sanity before current mismanagement destroys more firms’ ability to innovate when it really counts. And that, the ability to lead a company to change how it perceives and organizes itself, is becoming a crucial capability as paradigm changing disruptions accelerate in the 21st Century.
Zsa Zsa is Innosanity’s silly mascot, and as she did back in Austin, now she reminds me that no matter how serious the subject, it’s a good idea to bring the fun when seeking solutions.