Just got my first printed copies of Conquering Innovation Fatigue, our new book printed by the major publisher, John Wiley & Sons. This book focuses on the personal side of innovation and reveals the often unseen "innovation fatigue factors" that can shut down innovation. It's written for entrepreneurs, business leaders, inventors, and even government officials, showing these unseen and often unintended barriers and revealing how they can be overcome.

There are some local elements in the book that might be of interest to Wisconsin readers, including those here in the Fox Valley. Those elements include:

• a case study (entire chapter) on Sunrise Farms of Neenah, the innovative broccoli sprout farmer that was nearly shut down by a bad patent;


• a case study (entire chapter) on Orion Energy Systems of Manitowoc, the innovative energy-saving company that Pres. Obama publicly highlighted in a recent speech;


• a review of the decline and potential hope for the paper industry, with an introspective discussion of Appleton's former Institute of Paper Chemistry (now IPST at Georgia Tech) and its role as a microcosm to understand some of the "fatigue factors" in the industry;


• several discussions of Kimberly-Clark Corporation and unusual approaches to innovation we pursued there;


• a lesson from an experience at Appleton's Performing Arts Center; and


• several lessons from our work at Innovationedge in Neenah.